Creative Partnerships is an organisation still in it infancy. It was formed following a merger between the Australia Business Arts Foundation (AbaF) and Artsupport early last year and is mandated to lead models of new investment in the arts.
After a comprehensive review, the decision was made to shut the offices in South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT and instead consolidate operations into five regional offices. As a result five positions and four staff members have been made redundant.
CEO Fiona Menzies, still in her first year at the helm of a new organisation, acknowledges that the changes affect individuals significantly but stresses that services will not falter in the states where offices have closed.
‘My primary focus in implementing the restructure has very much been the staff and their needs and having clear communications with them as well as other key stakeholders, so that everybody has the right information and is treated very respectfully,’ she told ArtsHub.
‘I can’t emphasis more strongly that we have a national remit and that we will continue to provide services and programs throughout the country including in the states and territories that don’t have an office on the ground. There is absolutely no question that they will be receiving the same access to our organisation as everyone else.’
This is a sentiment not felt by government arts organisations in the states affected by the closures.
Katherine Hough, the Director of Arts Tasmania said the organisation was disappointed by the closure of the Tasmania office and worried that it will negatively impact programs and services for Tasmanian artists.
Arts Tasmania had a strong mutually beneficial partnership with the former AbaF organisation that was ongoing for more than a decade, and the Tasmanian Government invested $673,000 in AbaF’s Tasmanian services over that period.
