The Betty Amsden Foundation has announced the recipients of its 2025–2027 Performing Arts Organisation Grants. Six Victorian arts organisations have been awarded funding to “expand participation, build organisational capability and shape new pathways for young people”.

Flinders Quartet. Photo © Agatha Yim

The Flinders Quartet has been awarded a grant for a brand-new mentoring initiative for “two pre-professional string quartets” from the ranks of the Melbourne Youth Orchestra. The participants will be offered artistic and leadership development opportunities, while FQ also seeks to establish a brand-new Graduate String Quartet in Residence role, offering support for emerging Victorian chamber musicians.

Victorian-based youth music organisation The Push will co-design the 10-Year Strategy for Young Musicians and Music (2026–2036), to be Australia’s first initiative to “set a long-term vision for the role of music in young Australians’ lives”.

Utilising research from La Trobe University and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institude, Arena Theatre Company will set out to measure the ways in which creative participation improves “confidence, connection and cultural understanding … through new systems and frameworks”.

Circus Nexus will use its funding to purchase permanent seating for its space, Studio Nexus, creating a professional-standard venue for circus...