We interviewed Victorians working — or not working — in the arts during the pandemic lockdown to learn about their mental health. We found they are struggling.
After seven months of waiting for a support package, artists can finally apply for funding. But with ministerial sign-off, the guidelines don’t instil hope.
Teresa Margolles’ Nirin installation at the recent reopening of Carriageworks in Sydney.
AAP Image/Mick Tsikas
Arts service organisations advocate for artists and help develop artforms. Cuts in NSW signal a more targeted approach to reduced government support for the arts and culture.
Where the policy debate has focused on a need to ‘rescue’ the cultural sector from the ill-effects of COVID-19, the emphasis must now be on growing it as part of a wider program of public investment.
The Australian Ballet rehearsed Sylvia in November last year.
AAP/Bianca De Marchi
The arts and cultural sector was plunged into crisis three months ago and pleaded for help. Now a federal rescue package has been announced – but who is it for and is it enough?
Calling out comments about racial diversity in the arts – like those by Josh Thomas this week – should be just the beginning of a deeper conversation about racial justice and representation.
A ghost light shines at the Theatre Royal in Sydney.
AAP/Joel Carrett
COVID-19 has shown up a mind-bending contradiction. On one hand, the arts are entwined with our daily lives. Yet culture has disappeared from federal policy. Something has gone fundamentally wrong.
Sydney Chamber Opera’s Breaking Glass online performance from Carriageworks.
Daniel Boud
COVID-19 has exposed the insecurity of the cultural workforce. Making the performing arts freely available online may further diminish their value, right when the sector is arguing its worth.
Many workers in the film industry are excluded from JobKeeper.
The Nightinggale/Transmission Films
Guy Morrow, The University of Melbourne and Brian Long, The University of Melbourne
JobKeeper is designed for people with steady jobs. The arts don’t work that way.
The Bell Shakespeare Company – established with support from the Trust – had to end its touring season of Hamlet early due to coronavirus.
Brett Boardman
Performing arts centres will be hardest hit by COVID-19. Looking at the fortunes and pressures facing Queensland’s Home of the Arts can help us understand the challenges faced by around 150 centres.
Carriageworks did everything right but was struggling even in regular conditions. Now the organisation’s troubles are emblematic of an arts sector on the edge – but there might be a brighter future.
Bell Shakespeare’s recent Hamlet tour was cut short by COVID-19.
Photo: Brett Boardman
Arguments for Australian culture focus on what it should say to demonstrate its worth - rather than the government’s capacity to listen. Our history of conservative cultural leadership show they can.
New grants to aid the arts and culture sector are welcome. But as we look for distraction and meaning in isolation, a bigger correction is needed to how the government values Australian creativity.
The federal decision to eliminate a department of arts came as a surprise to public servants.
Jade Ferguson/Opera Queensland
We care less about the arts when there is less to care about. The government of the day has backed Australian arts and culture into a corner and it must start telling its story better to survive.
The Sydney Dance Company’s Ultimo rehearsal studios are the latest cultural space under threat from developers in Sydney – but there is a solution.
Kat Lu/Dunn HIllam Architects
Sydney’s historic buildings are facing increasing threats from developers. But we’re not just losing public ownership of our history – we’re losing our cultural spaces, too.
The ABC’s Don’t Stop The Music looked at the benefit of music education in disadvantaged schools.
ABC
As comparisons are made between the finances of private and public schools, investment in a creative education for all should be prioritised.
Kate Sherman and Nicci Wilks in Theatreworks’ 2016 production of the play Animal. The acclaimed Melbourne theatre company has lost its long-term Australia Council funding.
Theatreworks
Both the Australia Council’s and South Australia’s new five-year arts plans talk the talk, but fail to provide vital arts funding and structural support for a diverse arts culture.
Bill Shorten walks past the painting The Pioneer by Frederick McCubbin at the NGV Australia in Melbourne on May 11.
Lukas Coch/AAP
Labor’s arts election policy includes more funding for the Australia Council and the ABC. But while this is welcome, arts and culture deserve far greater attention.
Honorary (Senior Fellow) School of Culture and Communication University of Melbourne. Editor in Chief, Design and Art of Australia Online, The University of Melbourne