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.
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.
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.
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 modelling from the Grattan Institute estimates up to 75% of people employed in the creative and performing arts could lose their jobs. Why don’t they have targeted support?
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.
Artists and entertainers have raised millions of dollars for the current bushfire crisis – so why are they still at the receiving end of so much criticism and so little funding and support?
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.
While both parties are championing the arts and culture sector, after years of swingeing cuts these promises dazzle but offer little hope to struggling institutions
Honorary (Senior Fellow) School of Culture and Communication University of Melbourne. Editor in Chief, Design and Art of Australia Online, The University of Melbourne