Dust off those tutus

This blog is now in its third year which also means we are turning another fresh page of performance as each of the companies launch into their programmes for 2009.

As our economy readies itself to take a huge punch in the guts, '09 has a different flavour to it than previous years. You won't have seen to much evidence of it just yet but you can be assured cultural organisations across the country will really start to feel the heat by the end of year. (Maybe Kookaburra was our canary in the mines with their collapse a few months ago.)


As Government support shrinks and corporate sponsors dry up, programs will inevitably alter, staffing will become limited and projects will be smaller. On a social level, this is going to be a devastating couple of years. Creatively, it's a god send.

In a recent post, Marcus Westbury makes an excellent case for the creative benefit of a recession as he reflects on what the 90s meant for Melbourne's artists and musicians.

Looking at a post boom Melbourne it is easy to forget how much of what i love about this city is the product of the last great recession of the early 90s. Its laneway bars, its smart graffiti, its living CBD, its distinctive inner suburbs of eclectic shops and retail strips, its creative community are not the product of arts agencies or central planning but of the fertile ground, cheap space, and hard working initiative of a decade ago. The city is a rich ecology not created through central planning but grown in economic detritus and forged in the harsh and searing furnace of hard times.

He is absolutely right. NSW has been in recession for around twelve months and already artists are answering the call by setting up cheap initiatives, breaking into illegal spaces and creating new forms of arts creativity. It has only just began and it's burgeoning - but thank the Lord - it has started after a drought of ten years.

This newest financial crisis will no doubt spur things on a bit more.

As the learned Mr Westbury points out;

Yet recessions can be great times for low budget cultural initiatives. Space - the almost impossible to find holy grail of artists in the boom times - becomes relatively cheap and available. Higher levels of unemployment means that talent has more time to experiment and innovate and less temptation (or opportunity) to chase big bucks elsewhere. Large scale cultural production - with it’s expensive overheads and high costs - becomes relatively more difficult. Small scale production - which works best when there is a very high ratio of initiative and labour to expenses and overheads - benefits immensely from the rapidly falling costs.

Just look at what is happening post-Lanfranchi's; warehouses around Surry Hills, Redfern and Newtown are opening up, the brilliant Imperial Panda Festival is growing and the POPE license is finally dead. Space and talent are opening up.

Hopefully Federal and State Governments will follow the lead and stop constantly throwing money at photo opportunity funding initiatives and start supporting local artists and projects to give the industry more sustainability and a creative ecology.

For those of you with a taste for the larger budget productions, enjoy 09 because it will be the last for a while.

Which brings me to the whip-round of the performance calendar across Sydney...

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?

Spot the difference

Two states, two articles, same day;



Australian Financial Review - 4 June

Winners and losers in the NSW budget

LOSERS:

The Arts - No major announcements except for funding for expansion or
refurbishments of existing centres and facilities.


Australian Associated Press - 4 June

Flagship buildings win with $50 million boost to arts

By Gabrielle Dunlevy

BRISBANE, June 3 AAP - Queensland's flagship cultural facilities are
the main benefactors from a $50 million boost to the state's arts
budget.

The Bligh government will invest more than $259 million in the state's
arts sector in 2008-09, up from $209 million in the last financial
year.

The funding includes $34 million to finish a two-year refurbishment of
the Queensland Performing Arts Centre, and $118.4 million for other
flagship institutions, including the State Library of Queensland and
the Queensland Art Gallery.

"This budget is about continuing to foster an arts sector that is
sustainable and marketable, that has a local focus and an international
vision," he said.

And I repeat...

Couldn't give a stuff about the cultural life of our community...

It is totally getting out of hand.

But I suppose a small mercy is that at least you can play Keno with your kids, friends and family can't you?

Hiccup.

"Community gambling: Bringing people together"

CarriageWorks... Or will it?

I'm not so sure the NSW State Government is aware of what it has really done. In a disused old railway carriage works, a stone’s throw away from inner city Redfern, there is a bubbling... a simmering sound.

It’s the sound of anticipation by five performing arts companies and a community about to embark on a project with the potential to change the performing arts landscape of Sydney forever.

There are countless examples of venues throughout the world catering to a new and adventurous generation of artists. These converted warehouses, factories and old workshops become a thriving hub of creativity. But Sydney has never seen anything like it since the opening of the Sydney Opera House.

For thirty years, state government and council endorsed development and gentrification has replaced theatres and public spaces with high-density eyesores - an exercise that would seem to demonstrate exemplifies a scant regard for the cultural life of the city.

However, the opening of Carriageworks in the disused site of the old Eveleigh Street train workshops welcomes a marked departure from previous urban policies. It will suddenly bring to the table a vocal and highly creative team of companies ready to flush out the performing arts scene in Sydney.

With a soaring steel structure and a rustic interior honouring the ghosts of blacksmiths, boilermakers, and shop stewards, Carriageworks will launch in January hosting international dance performances as part of the Sydney Festival. Fergus Linehan, Artistic Director of the festival sees the government's establishment of Carriageworks "as a statement of confidence. It is throwing down the gauntlet to artists".

Potentially, Carriageworks can provide a hub for artists screaming out for a venue willing to support them. With rehearsal rooms, a gallery, bar, cafe and two large theatres, it is a prime space which will be able to house the ambitions of the diversely different resident companies. Over 11,000sq metres of space has been dedicated to these artists, so companies can perform and develop simultaneously.

The five companies taking the leap into the site include The Performance Space, which is the biggest and most established. They will move from their Cleveland Street premises to continue their work in performance, live art, installation and artist residencies. Fiona Winning, Director sees it as an opportunity to "explore a new architecture... and to be with peers to develop a bigger profile for this part of the arts."

Joining them is ERTH, a visual theatre company that uses large puppetry. For the first time, ERTH will have their workshop, office space and performance area all in the one locality. Artistic Director, Scott Wright, sees ERTH’s role in Carriageworks as "bring[ing] an energy and life to the space that will stop it from becoming just another administration centre".

Theatre Kantanka, a project based company is also moving premises to the railway yards. With co-artistic directors Michael Cohen and Carlos Gomes at the helm, they intend to advance their site specific, big scale theatrical experiences. With a history in using disused factories, Carriageworks will be perfect for their next production set on the backlot of a Bollywood Film set.

Stalker, the fourth company entering the fray, produces the works of its co-artistic directors David Clarkson and Rachael Swain as well as the projects of the intercultural company Marrugeku, a collaboration with traditional and contemporary Indigenous artists. Interestingly, Stalker has a strong connection with the European market with 'acrobatic architecture fusion' events which have never been seen before in Australia. Annette Madden, the company spokesperson believes their new home "will provide a local home for the display of their work".

Of the fifth company, Gravity Feed, it is believed the ensemble of seven men will continue to explore their architectural performance theatre which relies heavily on expansive installation. It will again see Carriageworks used to its fullest potential.

Scott Wright of ERTH calls it "a big playground." Indeed, each of the companies are preparing to interact with the local communities en masse with collaborations, workshops, talks, forums and school holiday events. Along with a programme of live music, spoken word, physical theatre, contemporary dance, visual and multimedia art it will be a huge injection into the cultural life of the local community. Wright even predicts "Carriageworks is going to be the perfect place for Sydney to finally have a good fringe festival... a hub which can bleed over to all those venues in Newtown."

The price of Carriageworks on a scale of arts funding isn’t small. The NSW State Government has committed $49 million to the creation of this world-class venue. Out of a total $265 million spent on the arts portfolio as a whole in 2004-05, it appears to be an extremely large investment.

The big challenge for the new administrative team led by Sue Hunt is to make Carriageworks work economically. By launching this venue, the NSW State Government is over-seeing the creation of an epic project which will be a litmus test for future government arts policy. The financial success of the venue is relying on the commercial rent of 6840sq metres. By sitting somewhere in the grey area of government funding and the private sector, will Carriageworks provide a benchmark for the workings of future cultural venues around Australia?

Fiona Winning points out that there are no "examples internationally where a centre has been able to support itself without recurrent funding". Indeed, "there are examples all over Australia and all over the world where a government has erected a building and it has cost a lot more to run the building than anyone had thought".

As the opening gets closer, some important issues are still outstanding. It was only in June this year that ArtsNSW appointed Sue Hunt as General Manager, with very little time to establish the workings of the space. The rent for the spaces hasn’t been established, to date contracts with the resident companies haven’t been signed and storage space is a looming issue.

There is also disappointment resident companies won’t assist in the opening of the venue. One person who asked not to be identified commented that the opening of the site on January 5 will have an element of "the old cultural cringe" to it. Everyone will be there for the cutting of the ribbon, then they will go off to the Sydney Festival international events and the resident companies will all go home.

The Sydney Festival can’t be blamed. Their role isn’t in the production of events but in their presentation. Indeed all credit must go to Linehan who has secured an exciting programme of events including the UK's Akram Khan's Zero Degrees, the Australian Dance Theatre from Adelaide and two pieces by Israel's Batsheva Dance Company.

It will be vital the State Government guarantees that the $49 million it has set aside for the venue is not wasted and continued support of the venue provides for its original intention - to showcase the very best and most exciting performing arts venue in the city. With a state election looming and the retirement of Arts Minister Bob Debus in March, it is imperative both sides of the political spectrum commit to its vital role in the cultural life of Australia's biggest city.