Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM)

On their own: Britain's child migrants

On their own: Britain's child migrants explores the history of child migration schemes of the 19th and 20th centuries and features some artefacts not previously seen in Australian museums. From the late 19th century Britain operated schemes that removed more than 100,000 children from their homes and families and sent them alone to Canada, Australia and other Commonwealth countries. The ANMM has collaborated with the National Museums Liverpool, United Kingdom, to develop the exhibition and it is the first time that this important story has been the subject of an exhibition.

The exhibition will tour to venues in South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory.

Touring Funding: $47,600

Freshwater Saltwater: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prints

Water holds deep spiritual and cultural significance for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and the vast network of rivers, creeks, billabongs, lakes and coastal regions represent a rich source of food and culture. Freshwater Saltwater showcases a selection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prints from the ANMM's collection with the common theme of water and includes works by Ian Abdulla, Banduk Marika, Denis Nona and Brian Robinson. The artists have used the medium of printmaking to strengthen their cultural identity and their connection back to 'country'.

The exhibition will tour to venues in New South Wales, Tasmania, Victoria, South Australia and Queensland.

Touring Funding: $23,500

Bundanon Trust

Arthur Boyd: the erotic in nature

Arthur Boyd: the erotic in nature will focus exclusively on the work of Arthur Boyd. It examines his surrealist and expressionist synthesis from the 1940s onwards with a particular emphasis on the erotic, death and religion in his landscape works. The Bundanon Trust is working collaboratively with the Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, to develop the exhibition which will include two and three dimensional works ranging from images of lovers and couplings to pro-environmental themes and how Boyd explored the sensuality of the landscape itself.

Development Funding: $50,000

Museum of Australian Democracy (MoAD)

Marnti Warajanga

Marnti Warajanga is a photographic exhibition focusing on the democratic history of the Indigenous people of the Pilbara, Western Australia, and was developed in collaboration with Wanga Maya Pilbara Aboriginal Language Centre and photographer Tobias Titz. The exhibition features 34 portraits and the personal reflections of Indigenous people in their own words which bear witness to momentous historical events such as the 1967 referendum and more recently the government's formal apology to Indigenous peoples.

The exhibition will tour to a number of venues in Western Australia.

Development and Touring Funding: $63,662

National Gallery of Australia (NGA)

Fred Williams Retrospective

Fred Williams is considered to be one of Australia's iconic artists and this retrospective is timely in the context of re-evaluating his contribution to Australian art practice. Curated by Deborah Hart, the exhibition includes works from 1950 through to his late paintings in 1981 and traces Williams' artistic development that reveals the peaks and dramatic shifts of his career. The Fred Williams Retrospective includes a selection of 85 paintings and 30 gouaches from both public and private collections and is one of the most significant NGA exhibitions to tour in recent years.

The exhibition will tour to venues in Victoria and South Australia.

Development and Touring Funding: $147,000

Roy Lichtenstein

The NGA holds over 450 works by the world renowned American artist Roy Lichtenstein who is synonymously related to the Pop Art Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Lichtenstein is one of the most instantly recognisable international artists of the 20th century as he used popular culture as a source of inspiration. The exhibition has been drawn largely from the 7,000 works in the NGA's Kenneth Tyler Print collection, the most comprehensive selection of 20th century American art outside America. The exhibition will also include Lichtenstein's sculptural works that are rarely seen outside Canberra.

The exhibition will tour to venues in Victoria and Queensland and proposed venues in Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania.

Development and Touring Funding: $85,048

Stars of the Tokyo Stage: Kabuki Prints of Natori Shunsen

Drawn from the NGA's collection, the exhibition will explore the dynamic world of Japan's kabuki theatre through the striking actor prints of Natori Shunsen (1886–1960). The exhibition will be supplemented with a small collection of kabuki robes and ukiyo-e prints. Kabuki draws on Japan's rich folklore, literature and history, as well as violent, romantic and scandalous topical events. It will be the first solo exhibition to be held outside Japan since the 1930s.

The exhibition is being developed primarily for regional venues and is expected to tour to venues in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia.

Development and Touring Funding: $70,000

National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA)

Sounds of Australia (Cooee Cabaret)

Cooee Cabaret is an original family cabaret show that weaves together iconic Australian songs and sound recordings drawn from the NFSA's Sounds of Australia registry and is supported by online access to the NFSA's collection and interactive audience engagement. Sounds of Australia celebrates the unique and diverse recorded sound culture and histories of Australia. Cooee Cabaret has already toured to eleven locations across five states and territories and during 2011 and 2012 will visit several locations in Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia.

The exhibition will tour to Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia.

Touring Funding: $168,700

National Museum of Australia (NMA)

Yiwarra Kuju: The Canning Stock Route

Yiwarra Kuju: The Canning Stock Route includes 97 Indigenous artworks and is a joint project between the NMA and FORM, an independent arts organisation based in Perth, Western Australia. It presents the history of the Canning Stock Route from an Indigenous perspective involving Indigenous artists, traditional custodians and emerging Indigenous filmmakers. The exhibition will be displayed at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting being hosted in Perth in late October 2011 and will provide an opportunity for international exposure and public access to a historically significant exhibition.

The exhibition will tour to Western Australia.

Touring Funding: $300,000

National Library of Australia (NLA)

Mr J W Lewin: Painter & Naturalist

Mr J W Lewin: Painter & Naturalist focuses on the life of Mr J W Lewin (1770-1879), the first free professional artist to settle in Australia. Lewin was the most prolific colonial artist and first printmaker in NSW and his mission was to collect, draw and publish Australia's natural history for European audiences. The exhibition celebrates Lewin and will bring together for the first time works held in Australian and major international collections. It comprises 150 original and published works by Lewin with a primary focus on Australian flora and fauna and is the first exhibition to present a comprehensive representation of his extensive oeuvre.

The exhibition will tour to a venue in New South Wales and will also be displayed at the NLA in the Australian Capital Territory.

Development and Touring Funding: $55,000

Patrick White: Eye of the Storm

Patrick White: Eye of the Storm celebrates the centenary of the birth of Australia's only Nobel Prize laureate in Literature, Patrick White. The exhibition will bring together the distributed collections of Patrick White material in Australia. It provides the Australian public with a rare opportunity to see material which has recently come to light alongside the 'hidden' White archive acquired by the NLA which will also be largely exhibited for the first time. The extensive loan of paintings owned by White and donated to the Art Gallery of NSW will be a highlight of the exhibition. Personal items, photographs, mementos and souvenirs documenting the many facets of White—author, playwright, activist and collector —will also be included.

The exhibition will tour to a venue in New South Wales and will also be displayed at the NLA in the Australian Capital Territory.

Touring Funding: $35,000

National Portrait Gallery (NPG)

National Photographic Portrait Prize 2011

Established four years ago, the National Photographic Portrait Prize promotes the very best in contemporary photographic portraiture by both professional and aspiring Australian photographers and this year attracted over 1200 entries, demonstrating the popularity of the prize. The exhibition will include 55 works selected by the judging panel. Through the National Photographic Portrait Prize tour and exhibition catalogue the NPG aims to increase access to photographic portraiture in regional Australia.

The exhibition will tour to venues in Western Australia and Victoria.

Touring Funding: $39,300

Inner Worlds: Portraits & Psychology

Curated by Christopher Chapman, Inner Worlds: Portraits & Psychology engages key moments of intense connection between psychology and portraiture in Australian art and social history. The exhibition comprises 45 portraits and includes leading figures associated with psychological research and psychoanalysis in Australia from WW1 to the 1950s and examples of the work of artists whose experiments with portraiture are strongly informed by their interest in psychology, the subconscious mind and intense mental states.

The exhibition will tour to venues in Queensland and Victoria.

Touring Funding: $25,900

Beyond the Self: Contemporary Portraiture from Asia

The exhibition Beyond the Self: Contemporary Portraiture from Asia will examine the representation of the self in current South and Southeast Asian art practice through the work of major artists from Indonesia and India, Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia and also include a small selection of Australian Asian artists. The artists in the exhibition all explore historical and/or cultural constructs to examine contemporary life. The exhibition comprises 55 works including painting, photography, sculpture, drawing and media works. Once developed it will be the NPG's first touring exhibition featuring international works from the region.

Development Funding: $45,080