Funding blow for small companies as lockdown bites

Amy Hollingsworth of Australasian Dance Collective... “disappointed”

The newly relaunched Australasian Dance Collective, Melbourne institution La Mama and Australian Theatre for Young People are among the casualties in a critical funding round from the Australia Council, made in the shadow of sector-wide devastation due to COVID-19.

The Australia Council has taken the unusual step of offering a lifeline to 49 organisations that missed out in the Four Year Funding for Organisations grant round, announced on Friday, to help them through the lockdown period.

All companies, including the 95 successful ones, will go into next year on reduced grants in a “transitional” year given the extraordinary circumstances of COVID-19.

The successful and unsuccessful companies are listed below.

No additional federal funding has come to the Australia Council, but Arts Minister Paul Fletcher said support is available to arts companies battered by the impact of coronavirus, through the $130 billion JobKeeper wage subsidy.

He said “billions” from that package would flow to artists and arts workers given the size of the overall creative sector.

Asked whether a special assistance package was coming, Mr Fletcher said: “We believe that JobKeeper has delivered very significant funding into the sector. We will continue to keep the circumstances of the arts sector under close and careful review.”

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The Australia Council has increased the pool of funds for the FYFO program by $3m to $31.7m, with fewer organisations to receive larger grants of $100,000 to $500,000 from 2022.

Successful companies include Adelaide’s ActNow Theatre for Social Change, literary publisher Giramondo, Skinnyfish Music, and the Unconformity festival in northwest Tasmania.

Unsuccessful companies were “gutted” at news of the funding outcome, and even those who were quietly celebrating were distressed at the impact on the whole sector.

Among the disappointed companies is Brisbane’s Australasian Dance Collective, formerly known as Expressions Dance Company, that recently relaunched under artistic director Amy Hollingsworth.

“We will pour every ounce of our artistic energy into making sure this company thrives,” Hollingsworth said, adding that she was grateful for the transitional funding arrangements.

Sydney-based physical theatre group Force Majeure has returned to the security of multi-year funding after it was “defunded” in 2016.

Executive producer Colm O’Callaghan was “over the moon” but said the impact of funding cuts to the Australia Council had created an unfairly competitive environment.

“We are seeing the consequences of the federal government not increasing funding for the small to medium sector,” he said. “So many companies merit funding, but they are not getting through because of this Hunger Games scenario where it’s just too competitive. Really, the biggest losers are the Australian public.”

Nicole Beyer of Theatre Network Australia, another of the successful organisations, said there was “shock and devastation” across the sector.

She said the transitional funding offered by the Australia Council — in which all companies will receive 70 per cent of their grant income for one year — was a reasonable outcome.

“But it does not take away from the pain that everyone is feeling,” she said. “So many incredible organisations have lost their four-year funding.”

She added that groups working with young people — including ATYP, Barking Gecko, Polyglot Puppet Theatre, St Martin’s Youth Arts Centre and Restless Dance Theatre — were inexplicably among the companies that missed out.

Beyer had predicted a loss of about 30 companies from the FYFO cohort unless an additional $7m could be found.

The group has been downsized from 145 companies prior to 2016, to 124 companies in 2017-20, to 95 in the newly announced round.

Australia Council chief executive Adrian Collette said the agency had recalibrated the grant program in light of the COVID-19 crisis, as it would be “extremely tough” for unsuccessful companies without the transition support.

He said the Australia Council continues to be in contact with the Minister’s office and the Office for the Arts as the sector grapples with cancelled productions and lost livelihoods.

The peak funding agency would need to make a “cogent case” to government for specific additional support if there were gaps in the sector not covered by the JobKeeper package, he said.

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Successful companies

The 95 successful companies in the Four Year Funding for Organisations grant round, 2021-24. In 2021, the companies will receive 70 per cent of their approved annual grant in order to support the unsuccessful companies through a transition year.

ActNow Theatre for Social Change; Ananguku Arts & Cultural Aboriginal Corporation; Arnhem, Northern and Kimberley Artists Aboriginal Corporation (ANKA); Artback NT; Arts Access Society; Arts House (City of Melbourne); Artspace Visual Arts Centre; Asian Australian Artists Association; Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA); Australian Art Orchestra; Australian Centre for Contemporary Art; Australian Children’s Performing Arts Company (Windmill); Australian Dance Theatre; Australian Music Centre; Australian Network for Art and Technology (ANAT); Australian Publishers Association; Australian String Quartet; Back to Back Theatre; Barkly Regional Arts; Biennale of Sydney; BlakDance Australia; Brisbane Community Arts Centre; Broome Aboriginal Media Association; Cairns Indigenous Art Fair; Canberra International Music Festival; Carriageworks; Chunky Move; Community Arts Network Western Australia; Contemporary Art Tasmania; Contemporary Asian Australian Performance; ACE Open; Corrugated Iron Youth Arts; Craft ACT: Craft and Design Centre; Crossroad Arts; Curious Works; DADAA; Dance North; Dancehouse; Darwin Community Arts; Desart; Design Tasmania; Diversity Arts Australia; Eleanor Dark Foundation; Emerging Writers’ Festival; First Nations Australia Writers Network; Firstdraft; Footscray Community Arts Centre; Force Majeure; Gertrude Contemporary; Giramondo Publishing; Griffin Theatre; Griffith Review; Ilbijerri Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Theatre; New Musicals Australia & Hayes Theatre Co; Insite Arts International; Institute of Modern Art; JamFactory Contemporary Craft & Design; KickArts Contemporary Arts; Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Culture Centre; Koorie Heritage Trust; La Boite Theatre; Lucy Guerin Inc; Magabala Books; Marrugeku; Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio; Melbourne Jazz; Moogahlin Performing Arts; Multicultural Arts Victoria; MusicNT; Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Women’s Council; Northern Rivers Performing Arts; NT Writers Centre; Outer Urban Projects; Patch Theatre Company; Performing Lines; Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts; Powerhouse Youth Theatre; PVI Collective; Quandamooka Yoolooburrabee; Queensland Music Network; Sharing Stories Foundation; Skinnyfish Music; Speak Percussion; Terrapin Puppet Theatre; The Performance Space; The Red Room; The Substation; The Unconformity; Theatre Network Australia; Tura New Music; University of Queensland Press; Warburton Youth Arts Centre; Watch This Space; Western Edge Youth Arts; Yirra Yaakin.

Unsuccessful companies

The 49 companies that were previously funded in the FYFO grant program, but were not successful this time, will receive transitional funding at 70 per cent for one additional year, until the end of 2021.

Art Gallery of South Australia; Art Monthly Australia; Artlink Australia; Arts Access Australia; Australian Book Review; Australian Script Centre; Australian Theatre for Young People; Barking Gecko Theatre Company; Beyond Empathy; Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory; Branch Nebula; Brisbane Writers Festival; Brown’s Mart; Campbelltown Arts Centre; Canberra Glassworks; Country Arts SA; Crafts Council of Victoria; Creative Recovery Network; Cultural Development Network; Electronic Music Conference; Ensemble Offspring; Expressions (Australasian Dance Collective); Eyeline Publishing; Feral Arts; HotHouse Theatre; Information and Cultural Exchange; Kickstart Arts; La Mama; Liquid Architecture; Museum of Contemporary Art; Overland; Performing Arts Centre Society (Blue Room Theatre); PlayWriting Australia; Polyglot Puppet Theatre; Queensland Art Gallery; Restless Dance Theatre; Salamanca Arts Centre; Shaun Parker & Company; Shopfront Theatre for Young People; Somebody’s Daughter Theatre Company; St Martins Youth Arts Centre; Sydney Writers Festival; Tasdance; The Song Company; Tracks; Umi Arts; University of Western Sydney (Writing and Society Research Centre); Urban Theatre Projects; West Space.