Fighting on in the shadow of Black Friday

Tenacious arts companies are hanging on but six months after the loss of Australia Council funding the sector has been forced through a massive re-calibration.
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Friday 13 May 2016 was a dark day for the Australian arts sector. Following the 2015 raid on the Australia Council for the Arts by then Arts Minister Senator Brandis, we all knew that Council, now operating with a significantly diminished budget, would have to make cuts somewhere in its funding programs – but the result was worse than expected.

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Richard Watts is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM, and serves as the Chair of La Mama Theatre's volunteer Committee of Management. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, and was awarded the status of Melbourne Fringe Living Legend in 2017. In 2020 he was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize. Most recently, Richard was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Green Room Awards Association in June 2021. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts