CULTURE

How high can the body

count go in Australian arts?
The arts sector is in the middle of a brutal
tournament for small-to-medium funding.
Under this government, there's no end in
sight.

BEN ELTHAM AUG 28, 2019   

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(IMAGE: GETTY)

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 Australia’s cultural sector is in a tough spot
following the re-election of Scott Morrison.

Many people, and the organisations they represent,

pinned hopes on a Labor government. Bill Shorten
is an avowed supporter of the arts, and a Labor
victory was expected to deliver modest funding
increases and a much more hospitable political
climate. Now, they’re facing down the culture wars
against a newly confident conservative government.

There are few solid supporters of the arts within the

Coalition, and the mood isn’t helped by the state of
the economy. Business conditions in culture and
recreation are not great, with the cultural sector
feeling some aspects of the retail recession rippling
through Australia’s consumer economy.

Policy settings remain constrained. Arts funding has

declined in real terms since the election of Tony
Abbott in 2013, and the funded sector is still riding
out the shockwaves of the tumultuous George
Brandis years. With the departure of Mitch Fifield,
the policy orientation of new Arts Minister Paul
Fletcher is still unformed. The reigning sentiment
amongst arts leaders is uncertainty.

When Labor left office in 2013, the Australia

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Council’s grant funding budget was $199 million —
or $222 million in today’s dollars. After six years of
Coalition austerity, the 2019-20 portfolio budget
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 statement puts the Australia Council’s budgeted
grant spend at $187 million. That’s a 19% decrease
in real terms. The situation got so bad in 2017 that
the agency was forced to raid its own reserves. 

This austerity has resulted in genuine pain in an

already impoverished sector. With major performing
arts companies protected from any funding cuts by
Coalition diktat, the burden of the funding decline
has been borne largely by independent artists and
the smaller arts organisations.

The inevitable denouement is playing

out across the sector in the Australia
Council’s current funding round for
small-to-medium
organisations. Around 400
organisations were in the running for
nd the demise of
writing Australia the four-year operational funding
more > program. In a two-step process, the
Australia Council knocks out most of
the applicants in the first round, before a final
decision picks the lucky few winners.
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There is only enough money for around 100
organisations to succeed. The first round of
rejections went out early in August. As
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 expected, hundreds of organisations had missed
out.

As the bad news trickled in, it was clear that many

respected and successful arts organisations have
been unsuccessful. The writing and literature sector
took a particularly hard hit. Noted small publisher
Overland was knocked back, along with both the
major national playwriting organisations,
AustralianPlays.org and Playwriting Australia
(which is effectively on life support after its board
made the entire staff redundant). Melbourne
theatre company Theatreworks also missed out, as
did a number of smaller organisations. 

As Overland’s outgoing editor Jacinda Woodhead

noted in a measured editorial, “the four-year model
is supposed to invest in the arts and organisations
long-term, but now it seems more like it’s
reinforcing the project model: prioritising new
programs that are disposable, that will be
abandoned for some different idea in the next
funding round”.

To make matters worse, the process is shrouded in

secrecy, with the Australia Council refusing to
publish a list of successful organisations, or of

 Menu those denied funding.   My Account

“For privacy reasons we never publish the names of

organisations or applicants who have
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 unsuccessfully applied for funding,” an Australia
Council spokeswoman told us. “The list of
organisations awarded four-year funding for 2021-
24 and the peers involved in both stages of the
assessment will be published at the end of the
process, in early April 2020.”  

University of Melbourne academic Jo

Caust has been researching
Australian cultural policy for many
years. She’s not surprised by the dire
outcome of the small-to-medium
funding round. 
g the wasteland of
ralian arts
“When you look at the figures you get
more >
really depressed; they haven’t
actually returned the funding from
the Brandis years,” she told Crikey. “In terms of the
country as a whole, Australians are the richest
citizens in the world, and yet the amount we give to
the arts and culture is so minimal. That lack of
generosity from a wealthy country is appalling.”

Some organisations are now faced with difficult

decisions about whether they can continue.
Theatreworks has already hinted that it could be in
trouble. “We express our deep disappointment and

 Menu concern, not only for our theatre and its future but  My Account
for all the artists who will also be affected,” the
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 company’s chair Rosalind Willett wrote in an email
to subscribers. 

National dance organisation Ausdance National

announced it would wind up in early August, while
AustralianPlays.org has publicly admitted the
funding loss “places the organisation’s viability in
jeopardy”.

The body count is mounting. And, with no relief in

sight, artists are left wondering: who’s next?

TOPICS arts arts funding

Australia Council

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can.  declining public support. Funding

isn't the only problem the sector
faces.

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