Coronavirus: $75m to help arts producers RISE up
The $75m restart program for producers will encourage new ways of entertaining audiences.
Producers of musicals, festivals and other events will be encouraged to find innovative ways to connect with audiences during the pandemic in a $75m federal “restart” program intended to boost activity and employment in the creative sector.
Arts Minister Paul Fletcher on Tuesday will release guidelines for the restart investment to sustain and expand (RISE) grants to help producers adapt in a COVID-safe environment.
Applications for the RISE fund, and for a $35m arts sustainability fund for at-risk subsidised companies, will open on August 31 but grants are not likely to be awarded until late October.
The two measures are part of an overall $250m rescue package for the creative industries announced in June.
Producers across the country have been forced to cancel hundreds of performances since theatres and other venues went into lockdown in March.
The nation’s biggest subsidised performing arts company, Opera Australia, estimates it has lost $75m in ticket revenue from cancelled performances.
The RISE program offers grants of between $75,000 and $2m to help companies present performances, exhibitions and tours in a COVID-safe environment, or help them shift to online delivery.
Funded projects should “be of a nature that is likely to be popular with Australian audiences”, among other criteria.
Mr Fletcher will approve the grants after recommendations from his department and advice from a creative economy taskforce yet to be appointed.
The sustainability fund has ben positioned as a “last resort” for commonwealth-supported companies at risk of insolvency because of the lockdown.
It recognises that companies will have made efforts to cut costs and use their reserves.
The creative economy support package includes $90m in government-backed loans and $50m to help screen producers secure finance necessary to restart production.
Details of those packages are yet to be announced.
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