Overview
Practitioners and supporters of the arts danced in protest in capital cities all over Australia today, in response to cuts to the Australia Council, the Australian Government's arts funding and advisory body. During the 2015-16 budget announcement, made on May 12, the Government revealed that $104.7 million will taken away from the Council and sent to a new ‘National Programme for Excellence in the Arts’, to be directed by George Brandis and the Ministry for the Arts.
Last night, the Australia Council revealed how it will cope with this financial decimation. And the arts community is reeling. For a start, the June grant round isn’t going ahead. So if you’ve been working on an application, you can stick it in a drawer and keep your fingers crossed for September.
Second up, the six-year funding program, which supports medium-sized organisations with continuous funding at the rate of $75,000+ per year, is suspended. It was a brilliant initiative, developed in conversation with the arts sector, which simplified the grant application process by removing piles of red tape.
And if you’re an emerging, independent or community-minded artist, your opportunities are now much narrower. Three of the Australia Council’s most important programs in these areas – ArtStart, Creative Communities Partnerships Initiative and Artists in Residence – are all kaput.
At the Sydney Writers' Festival today, author Tegan Bennett Daylight encouraged audiences to “think about” this reduction in “arm’s length” funding. On introducing Helen Garner, Daylight read a dedication in Garner’s 1992 novel Cosmo Cosmolino, which thanks the Australia Council for providing her with the funding and time to think and write.
More than 7,000 individuals have signed a petition, indicating their opposition to "the dramatic funding cuts to the arts announced in the recent federal budget, including shifting more than $100 million away from The Australia Council", as well as their opinion that "individual arts ministers should not be the exclusive arbiter of artistic expression". Signees include Thomas Keneally, Christos Tsiolkas and J.M. Coetzee.
Meanwhile, Circus Oz has expressed its concern in a media statement. As a member of the Major Performing Arts Group, made up of 28 companies, Circus Oz is not in line to lose funding. However, the statement communicated the group's solidarity with, and dependence on, those that will suffer. “Circuz Oz is an active member of the vibrant, yet delicate arts ecosystem. Changes to any part of this ecology can have dramatic affects on all artists creating work for the audiences of Australia. We know, for example, that the success of Circus Oz is built on the incredibly vibrant work of all the individual artists, independent, small and medium companies that are eligible for the funding that has been moved.”
Concerned? Sign the Australians for Artistic Freedom petition.
Vaguely related art image from the wonderful Underbelly Arts.