Ever since a group of Perth artists and arts supporters realised their local government council – one of the largest in WA – had accepted a public artwork as a gift from an international artist while neglecting the repair of a historically significant one by a local artist, questions have been swirling around the strength of its commitment to its local arts community.
After months of outrage over these public art decisions, local campaigners working under the moniker Save The Kebab have mounted a fresh investigation into the City of Perth’s public art spending, hoping to verify concerns they have around its reallocation of arts funding.
City of Perth arts funding – quick links
As Save The Kebab spokesperson Helen Curtis explains, ‘We have found evidence that in its 2024-25 budget, the City of Perth reallocated more than $1.3 million from the established art reserves – transferring the money into general surplus.
‘These reserves go towards supporting the legacy of the City of Perth art collections which are publicly owned assets,’ she continues.
‘These reserves have all been zeroed out, which essentially means the City is not planning important conservation work or is planning any strategic art acquisitions.’
Curtis says Save The Kebab campaigners’ believe these practices are irresponsible actions which do not uphold the values of the City in its role as a collecting institution.
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‘The good practices that have been established by the City are being demonstrably unwound with its art reserves now standing at zero dollars,’ she comments.
‘The City also says its reserve funds can be transferred if they’re not used. But we [campaigners] wonder if its art reserves have been intentionally neglected by the City, giving them cause to reallocate them in last year’s budget.’
In response, Save The Kebab campaigners contend there were indeed some important reasons to spend at least some of these reserve funds in recent years, as several major City of Perth public artworks have needed repairs, but have instead been neglected and left in storage. (Curtis cites the City’s historic Ore Obelisk sculpture, and the more contemporary installation The Arch by Lorenna Grant, as two artworks which could have benefitted from the funds.)
The cost of investigating local government arts spending
Central to Save The Kebab’s mission to expose what they see as the council’s dubious defunding is a Freedom of Information (FOI) application to show the paper-trail which documents the how, why and when behind its budget reallocations.
Save The Kebab has requested access to 131 documents (621 pages) from City of Perth in a retrieval process a council spokesperson describes as a ‘complex enquiry’ made in March 2025 with additional correspondence with the applicants continuing over 5 month period (until 5 September).
But from the campaigner’s point of view, their FOI request has taken far too long to process and once complete, it will come with a price tag they see as prohibitive and unfair.
‘The cost estimate we have received from City of Perth to access the 131 documents we have requested is $957.50,’ Curtis tells ArtsHub.
City of Perth told ArtsHub this cost is ‘reflective of the time spent by the City to process these documents which will require around 35 hours City time – charged at $30 per hour,’ adding that its quoted fee ‘does not reflect the hundreds of hours already spent on this request’.
Crowdfunding needed to shine light on council’s arts spending decisions
In the face of the steep costs required to access their FOI request information, Save the Kebab is running a crowdsourced fundraising campaign to raise the $957.50 they need.
If and when they can retrieve the information, the group says it will be publicly published for the community to see.
‘Perth ratepayers deserve transparency, due process, and quality outcomes,’ Curtis tells ArtsHub.
‘Our FOI request is really about verifying our concern around the council’s decision not to use its art reserves funds in any significant way since 2020, and its stripping away of those funds in last year’s budget.
‘Because those actions show the council’s disregard of its arts and cultural program, and this has major implications for the life of our city more broadly,’ Curtis continues.
‘What the council can’t seem to see at the moment is how much value the arts add to its community on so many levels that are beyond the value of the artworks themselves – to things like community safety, social tolerance and economic activity.
‘So to see its art division being willfully neglected and stripped of resources is a shocking disservice,’ she concludes.
