National Arts Council of South Africa (NAC)

About the National Arts Council

The National Arts Council of South Africa (NAC) is a public entity that funds and promotes the arts in South Africa. It falls under the national Department of Sport, Arts and Culture. The NAC gives grants to artists, arts organisations and students in disciplines such as craft, dance, literature, music, theatre, visual arts and multidisciplinary work.

The NAC makes its funding decisions through advisory panels of arts experts. It runs several funding sessions each year, and it publishes calls for applications for its different funding programmes on its website and social media.

Applications are made online, through the NAC's Grant Management System.

How the NAC supports students

The NAC offers bursaries to students who study towards an arts qualification. It has two kinds of local bursary funding: block bursaries for institutions, which then award them to their undergraduate students, and individual bursaries for postgraduate students. It also offers international bursaries for South Africans who have been accepted to study the arts abroad.

The bursaries are mainly for tuition fees. Where tuition is already covered by other funding, the NAC may direct funding towards accommodation, books, travel and a subsistence allowance. You can read the full terms on our National Arts Council Bursary page.

The international bursary is open to South Africans who have been admitted to an undergraduate or postgraduate arts programme at an institution abroad. It is worth up to R250,000 a year, subject to Council approval, and it is renewable for the length of the course if the student passes each year. Its 2025 call opened on 2 June 2025 and closed on 11 July 2025. Postgraduate master's and doctoral students who receive a local bursary do not need to reapply each year, as long as they pass.

The NAC expects its bursary holders to give back. After their studies, they share their skills with less privileged communities and organisations, through workshops, outreach, mentoring and capacity building.

What to know before applying

Individual undergraduate students cannot apply directly for local funding. Their universities and colleges apply for block bursaries on their behalf. Postgraduate students apply individually, and the NAC funds them on academic merit, usually from an average of 65%.

The NAC publishes each call with its own opening and closing dates, and it does not accept late or incomplete applications. Read the funding guidelines before you apply, and contact the NAC if you have questions about a call.