Create NSW News

Dennis Golding still vividly remembers playing with a beaded wooden maze at the Aboriginal Medical Service (AMS) in Redfern as a child. Decades later, that familiar object and the memories it holds became the inspiration for his powerful large-scale installation  Connecting Back , for the 2026 Biennale of Sydney. The work reflects on personal and collective experiences of dispossession, displacement while celebrating the enduring strength of community.

Launching today, NSW writers, illustrators, and playwrights can apply for a major new literary fellowship program, backed by $500,000 funding from Create NSW. The new Stories Matter: NSW Literary Fellowships signals a major commitment to strengthening the state’s literary ecosystem, ensuring NSW’s diverse voices and stories are celebrated and elevated globally.

From homegrown studios to global showrooms in Paris, the next generation of fashion talent will soon have an opportunity to step onto the world stage. 

The NSW Government’s trailblazing Createability program has selected 16 talented interns to embark on paid internship roles with 14 arts, screen and music industry organisations - the largest cohort of interns and host organisations the program has ever seen.  

This winter Sydney will host a range of free and low-cost activities for all ages - from music, film, talks, comedy, food and fashion across the city’s seven winter festivals.  

The new wave of fashion designers will springboard onto the global stage this coming May, with two new runway shows celebrating First Nations designers, alongside a group runway spotlighting fashion’s cult favourites and rising creative forces.

NSW artists, producers and arts and cultural organisations can now apply for funding with Create NSW’s 2026 Regional Arts Touring Round 1 and 2026 Arts and Cultural Funding Program (ACFP) Project Funding programs opening today.  

First Nations artists are invited to honour Stolen Generations Survivors through powerful truth-telling art, to be embedded in the deeply significant site of Keller House, the heritage-listed home to the Stolen Generations Keeping Place in Parramatta North’s cultural precinct located on the lands of the Burramattagal people, a clan of the Dharug. 

NSW authors, playwrights, illustrators and other literature creatives are invited to unlock a transformative opportunity to live and work in the heart of Sydney, at a subsidised, below-market rental rate, thanks to a new initiative The Rocks Creative Terraces Affordable Residencies Program. 

The historic Northern Rivers Conservatorium has officially commenced a new chapter with a triumphant community event, marking the completion of a multi-stage flood restoration and upgrade project.