The Access Grants program aims to facilitate increased access to quality arts programs (theatre, dance, music and visual arts) for students and teachers from disadvantaged government schools. Our research tells us that many families cannot afford the ticket and travel costs usually associated with excursions to galleries or performing arts venues. The Access Grants program enables arts venues and organisations to apply for grants of up to $10,000 to enable ticket and travel subsidies to be provided to disadvantaged school groups to attend their performances and exhibitions.

The Access grants program was expanded in 2006 to include regional performing arts centres and regional galleries. More than fifteen of the State’s leading cultural institutions, performing arts organisations and galleries received Access Grants totalling $74,873 to enable students and teachers from disadvantaged schools to attend performances, exhibitions and workshop programs.

Grants were used to subsidise the travel and ticket costs for students to attend programs provided by the following organisations:

Sydney Opera House, Sydney Theatre Company, Company B Belvoir, Museum of Contemporary Art, Hothouse Theatre Albury, Theatre of Image, Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre, Illawarra Performing Arts Centre, Laycock St Theatre Gosford, Northern Rivers Performing Arts, Orange Civic Theatre, Wagga Wagga Civic Theatre, Gosford Regional Art Gallery, Goulburn Regional Art Gallery and Maitland Regional Art Gallery.

In addition to providing often first-time experiences of professional performing arts and gallery experiences for young people, additional benefits included:

• The fostering of relationships between arts organisations and their local school communities,
• increased programming for young people,
• value-adding to existing educational programs within arts organisations,
• audience development opportunities for the recipient arts organisations.

Approximately 8,000 NSW students participated in the access grant program.