Syncopation and improvisation celebrated to the tune of $1.12 million

The Australian jazz and improvised music sectors have benefitted from recent RISE funding announcements, but will funds flow from festivals to the grassroots?

Two jazz festivals and an improvised music festival are among the recipients of the most recent round of Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) funding.

‘The next key step will be to offer support more directly to artists to ensure their continued survival and development beyond the pandemic, as they are very often the drivers behind the sector’s various organisations, festivals and other initiatives,’ he said.

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Richard Watts OAM is ArtsHub's former National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, a Melbourne Fringe Festival Living Legend, and was awarded the 2019 Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize in early 2020. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association in 2021, and a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Photo: Fiona Hamilton. Follow Richard on Bluesky @richardthewatts.bsky.social and Instagram @richard.l.watts