There have been a few questions being directed towards Arts Minister George Brandis and his department this week.
It appears that a whole array of arts organisations are still waiting for DCITA to process the latest round of Playing Australia funding applications. They were due out during the middle of last month, but no one seemed to know when the organisations would be notified.
In an interview with Virginia Trioli on the ABC this morning, Shadow Minister for the Arts Peter Garrett said, "Senator Brandis was caught out yesterday because he couldn’t provide a date for when his office received the committee’s recommendations and he couldn’t explain the delay."
From what the Shadow Minister was saying today, it appears that the whole process has been delayed because of a certain signature that is required.
Garrett went on, "You’ve got these arts organisations that really want to get out there and know whether or not they’re actually going to be touring. He’s got a big department that can help him with this work. He didn’t explain the delay yesterday when he was questioned in [Senate] Estimates about it. He says that it’s imminent, that these people are going to know what’s going on, but it’s very late."
There were assurances made by Brandis to Trioli last week that they would be released this week. It seems that the Senate Estimates hearing really got the Minister going, as at 4.40pm this afternoon, the announcement was made. Seventeen productions share nearly $2.5 million.
And the winners are:
WA - Tura New Music
SA - Australian String Quartet, Patch Theatre Company, Nick Parnell
NSW - Griffin Theatre Company, TaikOz & Synergy Percussion, Short & Sweet, Margeurite Pepper Productions, Musica Viva
VIC - The Australian Ballet, Multicultural Arts Victoria, HIT Productions, Circus Oz QLD - Red Chair, QTC
NT - Gamut Enterprises
ACT - The Stagemaster
For the full information, download it here.
But don't break out the champagne yet. The Sydney Theatre Company has again recorded a deficit, this time for the year 2006. Joyce Morgan from the SMH reported "the company ended 2006 with a $347,784 deficit - almost triple that for 2005 - due in part to falling subscriptions and failure to meet box office targets."
Rob Brookman stated in the report that "it's a case of being close but not close enough. We have been setting ourselves more and more challenging box office targets and sponsorship targets. Inevitably that brings with it the risk you are not going to increase your income by as much as you budget to."
It's probably a case of thank god for the Federal Budget and their little addition to the Major Performing Arts Fund.
The most interesting section of the article finished with, "the company always budgeted to break even, and Mr Brookman expected it would do so at the end of this year, when Blanchett and Upton take over."
The question is, why suddenly, when Blanchett and Upton take over?
1 comments:
what an action-packed post!
the delay of brandis and his office to pull their finger out is pretty hopeless. there is enough uncertainty in working in the arts sector without bureaucracy adding another level of angst. especially considering the general cluelessness of how it was handled. "Playing Australia? What's that? Someone look it into it after morning tea. Actually, just wait til the Estimates are out of the way first..."
i disagree with your stc bit though. the most interesting bit by far in morgan's article was this: "Subscription income dropped from about $1.6 million in 2005 to $608,000 last year. The target was $1 million." a drop of 62% of subscription income in one year. wow. imagine how much subscriptions would have fallen if they weren't "the premier theatre company in Australia".
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