Can Virginia Trioli’s new show fix the ABC’s arts problem?

The ABC’s reputation as a home for strong arts and culture coverage is at a low ebb, with the broadcaster facing criticism for successive cuts to arts funding, culminating with the closure of its standalone arts department last year. So, a lot is riding on Virginia Trioli’s eagerly anticipated return to ABC TV this month, with a new, high-profile arts show.

Trioli’s program, Creative Types, is a six-part series featuring well-known creative Australians at the top of their game across various mediums, and a new addition for the ABC’s 2024 slate.

Airing on April 9, the show kicks off with author Trent Dalton, followed by episodes featuring choreographer and head of Sydney Dance Company Rafael Bonachela, actor Marta Dusseldorp, filmmaker Warwick Thornton, comedian Tom Gleeson and visual artist Patricia Piccinini.

Virginia Trioli and author Trent Dalton.

Rather than a straight interview series, in Creative Types other high-profile Australians weigh in on the artist featured, with Cate Blanchett on Thornton, and Kylie Minogue on Bonachela.

When our children are young, Trioli says, we prize their art, pinning it up on the fridge or at our desks. “We do that without hesitation because I think we just instinctively know that it’s that work that’s the window to who they really are... and their most expressive, creative selves.”

When they hit a certain age, she says, it’s enough of that and instead a focus on what they are going to study and career goals. The drive to create is a theme that emerged during all the interviews.

Despite the similarities in concept to existing ABC shows like Australian Story (which has recently begun airing more traditional one-on-one interviews, rather than more in-depth, documentary-style episodes) Trioli argues Creative Types is unique. She credits director Stamatia Maroupas and director of photography Josh Flavell for the vision, plus executive producer Jaya Balendra (formerly a producer of Art Nation/Artscape).

“It’s doing something very different [to Australian Story] - we’re staying close to the bones of that story of ‘what is creativity to you’,” Trioli says.

She won’t be drawn on comparisons between her new show and Fran Kelly’s Frankly, which also featured creative types being interviewed in a half-hour format on the ABC. It was axed after one season.

Namila Benson will host a new show for the ABC in 2024, called The Art Of.Credit: ABC

“I just don’t think you can compare them, they’re completely different. These are standalone documentaries, focusing on a particular creative Australian, and that was a talk show.”

Creative Types helps ensure the ABC meets its obligation to cover the arts, but Ben Eltham, lecturer in cultural and creative industries at Monash University, argues it’s not enough. There’s a place for interviews with artists, he says, but “what it misses is both the bigger picture and the specifics”.

He wants more issues-based arts programming on the ABC and argues the ABC it is deficient on industry news, cultural commentary and specialist content of that nature.

“It doesn’t seem like anyone at the top of the ABC considers the arts a core responsibility these days,” Eltham says, adding the push for reach has really affected their specialist programming choices.

Namila Benson’s weekly Art Works, launched in mid-2021, will not return this year. Instead, she will host a new weekly show called The Art Of, to air in the first half of this year.

Virginia Trioli and actor Marta Dusseldorp.

Creative Types is the first offering from Trioli since she retired from ABC Radio Melbourne in August last year. It’s taken a while to recalibrate, she says.

“Now, something inside me is sort of really stretching and I can think differently. And I’m out of that sort of that relentless sense of having to be connected to everything all the time,” she says.

The new program is something of a lifelong ambition for her, a self-professed arts obsessive. “Because all of these stories in the end relate back to our experience, whether it be comedy, or the extraordinary vision of Patricia Piccinini and how she sees a potential world and a very proximate world,” Trioli says.

She hopes viewers will “feel very inspired and hopeful for generations of creativity in this country”.

“Because there are people making beautiful and really moving and really remarkable things.”

Creative Types airs at 9pm on ABC and ABC Iview on April 9.

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