Creative Australia has announced the recipients of the 2026–27 Creative Futures Fund.

Now in its second year, the Fund is an initiative of the Labor Government’s Natural Cultural Policy, and will invest $5.8 million into 20 large-scale creative works across two different streams and three strategic investments for sector development.

Hand to Earth. Photo © Oli Sansom

Twelve organisations have earned funding through the development stream to “explore new ideas, adapt existing works and test market potential”. These are Assembly 197, Australian Chamber Orchestra with Hand to Earth, Belvoir, Dead Puppet Society, ENCOUNTER, FORM Dance Projects, Hayes Theatre Co, JUTE Theatre Company, Opera Queensland, Performing Lines, re:group performance collective with DEA[f] Collective and The Rabble.

The Australian Chamber Orchestra and Hand To Earth will unite for Ŋgilipitji, a project that offers both a standalone performance and a multi-screen spatial audio installation.

Opera Queensland will develop a brand new opera titled Naria. Composed by Jess Hitchcock with librettist Alison Croggon, the work “brings Western classical tradition into dialogue with the living musical and storytelling cultures of the Torres Strait and Pacific Islands”.

The cast of Phar Lap: The Electro-Swing Musical. Photo © John McRae

Hayes Theatre Co. will prepare Phar Lap: The Electro-Swing Musical for a national tour, while Belvoir will develop a brand new work, Revolve – one of the company’s “most ambitious works to date”, it brings the climate crisis and its impact on animals into cultural conversation on stage.

The delivery stream, helping organisations to realise new works, has been awarded to Back to Back Theatre, Canberra Glassworks, Circa, Red Room Poetry and Small Island Big Song.

Back to Back Theatre rehearsing Neanderthal. Photo © Willem Kingma

Back to Back Theatre will be supported in the delivery of NEANDERTHAL – Histoire(s) du Théâtre VIII, a new work following a voice-over artist’s waning career, while Circa works with artist Patricia Piccinini for Why Is It So Hard to Love the World?, fusing sculpture, circus and live performance.

Small Island Big Song’s One Ocean, bring together creatives from Australia, Taiwan, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Aotearoa, Madagascar and Mauritius, will embark on a national tour following its European and Asian premieres.

The three companies earning Strategic Investment funding are The Art House Wyong for its new regional-first theatre production model, Jacaranda Productions and Second City Consortium, comprising Geelong Arts Centre, Merrigong Theatre Company, Canberra Theatre Centre and the Gold Coast’s HOTA .

The full list of recipients of the Creative Futures Fund and their projects can be found here.