September and the arrival of spring is often associated with the new, the chance to refresh. After the demands of the months of winter this year that were associated with our campaign at Regional Arts NSW to get more dollars into Create NSW funding, the advent of spring has brought with it a mixture of feelings: achievement that our arts advocacy made a difference, excitement as we plan new programs of work, and perhaps most prominent of all, relief that the Minister for the Arts found so much more than expected to support 2-year funding outcomes, including funding of our program at Regional Arts NSW.
However, despite the improvements to the funding allocations, not all is well in the arts. In the last couple of weeks, I have been advising and supporting some of those organisations that didn’t make it through the funding rounds. I have been helping organisations with constitutional issues and restructures. I have been talking to those that got less than needed about how to cut back on their programs, putting holes in their aspirations. These struggles leave me wondering what the future looks like for our arts sector. Are we grappling with the need to find new ways of being viable?
How did we become a society where we all need to fend for ourselves? Call me old fashioned, but I still believe in the value of collective response. I believe in government responsibility for making our world a better place. However, talk and high-minded principles won’t do this without the backing of cold hard cash. We have watched our governments fail over decades to address their own income levels through mechanisms such as tax, to the point where it has become increasingly difficult for them to service not only the arts, but a wide range of services and industries.
We obviously don’t have the answers for how to turn our sector into a more viable alternative. Do we aim for greater collective responsibility, or do we turn to being rescued through philanthropic investment in our work? Do we work to become more hard-nosed about increasing our earned income? Or do we aim to press reset on the way our sector can care for one another.
There’s a strong smell of oily rags across the arts sector. In regional arts we’re pretty adept at running on them. But sooner or later it’s not going to work anymore. As spring kicks in, maybe it’s time we found a way to apply some well-thought through approaches to renewal.
– Dr Tracey Callinan OAM, CEO of Regional Arts NSW