Carriageworks deficits don’t dim its cultural mission

Sydney’s arts precinct, Carriageworks, has posted four successive deficits since registered as a charity in 2012.

Carriageworks director Lisa Havilah with some of the cast of Urban Theatre Projects’ Simple Infinity. Picture: Jane Dempster

Inner Sydney’s emerging arts precinct, Carriageworks, has posted four successive deficits since it was registered as a charity in 2012 and eroded its reserves by 87 per cent.

The former railyard, a 929sq m theatre and gallery conversion, had $704,000 in the bank in January 2012 but by the end of last year it had just $84,000. The deficit for calendar year 2015 was $221,000, down slightly from the $269,000 loss reported in 2014.

Artistic director Lisa Havilah says the figures in the company’s annual report reveal a start-up that has been building its business and profile.

“Investment in our artistic program more than tripled over those four years, it was a strategy of investing in our growth and not something we will be continuing,” she says.

Havilah says sponsorship and philanthropic income this year will increase from $222,000 earned last year. Other new income will come from the NSW government, which late last year upped Carriageworks’ annual grant by $1 million to $2.5m and elevated its status to a state significant organisation, akin to the Museum of Contemporary Art.

The additional income will help the venue rebuild its reserves, Havilah says. “Our strategy is that we intended to grow our artistic program while growing the profile of Carriageworks, which then grows our commercial and entrepreneurial projects,” she says. “The revenue we earn we invest back into our artistic program.”

Founded by the NSW government in 2007, Carriageworks is a venue for hire to events including weekly food markets, the biennial fair Art Sydney and Australian Fashion Week but is a partner in all art exhibitions and perform­ances staged there.

In 2012 it spent $797,000 on programming and artists. By 2015 that figure nudged $4m, with 790,000 visitors during the year.

Income from performances fell slightly to $890,000 but commercial income from venue hire grew from $3m to $3.6m.

This year Carriageworks will be a partner on more than 12 world premieres, including Bjork’s virtual reality exhibition staged a month ago during Sydney’s Vivid Festival and two DJ sets that generated wildly divergent reviews.

Today, Urban Theatre Projects’ new “conversational” dance and classical music production featuring performers with mental health issues will open at Carriageworks. Simple Infinity includes new music by Liberty Kerr.

Havilah says: “Artists with a disability make a significant contribution to our artistic and cultural life.”