It’s no surprise that the leaders of Australia’s theatre industry can craft something equally poignant and devastating. It is surprising that latest offering is a Facebook post.
Well, it would be, if it weren’t for the Australia Council’s wide-reaching overhaul of funding to small and medium-sized arts groups across the country. On Friday, it was announced 62 organisations that currently use Federal funds would be cut off.
In response, Sydney’s Belvoir St Theatre posted an open letter over the weekend, bearing the co-signs of prominent artistic directors nation-wide, calling for an urgent review for the funding shake-up.
If you can find a more compelling and well-supported cluster of arguments against the changes, we’d like to see it:
“These are dark days for the cultural life of the country. Today’s losses will have a destructive impact on a generational scale. The variety of our cultural life has been severely restricted.
Great artists and great works will fail to materialise as a result. The viability of all of our surviving arts organisations, big and small, will be dangerously tested in the months and years to come.”
“It is the equivalent of taking parts from one car in order to build a second car: neither car will be going anywhere. In short, this absurd situation is the result of nothing but poor policy.”
“We did our apprenticeships in a manner which is now radically restricted and reduced. And each of us represents dozens and dozens of other artists who live and work by the vibrancy of the small to medium sector.We know in our bones the vital importance of the companies lost today. Not just for the artists they produce, but for the work they create and the communities they represent.”
He said his experience in the UK – which had public funding for the arts sector gutted over the course of decades – was enough to convince him our “vibrant, collaborative and successful sector” shouldn’t be subject to such harsh conditions.
The entire piece can be accessed right here.
