ACT Government commits $21.6m to arts, but industry cries foul

Photo: ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr, member for Ginninderra Tara Cheyne and ACT Arts Minister Gordon Ramsay at the Belconnen Arts Centre (Rohan Thomson for the Canberra Times)

The ACT Government has announced that the Canberra arts sector will get a $21.6 million package in the 2017-18 Budget.

The idea is to make the sector more vibrant, and provide it with better community facilities and services, said Minister for the Arts and Community Events Gordon Ramsay.

The Minister said the $21.6 million package in the 2017-18 Budget will support the Government’s vision for a more vibrant Canberra, with better community facilities and services in the Arts sector. 

“The Government’s investment in this year’s Budget will cover five key areas, improving the arts infrastructure right across the city as well as Government support for arts events such as Art Not Apart,” Ramsay said.

“We are committed to supporting and sustaining the arts in Canberra. We will ensure our arts facilities can meet community needs both now and well into the future, which is why a significant portion of the funding we’ve allocated will go towards improvement works at various centres across the Territory.

“We know the vital role the arts play in offering an outlet for creative expression for people from all walks of life. They significantly add to the vibrancy and liveability of Canberra.”

Belconnen Arts Centre gets $15 million over three years to expand spaces for performance and exhibition and new dance studios. 

Five arts centres will be upgraded, with special funding for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, and new funding for Kulture Break, the Australian National University’s new Advanced Music Performance Program and new pop-up arts events. 

But the Canberra Arts Action Group, made up of 160 artists and musicians, says the sector has been betrayed.

Its founder, composer Michael Sollis, says that last year the ACT Government had last December cut 66% of the project fund component of the ACT Arts Fund. After an outcry, $248,000 in funding was returned.

He said, “It’s a sleight of hand. The Government took half a million dollars out of the Budget, put it back in, and [is] claiming it is an increase when it’s not.”

Sollis challenged the Government to be more transparent and to keep to its election promise of adding $500,000 of project funding in addition to the level at the time of $728,418.

The Minister responded that in previous years, project funding was made up of $250,000 a year, and with whatever was unused or saved from the previous year. There were no savings in 2016.

But this Budget, he said, boosted the base funding from $250,000 to $750,000.

He planned to have more consultation with the sector over the coming months.