Grant failure ‘sparked rethink on funding’

The director of a music festival has admitted his organisation’s failure to secure an Australia Council grant helped trigger the funding crisis.

The executive director of a ­regional chamber music festival has admitted his organisation’s failure to secure an Australia Council grant helped trigger what has become a national arts funding crisis.

When Townsville’s Australian Festival of Chamber Music was last year refused multi-year organisational funding, and did not ­receive a $50,000 grant for its 25th anniversary event this year, the organisation lobbied Queensland senators Ian Macdonald and George Brandis, who was then arts minister.

Festival executive director Justin Ankus appeared before yesterday’s Senate hearing in Cairns to give evidence on the ­impact of commonwealth budget decisions on the arts.

“Our failure to secure Australia Council funding was in a limited way one of the catalysts for the proposed change in funding arrangements,” Mr Ankus said.

“It therefore seems appropriate to appear before this inquiry. We were initially reluctant to make a submission, as we were unhappy about being dragged unwillingly into the spotlight and did not wish to become a focus for discontent.”

In the budget the government announced the Australia Council would lose $105 million over four years, money largely redirected to an “Excellence” fund to be distributed at the arts minister’s discretion. The ­announcement took the industry by surprise and ­resulted in ­immediate funding cuts and job losses, the hearings have heard.

The draft guidelines for the new fund favour events such as festivals over individual artists and operational funding for smaller arts companies.

Mr Ankus said: “While we are agnostic about where funding comes from, it seems festivals are an uneasy fit for Australia Council funding.”

He said Australia Council’s peer-review system was flawed because his festival had insufficient peers to review it, and grant application time lines were disadvantaged it because its strength was last-minute ­programming.

He said the Australia Council accused the festival of lacking ­vision and yet it was forced to ­submit details of past programs because it could never be sure what future programs might hold. “We would welcome a more strategic, focused approach to the special needs of festivals, and stand ready to play our part in its development’” he said.

The hearings continue in ­Darwin on Thursday and Sydney next week. The guidelines for the Excellence program were due to be released a month ago but are now under review by new Arts Minister Mitch Fifield.