Grant McLennan
Fellowship
Grant McLennan Fellowship Postponed for 2020 to Support More Local Opportunities for Queensland Artists
The Grant McLennan Fellowship, delivered by QMusic in partnership with the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland, has been postponed for 2020 due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, but the music industry is still a winner with this year’s Fellowship funds reinvested through an extension of Queensland Government's stART Grant for seven artists to perform and create new work.
With the postponement of the 2020 award, the 2019 winner Jack Bratt has been given an extra 12 months to take his Fellowship. His pre-COVID-19 plans were to travel to New York and be inspired by the city's musical significance to write songs for a new album.
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Grant McLennan was a seminal Australian singer-songwriter-guitarist who co-founded The Go-Betweens with Robert Forster in Brisbane in 1977. Grant was also a successful solo artist, releasing four albums throughout his career. He was an advocate for emerging Queensland artists and in 2001, the Australasian Performing Right Association listed "Cattle and Cane" (1983), written by McLennan, as one of their top 30 Australian songs of all time. McLennan passed away at the age of 48, but is still considered one of Australia's greatest artists.
"I can remember being hit by the lyrics he put to his first songs. I was shocked by their melancholy and the struggle for joy. I’d known the happy-go-lucky university student. As soon as he wrote, there it was. Any appreciation or remembrance of Grant has to take this into account. He didn’t parade it, but it’s all over his work, and it was in his eye."
- Robert Forster on his relationship with Grant McLennan, 'A true hipster', The Monthly.
Grant McLennan
Postponed for 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, in normal years the prestigious $25,000 Grant McLennan Fellowship offers the recipient/s an opportunity to travel to New York, London or Berlin for up to six months and use the experience of being immersed in a foreign and vibrant musical culture to further develop their own artistic skills.
The Fellowship is for a contemporary music songwriter or songwriting duo with both experience and exceptional talent. The artist/artists will have more than five years of professional experience and will have developed a national profile through album releases, touring and media recognition.
The Grant McLennan Fellowship is delivered through a partnership with Arts Queensland and QMusic.
Founded in 2007 in honour of the late Queensland singer-songwriter and co-frontman of The Go-Betweens, Grant McLennan, the Fellowship is an incredible chance for local songwriters to take their careers to a whole new level.
The Grant McLennan Fellowship has been postponed for 2020 to invest further financial support into the local music industry in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
2019
Jack Bratt
2018
Danny Harley
(The Kite String Tangle)
2017
Jeremy Neale
2016
Hannah Macklin
(MKO Sun)
2015
Timothy Steward
(WE ALL WANT TO, Screamfeeder)
2014
Thomas Calder
(The Trouble With Templeton)
2013
Seja Vogel
2012
Louise O’Reilly and Paul Hannan
(Laneway)
2011
Scott Spark
2010
Danny Widdicombe & Andrew Morris
(The Wilson Pickers)
2009
Helen Franzmann
(McKisko)
2008
John Busby and Chris Dale
(Halfway)
2007
Greg Charles