Minister for the Arts refuses to a meet group of 60 arts representatives in Canberra to debate funding reforms.

It’s been a difficult week for Senator George Brandis. The Attorney General and Minister for the Arts is due to be the subject to no less than two Senate inquiries, to investigate mishandling of aspects of the Sydney siege, and explore why the Minister announced one of the most controversial arts funding reforms in Australia’s political history without any consultation with the arts sector. One might think that Senator Brandis would be keen to build bridges considering the scrutiny and personal ridicule that recent lobbying and protesting has brought upon him. However despite being invited to meet with a delegation of over 60 artists and creative professionals from across Australia in Canberra yesterday, Senator Brandis refused to attend and failed to even send a Government representative in his stead.

The delegation did however meet with Shadow Minister for the Arts Mark Dreyfus, whose lobbying of the Senate saw the passing of a motion earlier this week to begin the inquiry into the funding reforms imposed in the Federal Budget. This will  include Senator Brandis’ controversial Programme for Excellence in the Arts, founded using almost $105 million syphoned from the Australia Council. A number of other Labor and Greens MPs also attended the day of meetings to discuss the damaging impact of the changes in arts funding, including Jacinta Collins, Andrew Giles, Tim Watts, Graham Perrett, Melissa Parke and Scott Ludlam. Among the high profile arts figures at the meeting were novelist Hannah Kent, Simeon Moran the Executive Producer of Ilbijerri, intermedia artist and cultural lecturer David Pledger, the Australian Art Orchestra’s Peter Knight, Todd MacDonald of La Boîte, and the Australian Music Centre’s CEO John Davis. 

While Senator Brandis did not attend the meeting, delegates were able to share their concerns and frustrations with the Members of Parliament, who in turn echoed their understanding of the need to reverse the Arts Minister’s proposed changes. However, insult was added to injury for the delegation, who mainly represented the small to medium scale organisations who are considered to be the most detrimentally effected by restructuring of arts funding, when in Senate Question Time Senator Brandis revealed he had met with representatives from AMPAG, the umbrella organisation representing the 28 major performing arts companies in Australia. Funding to AMPAG organisations will be “ring-fenced” under the new funding paradigm, protecting these organisations from the financial hardships that threaten to cripple many smaller companies across the country.

Resentment toward AMPAG organisations, which includes the nation’s most heavily tax-payer subsidised companies such as Opera Australia, Australian Ballet and Sydney Theatre Company, has been growing in recent weeks among many in the Australian arts community due to the lack of support for the Free the Arts protest movement shown by the 28 majors. So significant is the divide now between the small-to-mid scaled sector and AMPAG that a protest rally against AMPAG’s silence over the funding reforms, organised by the Free the Arts movement, has been planned for June 24. It is due to take place in front of the Sydney Opera House, timed to coincide with the opening night of Opera Australia’s production of Turandot.

In an apparent bid to appease Free the Arts, a statement jointly issued yesterday by AMPAG Chair John Irving and AMPAG Executive Director Bethwyn Serow sought to show solidarity with those protesting against funding reforms. “The artistic value and contribution of the small to medium arts organisations and independent artists is significant, but their ongoing existence is fragile. The MPA [Major Performing Arts] companies have a significant role to develop artists and the art form, and we recognise that our own work and our own long-term vibrancy is entwined with and impacted by the overall health and vibrancy of the broader arts ecosystem,” the statement said. However, in what has been viewed as a lack of commitment to opposing the controversial new funding restructuring, the statement continued, “We do know the NPEA [National Programme for Excellence in the Arts] will be open to applicants from across the arts sector. We do not yet know how the NPEA will work, but its focus on endowments, international engagement and strategic initiatives is, on face value, one that would benefit the sector as a whole.”

The statement has done little to convince many within the Free the Arts movement, and the rally to protest AMPAG’s complicity with the Federal Budget is still planned for next Wednesday. Acclaimed percussionist and Vice President of the New Music Network, Claire Edwardes, who was among the 60 arts sector delegates who met in Canberra yesterday said of the AMPAG statement, “It was certainly a long time in the making. Whilst it was agreed by members of the delegation that something was no doubt better than nothing, this equivocal statement left many of us feeling frustrated by the continued fence sitting that AMPAG is obviously being forced to do.”

She continued, “It is believed that various members of AMPAG have been gagged by Brandis, and our sector (supported by our masses of audiences, colleagues in the majors and supporters) will be fighting hard in the lead up to the Senate inquiry to right these wrongs. The message is that everyone who cares about this subject must send in a submission to the Senate – the more the better and the more creative the better!”

With this in mind next week protest rally will feature a musical flash mob “to celebrate the power of music and the vitality of the small to medium arts sector,” and a “chorus” of masked participants will represent the “ghosts of Australia’s artistic future.”

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