ArtStart (kind of) Gets the Nod‏

As published today in Crikey.


Arts Minister Peter Garrett has finally delivered on his promise to give ArtStart, infamously described by Peter Costello in the lead up to the last election as ‘welfare’ for artists, the green light.

At the time of its proposal in 2007 the Member for Higgins tore into the Member for Kingsford-Smith saying:

The member for Kingsford-Smith said that I would never have thought of something like this. Well, blow me down! I never have thought of something like this: that somebody on welfare needs more time to produce art! What are the responsibilities of someone who is on welfare? Do they have to turn up at the office at 8am and take them away from their easel?

First proposed as a way to develop a "Social Security and the Arts" policy that bridged current Australia Council for the Arts, Centrelink and the Australian Tax Office rules, it aimed to determine “the most equitable way to treat earnings and royalty payments for artists currently receiving welfare.”

Sensibly, Garrett has removed the words "Centrelink" and "Australian Tax Office" from the funding measure and it has now re-emerged as a grant which will be administered by the Australia Council.

It’s a major commitment in this year’s Budget with the Rudd Labor Government to spend $9.6 million over four years which will provide two hundred $10,000 grants to "individual graduate artists to enable them to create a major work or event to build their portfolio and increase their self‑sufficiency".

Aimed at visual artists, musicians, designers and performing arts practitioners, it will provide a much needed leg up particularly for those in capital cities who face rapidly rising rental costs and little support from state based arts bodies -- particularly NSW.

However, the real coup for Garrett is how he has managed to maintain all funding for the arts portfolio, even after the massive injections his predecessor George Brandis delivered under the Coalition government. It was a tall order in the face of a downturn in the economy and in fact, the Arts Minister has even delivered a little bit more.

The Indigenous Arts is another big winner in the Budget. A recommendation of last year’s Senate enquiry into Indigenous Arts and part of the "Closing the Gap" initiative will see an additional $10 million provided over four years to “increase the support for art centre operations, ensuring appropriate staffing, training and salaries for art centre employees, and addressing poor recruitment and retention rates in remote areas”.

Other highlights include $8 million over four years to the Books Alive program and $5 million for NIDA, the Australian Ballet School and Australian Youth Orchestra to get out to regional and out metropolitan areas to teach young kids.

Screen Australia, the newly formed national peak body which merged the Australian Film Commission, Film Finance Corporation and Film Australia into one, continues with funding maintained. It’s just a shame that the new organisation hasn’t done terribly much in the last twelve months (although they have got a nice new logo). Hopefully an additional $750,000 in this year’s budget to help administer the new 40 per cent producer off-set rebate will get them going a bit.

Garrett has also tried to address the lack of touring arts programmes to regional areas with a number of grants to get art exhibitions touring. But Regional Australia’s continuing request left over from last year for $24 million in touring funding is still left out.

There is also no sign that the Rudd Labor Government plans to re-install any aspect of Alexander Downer’s policy of using the arts as a means of second-tier diplomacy. The removal of the previous Downer’s On the World Stage program has been a blow to many of our top arts organisations -- most particularly in their attempts to engage with Asia.

But in a time of recession the arts should be happy with the renewed commitment of the Federal Government and their new Arts Minister. Now they just have to find a way to stop corporate sponsors from leaving the fold.

The river runs dry

As the Murray River - the natural border between New South Wales and Victoria - dries up, it seems that state borders are also breaking down. Well, in arts policy anyway.

Today in Crikey an interesting anonymous tip arrived;
Arts Victoria funding announcement is scheduled to be released this Friday. Several arts organisations that do really good work, highly respected, genuinely tick all the boxes for Australian content, developing young artists, building partnerships, have got the knife. This follows on from some severe bloodletting in the Australia Council funding announcements earlier this year. Some organisations that are rumoured to be defunded this year include Chambermade Opera, Astra, Ballet Lab, Elision (not able to be verified till after Arts Vic announcement).

Lots of disquiet and anger amongst the arts community which is waiting for the government injunction on Friday to lift following the announcement so that they start raising hell. Regarding the Australia Council, a strange Sydney focus and a big conservative lean. In Arts Vic, a sudden-death change in tune to organisations who were given assurances six months ago that all was well and now have had the plug pulled with no wind-down plan or valid explanation of why evaluations have changed. Several orgs are likely to fold, and others have dramatic staff, admin and programming cuts to face up to. A real kick in the guts to Australian culture and a worryingly cavalier attitude to sustainable art-making from the arts bodies.


There's three points to this argument that get lost amongst the general howling that goes on whenever there is some major funding changes.

Firstly, when is the arts industry going to learn to lobby governments as a united front? This constant justification for funding cloaked in terms of educational/community/social benefits instead of pushing the old fashioned we are here and we need to be funded line is extraordinarily divisive. This is not to mention the amount of back-stabbing that goes on behind closed doors whenever an organisation gets the ear of a Minister - 'they get lots of money, why don't we get some of that' type of tactic.

We must be the only industry in the country that lobbies the government like this and other industries representing anything from mining to banking to education wouldn't be caught dead playing those types of tactics.

Secondly, eventually there needs to be some clearing away of the deadwood so that emerging artists, practitioners and organisations get a turn at the funding pie (not that all the above companies are deadwood). But there needs to be a reality check from many organisations that maybe their time is up. Often a group will get funding for say ten years and what they were proposing back in 1998 hasn't really changed a decade later. And it's a funding pie that everyone seems to take for granted. I have seen on industry bulletin boards straight up whinging and moaning when a company does get funding that it is a) not enough b) too little too late or c) not the right type of funding.

And finally, surely it must be time to examine the rift that exists between the major performing arts companies (AMPAG) and the rest of the industry. This shouldn't just be couched in financial terms but also within the creative. Partnerships need to be established far more often that what they are and they must be across all platforms.

It really shouldn't be a surprise when the Australia Council, Arts NSW or Arts Victoria shake things up a bit. Shouldn't we be innovative enough to keep a bit ahead of the game?

Talk of a European Tour

Ngapartji Ngapartji, the headline Indigenous act at the Sydney Festival this year is currently in discussions with European festivals to tour the show next year.

Countries up for discussion include Portugal, the UK and France with others also in negotiation.

From the Pitjantjatjara language from central South Australia, the title roughly translates as “I give you something, you give me something.” But that ‘something’ could be anything from a cup of water, to a shared experience. There is no limitation on what that ‘something’ is.

It is a beautiful production which begins with audience participation. Not the type of audience participation which causes red faces of ‘don’t pick me, don’t pick me’ but rather it asks the audience to stand together and do the actions to ‘heads, shoulders, knees and toes’.

Challenges will no doubt face the production company, as they work out how the show which shifts between English and Pitjantjatjara will be translated into Portuguese or French.

The tour will be great news for production company Big hArt, who recently turned down a $750,000 grant from the Australia Council. In the report which was first published by Simon Ferguson of the Daily Telegraph, creative director Scott Rankin explained that it would cost Big hArt $15,000 just to process the bulky application for the grant, only to be offered a comparatively paltry $750,000 over six years - a grant which would then cost the small company $25,000 each year to process the necessary paperwork.

PM calls on best and brightest - part II

This should be added to the list of arts-topics-to-be-discussed at Chairman Rudd's April Summit for the future.

I just received an interesting email from theatre director Wesley Enoch about movements to create a National Indigenous Theatre Company. Please see press release text below.


FOR GENERAL RELEASE
Distributed 4 February 2008

SECOND MEETING BUILDS MOMENTUM

On January 19 & 20 the State Library of Queensland was the venue for a 2nd Consultation Meeting to discuss the possibility of a National Indigenous Theatre Company. The meeting was funded through Arts Queensland and also saw the inaugural meeting of the Blakstage Alliance – an alliance of the funded Indigenous Theatre Companies. The meeting gathered over 30 practitioners from the local Murri Theatre scene, representatives of the funded Indigenous Theatre companies, funding bodies and some key supporters from around the country. Queensland Arts Minister Rod Welford also attended the consultation meeting in Brisbane.

As a sign of the growing support and momentum for the NITC The Blakstage Alliance issued a new statement overturning their previous position set last November.

“The BLAKSTAGEalliance supports the emergence of a national platform for showcasing Indigenous performing arts. We applaud the efforts of those individuals who helped initiate and drive early discussions to put Indigenous performing culture on a national agenda.” (excerpt from Blakstage statement issued 1/2/08)

A major outcome of the meeting was the discussion of CORE VALUES that will guide future discussions.
DRAFT CORE VALUES
- consultation with people on the ground doing the work
- taking the work to the broadest possible audience
- pursuing the very best of Indigenous Theatre Practice
- recognition of National Representation
- honouring traditions, history, and new voices
- co-operation and collaboration not competition and coercion
- respecting the diversity of protocols and cultural integrities

As with the Melbourne meeting (held Dec 15 &16 2007 at the Victorian Arts Centre), the gathering were extremely enthusiastic for the idea of a National Indigenous Theatre Company and what it meant for the aspirations of Indigenous Theatre Artists and the Industry as a whole.

There was animated discussion around creating a company to bring new resources into the sector, to develop works of scale, to extend the life of the works through touring nationally and internationally, and to create works for all ages.

A Working Group and communication process was discussed and further Consultation Meetings are planned for Perth, Adelaide, Hobart and Sydney. It is hoped that an initial proposal will go to the new Federal Government within the next week and a Draft Business Plan within a month.