Australia’s arts industry is one of the many sectors financially struggling in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, and in this difficult time, the Australia Council for the Arts has announced that 114 organisations will be receiving a cut of $31.7 million worth of funding as part of their Four Year Funding for Organisations program.
The published list includes those who received funding from 2017 – 2020 and will continue to receive funding in 2021, as well as new fund recipients who will be granted funds from 2021 – 2024.
The revision to the funding list comes amidst coronavirus concerns, with the program increasing both the amount of funding and the number of organisations to recieve said funding.
Organisations to receive funding include Carriageworks, Sydney Writers Festival and the Melbourne International Jazz Festival, amongst others across many of Australia’s creative industries.
CEO Adrian Collette AM explained the strange yet critical situation the Council faces, with the official statement reading, “This is not business as usual for anyone, and arts organisations also will need to adapt in order to weather these unprecedented times.”
“When we embarked on this Four Year Funding process, it was a very different landscape for the sector, and indeed the world.”
Changes to the program include 28 new organisations to the 2021 onwards funding list, reducing the first year to approximately 70% to enable more organisations to receive support.
There were also some organisations removed from the list, Sydney Review of Books being one in the literary category.
“There’s no denying that this is a substantial blow to our plans for the coming years. We’ll regroup in the months ahead to plot a new path for the journal,” the organisation said.
The ACA’s announcement follows a number of other relief initiatives across different creative industries, including Support Act’s Emergency Relief Fund and Sound of Silence campaign.
More industry members have come forward with wonderfully creative initiatives to help those who need it due to the pandemic.
This includes, but is not limited to, a special edition of AusMusic T-Shirt Day, as well as our fave television network HBO making a bunch of TV shows and movies available for free.
