State Government to cut funding for art

The state of Fine Arts in NSW is no longer looking so fine. The O’Farrell Government has announced significant changes to the funding of Fine Art courses at NSW TAFEs as part of the $1.7 billion in savings it plans to make in education expenditure.

Government subsidies for Fine Arts courses are to be scrapped and the cost of courses will be opened to market rates. The Liberal Government has defended the decision, claiming Fine Arts TAFE programs were targeted because of low completion rates and the poor job prospects of Fine Arts students.

“Fine Arts courses including sculpture, visual arts and ceramics are popular in TAFE NSW, and offered across a number of locations,” said NSW Minister for Education, Adrian Piccoli. “However, job prospects and completion levels in these courses are low when
compared with skills shortage areas such as health, community services, property and business services.

“This decision was made so that TAFE NSW can continue to focus on areas of high skill needs and provide government subsidies to these skill areas.”

However, the NSW Teachers Federation, the Labor Party and the Greens have derided the decision. Senior Vice President of the NSW Teachers Federation, Joan Lemaire said ending Government subsidies would make Fine Art courses “inaccessible for very many students.”

“The genesis of what [the government is] saying is that they will focus only on areas of demand for jobs,” she said. “We believe that offering broad range educational courses will really benefit the whole community much more. We’ve got a lot of people doing visual arts courses … it becomes an access into TAFE.”

Ms Lemaire added there were instances where TAFE Art students had gone on to become “significant artists” in their later careers.

Greens MLC and education spokesperson John Kaye was also highly critical of the Government’s plans. He warned fee increases would deter student enrolment in TAFE and lead to the exclusion of economically disadvantaged students.

“The decision to end subsidies for most Fine Arts courses will be disastrous for the future of the arts in NSW,” he said. “Some of the state’s brightest and best arts students will no longer have an opportunity to cultivate their talent.”

The Government has also announced a 9.5 per cent fee increase for TAFE students and the axing of 800 TAFE jobs. A drop in projected GST revenue and desire to maintain the state’s triple-A credit rating have been forwarded as explanations.