Even the winners have lost

Now that the dust has settled from the latest Australia Council organisations funding round, we can see the implications for the sector – and they’re grim.

24 Jun 2016 12:00

Richard Watts

Performing Arts

Stripped bare: funding cap leaves companies under-resourced. A scene from Australian Dance Theatre’s Habitus. Photo by Chris Herzfeld (Camlight Productions).

As ArtsHub reported in May, 65 organisations in total lost their Federal funding, of which 12 chose not to reapply in the given round. Another 53 applied for four-year funding and were refused.

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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