Scholars invited to apply for 2022 Frank Van Straten Fellowship

Arts Centre Melbourne and the Australian Performing Arts Collection are excited to open the expressions of interest for the 2022 Frank Van Straten Fellowship.

Applications are now open and close on 11 March 2022 for a Fellowship which commences in July 2022.

The key objective of the Frank Van Straten Fellowship program is to enhance the analysis, discoverability and interpretation of the Australian Performing Arts Collection through high quality research and/or creative works that will resonate with diverse audiences.

The Fellow will be given access to the Australian Performing Arts Collection as well as a stipend of $15,000 to undertake research aligned to key areas including: circus, dance, music, opera and theatre (which includes comedy, vaudeville and magic).

The program also creates opportunities for the wider community to access the Australian Performing Arts Collection through the outcomes of Fellowship projects.

The Fellowship is made possible through the generous contribution of the Frank Van Straten AM and Adrian Turley Foundation. Frank played a pivotal role in the establishment of the Australian Performing Arts Collection in the late 1970s and was the founding director and first archivist of what was then the Performing Arts Museum. Arts Centre Melbourne has been the proud custodian of the Collection since its creation in the early 1980s.

Since launching in 2020 the Frank Van Straten Fellowship has produced outstanding works highlighting stories from the Australian Performing Arts Collection.

2020 Frank Van Straten fellow Dr Kate Rice was nominated for an Australian Writer’s Guild Award for Performing The Past, a creative docu-drama series produced as podcasts.