The 2021 Federal Budget should be used as an opportunity to invest in ideas: in arts, culture, universities, the ABC, and First Nations Australians.
Then national theatre critic of The Australian, Katharine Brisbane and her husband, drama academic, the late Dr Philip Parsons, two years after they founded Currency Press in 1971, with their children Nick, now chair of Currency Press, and Harriet, this year replacing Katharine as Director of Currency House.
Currency House
Ex theatre critic for The Australian and founder of Currency Press and Currency House, Katharine Brisbane, now 89, has issued a call to arms for the arts to be taken seriously.
New research shows COVID-19 threw existing inequalities into sharp relief: well-funded institutions were able to move their projects online, while smaller galleries struggled.
Lockdowns, job loss and university courses struck down: 2020 was a difficult year for Australia’s artists. But there was light through the darkness.
Kate Winslet in the 2015 film The Dressmaker. The film was based on the novel by Australian writer Rosalie Ham.
Screen Australia, Film Art Media, White Hot Productions
Literature funding has been cut brutally in recent years and writers’ incomes are disastrously low. Yet books shape our national identity, forming an often invisible bedrock for the wider economy.
School holiday activities in Experimenta: Make Sense, 2019.
New England Regional Art Museum (NERAM)
In a year of lockdowns, The Impossible Project gives life to shows that never reached the stage. More than 150 events are listed on this online archive, and sadly, more are likely to come.
Some games developed in South Australia will now be able to access a rebate of 10% of production costs. It’s helpful but more is needed for Australia’s game industry to thrive.
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.
While the government is showing support and generosity to foreign filmmakers and commercial television interests, it seems less inclined to demonstrate similar largesse to its own creators.
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?
Honorary (Senior Fellow) School of Culture and Communication University of Melbourne. Editor in Chief, Design and Art of Australia Online, The University of Melbourne