Funding for writing and publishing is not just low: it’s also declining. Ben Eltham looks at a grim federal budget for literature, in the context of ongoing neglect for written culture in Australia.
With the tapering down of COVID stimulus measures, many of Australia’s cultural institutions are facing cuts – but Australia Council funding remains steady.
Arts Minister Paul Fletcher has taken aim at what he calls a ‘cosy club’ of arts elites. But his claim of ‘unprecedented’ arts funding and a push for greater fairness don’t add up.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
Among growing feelings of despair in the Australian arts sector, more than 700 leading artists and arts-workers have signed a petition calling for the Major Performing Arts framework to be abolished.
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.
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