Arts SA, Westpac freeze funding to embattled APY Art Centre Collective, pending probe

Westpac and Arts SA have put funding on ice pending a wide-ranging investigation into the embattled Indigenous collective.

General manager Skye O'Meara has steadfastly refused to step aside, and the APYACC board has declined to intervene. Picture: Brett Hartwig

A pair of key benefactors of the APY Art Centre Collective, the Westpac Foundation and Arts South Australia, have put their funding of the embattled Aboriginal arts organisation on ice while an investigation is held into the behaviour of its management.

The two patrons had supported the Adelaide-headquartered commercial gallery with $380,000 a year in grants. Arts SA had been giving $280,000 a year to the APYACC while the Westpac Foundation had granted it $450,000 over the past four years, including $50,000 to general manager Skye O’Meara for a fellowship grant, which she used to visit arts centres here and overseas.

A new sponsorship deal between the bank and the APYACC was supposed to be signed in June, but a Westpac spokesman said all future funding was “now on hold”.

It is believed the bank took this decision several months ago after claims were first raised in The Australian, by both Indigenous artists and studio staff, that white studio staffers had painted substantial sections of Indigenous canvases, supposedly to make the art more commercially viable.

“The most recent grant commenced in May 2022 and expired last month,” a Westpac spokesman said. “No decisions have been made about future funding.”

In a statement, the collective’s board said: “APYACC’s three-year funding agreement with Westpac Foundation concludes in July this year, in accordance with its original terms agreed in 2020. It is simply incorrect to suggest this funding has been put on hold.”

SA Arts Minister Andrea Michaels with NGA director Nick Mitzevich, APYACC board member Sally Scales and Wynne Prize winner Zaacariah Fielding at the centre's Adelaide studio.

SA Arts Minister Andrea Michaels said she “remains concerned about the allegations concerning the APY Arts Centre Collective and we continue to work diligently on finishing the terms of reference and appointing a panel to lead our review, having regard to cultural sensitivities”.

“We need to have the right ­people in place to manage this with the utmost respect and sensitivity,” she said. “No funding has been provided to APYACC since the allegations were raised.”

The SA government, backed by the Northern Territory and federal government, is about to conduct a wide-ranging investigation into management of the organisation, which follows a probe by the National Gallery of Australia into the provenance of paintings produced in APYACC studios.

Many industry figures have been warning for months that the only way the collective could survive – after allegations of unethical practices, bullying, coercive control and fraud were exposed by The Australian – was under fresh management.

Industry figures said the sector would ensure the APYACC-aligned arts centres in the remote APY Lands, and their artists, would be supported.

“The arts centres on the lands will all survive, they’ll go on,” an industry figure said.

“But it’s difficult to see how the collective can make it through while Skye remains at the helm. If she’d gone earlier, I don’t think they’d be in the trouble they are now.”

Ms O’Meara has steadfastly refused to step aside, and the APYACC board has declined to intervene, even after the four peak bodies, representing every Indigenous art centre in NT, SA and Western Australia, and many thousands of artists, called on her and the senior management to do so for the good of her organisation and the sector.

An APYACC spokeswoman said the “management continues to hold the full support of the APYACC board.”

News of the funding freeze comes after the arts organisation suffered a devastating blow last week when it was revealed by The Australian that the Indigenous Art Code (IartC), the sector’s ethical watchdog, had terminated APYACC membership after an investigation by IartC uncovered alleged unethical practices.

“In accordance with IartC‘s constitution, APYACC was provided with a notice setting out the substance of information known to the directors about a number of matters of concern,” a spokeswoman for IartC told The Australian.

The APYACC had also applied to the Australia Council for the Arts for a $1.12m grant over four years, to begin in 2025.

APYACC general manager Skye O'Meara received $50,000 which she used to visit arts centres in Australia and overseas.