How can common standards apply to a sector with so much difference? Artists must take the opportunity to sharpen their minds as well as their rhetoric. The implications of the NPEA go beyond the polemical.
The Greens’ Senator Scott Ludlam said changes to arts funding will mean arts minister George Brandis won’t need to publicly disclose who he’s funding. He said it’s unbelievable – but is it true?
Given the pressure being applied to the majority of people working in the arts sector, we would be foolish not to consider the roles and inherited rights of Australia’s major performing companies.
It’s hard to work out how funding for literature – if at all – fits into the draft guidelines of the new National Program for Excellence in the Arts. So what are the politics, and problems, at play?
This exclusion of games from artistic funding in this year’s budget follows the cancellation of the Interactive Media Fund in last year’s budget. Where to now for the Australian videogame industry?
In cultural policy every good idea becomes a bad one if the context is confused. The fact there wasn’t initial clarity around the Program for Excellence indicates it will probably do more harm than good.
The draft guidelines for the new National Program for Excellence in the Arts have been released – now begins the work decoding of what’s written in the text and implied in the subtext.
Once a world leader in craft, now is a good time to look at Australia’s dedication to the production of the handmade, and it’s importance to a thriving economy.
The transformation of arts funding in Australia won’t just affect grant recipients, it will disrupt the ecology of the arts – as the potential impact on university art museums demonstrates.
A motion in favour of a Senate Inquiry into the establishment of a National Programme for Excellence in the Arts has been passed. What more can be done by those artists and arts organisations lobbying against unpopular changes to arts funding?
The term “regional arts” carries certain baggage that can create, and uphold, a divisive opposition between city and country. But there is plenty happening in regional Australia, and much to potentially lose.
What is the premise of recently-announced cuts to Australia Council funding, and the establishment of a National Programme for Excellence in the Arts? There is actually a considerable evidence base from which to form policy decisions in Australian arts funding.
David Court, Australian Film, Television and Radio School
The producers of a creationist doc took advantage of Screen Australia’s tax offsets. Were they exploiting a loophole? Hardly – and there’s good reason why producers of all films should enjoy such benefits.
The arts sector has been shocked by cuts to the Australia Council – but details about the new National Program for Excellence in the Arts are in short supply. What do we know about George Brandis’s vision for the arts?
The more the 2015 arts budget is examined the less sense it makes. The changes contribute little strategically or politically – they just make an entire sector nervous. And culturally, they will improve nothing.
With this budget, this government has sent a clear message that it does not trust the Australia Council to do its bidding – and that it will now pursue its own funding agenda for the arts.
Since the foundation of the Australia Council arts funding has been administered at arms length. The fine print of this year’s Budget is set to change that.
Honorary (Senior Fellow) School of Culture and Communication University of Melbourne. Editor in Chief, Design and Art of Australia Online, The University of Melbourne