The State of the Arts in Western Sydney report was launched today (16 March 2023) with a call-out for the region to be ‘given a fair share of arts and cultural funding’.
It shows the data is staggeringly askew. Western Sydney represents 10% of Australians today (and is home to 50% of Sydney’s residents) – and is on a sharp growth trajectory expecting to reach a population of 3.4 million people by 2041 – and yet the region only received 3.4% of Federal funds between 2015 and 2023, while Eastern Sydney received 23% comparatively. The same story is echoed across state funding data, presented by the report.
