Winners of the SMSA scholarships at the National Council of Women (NSW) Australia Day Awards. L to R: Dunia Alarkawai, Cara Wilson, Casey Gallagher and SMSA President, Winsome Allen.
Moorambilla Voices is a multi-arts development program that connects talented young people from rural and remote NSW with some of Australia’s finest composers, musicians, choreographers and regional artists. The grant supports their Moorambilla Arts Pathways (MAP) initiative which provides senior Moorambilla Voices participants with one-on-one mentoring relationships.
moorambilla.com
Fighting Chance Australia is a not-for-profit organisation created to offer vital work experience to students with profound disabilities. This grant will enable 4 students to participate in the organisation’s 10 week work experience program that designed to help their students develop their skills, increase their confidence and give them practical preparation for the world of work through their social enterprises. Avenue and Jigsaw.
fightingchance.org.au/
Established in 1890, the Julian Ashton Art School is Australia’s oldest continuous fine art school. Based in The Rocks, their former students include Sir William Dobell, John Olsen, Brett Whiteley, Thea Proctor and many other prominent Australian artists.
julianashtonartschool.com.au
The Scholars for 2018 (awarded in November 2017) are:
The Sydney Story Factory is a not-for-profit creative writing program for young people, developed in collaboration with the National Aboriginal Sporting Chance Academy (NASCA). The grant of $5,000 will assist in running a 6 week creative writing workshop called Introduce Yourself Koori Style. Local Indigenous students from Alexandria Park Community School, Marrickville High and Tempe High will be guided to tell their story and imagine their futures while also exploring different ways of paying respect to family, ancestors and country. They will perform and share their finished works with the community.
sydneystoryfactory.org.au
The National Council of Women (NSW) is a non-government umbrella organisation with broadly humanitarian and educational objectives that celebrated its 120th anniversary in 2016. The grant has been used to fund NCW (NSW) Australia Day Award scholarships for women who are excelling in their post-graduate studies.
ncwnsw.org.au
The 2017 recipients (to be presented in January 2018) are:
In years past, the Board of the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts gave sums of money to the University of Sydney, the University of Technology, Sydney and the University of Western Sydney, providing an endowment for prizes to be awarded annually at these Universities.
The following prizes were awarded for work in the 2016 academic year and presented in 2017:
Donations were given to the following organisations in 2017:
The SMSA continues to provide discounted rates for venue hire for qualifying Not-For-Profit and volunteer organisations. This has been a long-standing tradition which benefits both the SMSA and the organisations involved.
The Board reviewed and considered several grant applications during the year, assessing each application to ensure it fulfills the criteria set out in the Grants Policy and aligns with the School’s values and objectives.
The following Grants were awarded in 2017.
SMSA (Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts)