Tasmanian taxpayers chip in $15m to build UTAS arts academy

THE State Government will chip in the extra $15 million needed to build a UTas creative and performing arts academy in Hobart.

University of Tasmania Creative Industries and Performing Arts Development Director Professor Steve Loo, Thursday, October 15, 2015:The strength of the creative industries and performing arts development, co-located with the Theatre Royal, is that it delivers for both the University and the State Government. This project would not only be a significant new educational and research hub, but provide critical enhancements to the theatre including new foyers, better access for people with a disability, beautiful public spaces, as well as a new Studio Theatre, which will be an exciting performance space for the State.

THE State Government will chip in the extra $15 million needed to build a University of Tasmania creative and performing arts academy in Hobart.

The funding boost replaces a controversial proposal for UTas to gain ownership of the Hobart TasTAFE building and to hand the Hunter St Art School to the Crown, to cover a budget shortfall in the $90 million project.

The new arrangement will also involve the transfer of Crown land next to IMAS at Taroona to the university.

Announcing the agreement this morning, Premier Will Hodgman said the Government had found the extra $15 million in the state budget.

“It’s one of the advantages of coming back into surplus and getting a budget back under control, you can reinvest the dividends in a variety of ways,” Mr Hodgman said.

Mr Hodgman said the Academy of Creative Industries and Performing Arts was one of the most exciting projects on the cards in Tasmania and would be a massive boost to the economy and the state’s creative industries.

“It’s an opportunity way too good to let slip,” he said.

Mr Hodgman said the project would create 280 jobs in the construction phase and 58 ongoing jobs.

Construction is now due to begin in May and to be completed in 2018.

University Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Rathjen said the extra funding was not a bailout of the project, but a partnership.

The Government has a stake in the project as it provides an extension to the Theatre Royal.

“The state owns space in the building and the university owns space in the building, the state has paid for its share of the space and we have paid for our share of space ... It’s a genuine partnership, not a sense in which the university has been bailed out,” he said.

The Academy of Creative and Performing Arts on vacant land next to the Theatre Royal was announced almost three and a half years ago, but the site remains empty.

It was funded by $60 million from UTas, $37 million from the Federal Government and $15 million, now $30 million, from the State Government.