
NSW Galleries Given Lifeline With $15.4M Arts Funding

The state government has announced $15.4m in funding for arts organisations and galleries across NSW over the next two years, narrowly sidestepping a crisis many have been waiting for.
Announced on Thursday, 62 arts organisations will receive $15.4m funding for the next two years through Create NSW’s Arts and Cultural Funding Program (ACFP), with $7.5m going to 31 regional arts organisations, including 10 regional galleries.
The announcement comes after more than 50 per cent of the 158 regional applicants were rejected after applying for four-year funding from Create NSW.
Speaking to The Guardian, chief executive of Regional Arts NSW, Dr Tracey Callinan, said the organisation was “very pleased” with the outcome.
“This is a really positive response and one that acknowledges that regional arts has great value, but its own challenges too,” she said.
“Not everybody has been funded, but that is the reality of a funding program.”
One of these unlucky ones is the oldest regional art gallery in the state, Broken Hill City Art Gallery, with gallery manager, Kathryn Graham, saying it was a “sad day for artists and the industry in the far west”.
The gallery had previously been receiving $100,000 from Create NSW, which helped to fund artists, students, tourism and First Nations cultural programs.
“It’s a significant loss of funding for a gallery of our size and we now face the unpleasant task of reviewing our operations and reducing our services in line with the funding shortfall,” Graham said.
“Great deal of uncertainty” say arts orgs
23 Sydney organisations are set to receive a little less than $3m, with some having to plan for a future with significantly reduced funding. Darlinghurst’s Australian Design Centre currently receives $300,000 annually from Create NSW, which has now been slashed in half.
The loss comes after $200,000 of federal funding fell through.
“ADC is grateful for any funding support from the state government,” said executive director, Lisa Cahill. “However, we applied for $200,000 per annum – $150,000 per annum is short of that. It’s also 50% of what we currently receive and have been in receipt of for the past decade – and obviously that $300,000 has not kept up with costs.”
“This level of uncertainty and erosion of support is obviously creating a great deal of uncertainty and stress on the organisation, and the people in it.”
The NSW minister for the arts, John Graham, said the regions came out on top as “the big winners” from the renewed ACFP.
“We have heard the message from the sector that they want less paperwork, and less acquittals,” he said. “That is why the move from annual to multi-year funding for so many of these organisations is so welcome.”
Leave a Reply