When WA votes on March 9, VOTE ARTS. So says Country Arts WA in a campaign launched on January 21 in a pitch to all parties to commit to long-term investment in the arts across regional Western Australia. ‘We are at a pivotal time with the upcoming election,’ Country Arts WA CEO Jessica Machin said in a statement. ‘Without public and tangible commitments from the Western Australian leaders right now, our regional towns risk losing their liveability.’
VOTE ARTS extends a campaign that began in May 2012 with Country Arts WA’s 2020Nine Manifesto that detailed the kinds of partnerships, policies and planning needed to create a cultural core in regional towns to take them through the boom times and beyond. In a public show of good will and good faith, representatives of the four major parties accepted the manifesto on the steps of Parliament from the chair of Country Arts WA’s board of management Suzie Haslehurst.
