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Articles on Arts policy

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Senator Scott Ludlam said changes to arts funding will mean the minister will not need to publicly reveal funding recipients. True or false? AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

FactCheck: will the Arts Minister need to publicly disclose who he funds?

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?
We need to consider what balance we want to achieve between the heritage and contemporary arts. AAP Image/Julian Smith. Artists of the Australian Ballet rehearse for the The Dream.

Majors and the majority: planning for Australia’s artistic legacy starts now

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.
Making a splash in letters may be harder under changes to Australian arts funding. Orange County Archives Follow

Writers and publishers are all at sea under Brandis and the NPEA

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?
Escape From Woomera is renowned as one of the forebears of “serious games” – what chance would it stand under new government funding guidelines? By Escape from Woomera development team, via Wikimedia Commons

No country for new videogames: Brandis and Abbott are playing with our creative future

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?
Stage musicals, such as the Rocky Horror Show, don’t necessarily make sense. Nor do recent changes to arts funding. AAP Image/Paul Miller

We have a ‘show tunes’ government, with an arts policy to match

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.
Projects funded by the Australia Council sustain a much larger network of arts organisations, including university arts museums. Ted Snell/Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery

Australia Council changes will also affect university museums

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.
The capricious nature of this government’s approach to arts funding promises very rich pickings. chiaralily

Beyond the inquiry: some notes on effective strategy to free the arts

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?
To write off towns outside of Sydney and Melbourne as being bereft of culture is an arrogant falsehood. Briony Osei, Eve Beck and Jack Griffiths in The Bacchae. Photo taken by T J Lee

The Brandis effect on regional Australia? Just look at Bathurst

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.
The evidence of cultural consumption and production in Australia does not bear out the claims made by Senator Brandis. AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

Philosophy vs evidence is no way to orchestrate cultural policy

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.
Should the offset for screen producers apply to all films made in Australia? Yes, even the ones that ruffle a few feathers. mark sebastian/Flickr

Australian film funding shouldn’t be a beauty contest – here’s why

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 overhaul of arts funding has left the sector in shock – with many looking for clues as to how George Brandis’ new arts funding body with work in practice. Tom_Allan/Flickr

How Brandis plans to insulate the arts sector from the artists

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?
George Brandis shocked the arts sector – and particularly the Australia Council – with his overhaul of the allocation of arts funding. AAP Image/Dean Lewins

The arts minister has wrenched our culture away from the artists

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.
The government has sent a clear message that it does not trust the Australia Council to do its bidding. hobvias sudoneighm

A budget to rebuild trust – but not trust in the Australia Council

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.
There were no nasty surprises for the arts in the 2015 Budget – but plenty of worrisome rhetoric. Mick Tsikas/AAP

There’s money for the arts in the budget – but with strings attached

There were no truly nasty surprises in last night’s Budget for the arts – but clear discomfort was expressed with the “arms-length” approach that hitherto has guided the allocation of arts funding.

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