Creative State 2028, Victoria’s new cultural policy, was launched last week (1 December) and lays out the Allen Government’s vision for the arts and cultural sector for the next three years.
Creative State 2028 – quick links
A new cultural strategy for Victoria
The Creative State 2028 strategy aims to strengthen Victoria’s creative industries, support local talent, and increase access to culture, creative careers and experiences for the next generation.
Minister for Creative Industries Colin Brooks said: “Victoria’s creative industries inspire us, bring people together and strengthen our economy – from the stories and songs that shape how we see the world to the innovations that transform how we live and work.
“This strategy backs our creators and creative businesses to grow, lead and seize new opportunities, ensuring Victoria remains the creative state and a global powerhouse for talent, ideas and innovation.”
One of the key pillars of Creative State 2028 is First Peoples First, which is focused on First Peoples’ creative and cultural practice and economic development, and is guided by the First Peoples Directions Circle, a group of First Peoples leaders and professionals working across the creative industries, education, community and philanthropic sectors.
Initiatives include a new First Peoples-designed fund for First Peoples creative organisations, and grants for First Peoples creatives to practice, connect and tell their stories on Country.
The strategy also supports VicScreen’s work to grow the state’s screen industry across film, television, post-production, visual effects and digital games. Other elements build on existing programs for the music industry, the small-to-medium sector and independent creatives, and redesign regional investment and touring programs to strengthen creative opportunities across the state.
Unlike the Victorian Government’s inaugural creative industries strategy in 2011, which came with $115 million in new funds, Creative State 2028 does not provide monetary figures for its considerable list of new actions, nor does it include concrete timelines.
Creative State 2028: what initiatives are in the policy?
In the first year of the new strategy, the Victorian Government is promising to work with a range of creative partners to:
- Piloting a dedicated Regional and Outer-Metropolitan Creative Projects Fund for independent artists, in addition to the longstanding statewide program
- New initiatives to support the digital games industry, focusing on networking, career development, knowledge sharing, and seeding new Victorian games projects;
- Developing dedicated strategies for the literature and contemporary music sectors to harness opportunities and tackle the unique challenges facing these industries, including a state-wide Victorian Literature Strategy to leverage Melbourne’s status as a UNESCO City of Literature
- Increasing opportunities for young people to participate in creative activity as audiences, creators and leaders, including through a new Creative Industries Children and Young People Advisory Council, and boosting representation of young people on creative industries boards
As well as working with arts and cultural organisations across Victoria, the Creative State 2028 strategy aspires to expand an existing collaboration with the Department of Education, which will explore opportunities to upskill and inspire the next generation of artists and creative thinkers and to provide creative resources to teachers.
Additional partnerships will be established with Business Victoria, to provide training and resources for artists and creative workers to build sustainable careers; and with the Department of Treasury and Finance, in order to convene an industry roundtable on red tape to understand barriers to growth in the creative industries.
Creative State 2028 was developed in collaboration with the First Peoples Directions Circle and is designed to be flexible in order to respond to Victoria’s Treaty with First Peoples and future treaties.
The strategy aligns with other significant cultural policies, reviews and strategies including Revive, Australia’s national cultural policy, City of Melbourne’s Creative Strategy 2018-28, Victoria’s State Disability Plan, and similar strategies regarding First Peoples, young people, equity, access and social cohesion.
Creative State 2028 is further informed by statewide consultation with more than 1500 Victorians. The strategy can be downloaded from Creative Victoria’s website.
Responses from the arts sector
ArtsHub requested responses to Creative State 2028 from a range of national and state peak bodies. These responses are provided below.
National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA)
Penelope Benton, Executive Director of the National Association for the Visual Arts, tells ArtsHub: “The new policy presents some promising directions, but it stops short of committing investment or clear timelines, particularly for the visual arts sector. None of the first-year actions appear to be directed toward galleries, visual arts organisations or individual visual artists, and unlocking funding from Treasury will be the critical test.
Read: Visual arts in 2026: exhibitions & program announcements
Benton adds: “Across the sector, the capacity to support and remunerate artists and arts workers appropriately is increasingly compromised. Across the country, we are seeing a growing gap between cultural ambitions and the resources available to realise them. For this policy to deliver on its intent, it will need to be backed by meaningful investment.”
Theatre Network Australia (TNA)
Amrit Gill, CEO of Theatre Network Australia, says Creative State 2028, “signals important opportunities for Victoria’s performing arts sector, particularly through its emphasis on independent artists, small-to-medium companies, children and young people, regional communities, and diversity and equity. These are the engines of artistic innovation, workforce development and audience growth.
“As always, the detail will be in the implementation, and Theatre Network Australia looks forward to a transparent and genuinely consultative approach to the design of new initiatives and the refreshing of project grants for independent creatives. This investment is fundamental to the to the long-term sustainability of the creative industries and to ensuring Victoria continues to lead nationally as the Creative State.”
Public Galleries Association Victoria (PGAV)
According to Anne Robertson, Executive Officer of the Public Galleries Association Victoria: “The new strategy aligns closely with our own, particularly through its focus on First Nations first, demonstrating the sector’s impact through data, and strengthening cross-government partnerships.
“While the first-year actions highlight music, theatre and literature, there’s clear potential for the visual arts – particularly through education initiatives and the focus on regional and outer metropolitan areas.”
Robertson adds: “The main challenge now is unlocking funding for the creative industries from Treasury, which the Victorian Government appears to have recognised and is keen to address in collaboration with other states.”
Arts Industry Council of Victoria (AICV)
Speaking in her capacity as Co-Convenor of the Arts Industry Council of Victoria, Regional Arts Victoria’s CEO Jo Porter says: “The Arts Industry Council of Victoria particularly represents independent artists and creative organisations, including those that steward collections, and institutions that host and tour exhibitions and performances.
“We welcome the release of Creative State 2028, to which many of us contributed via submissions and involvement in consultations throughout Victoria during 2024.
“We also welcome the strategic commitments to equitable participation in arts and cultural activity for audiences and creators alike, and look forward to now hearing about how these initiatives will be resourced for the maximum benefit of our members and the sector at large.”
Ausdance Victoria
An Ausdance Victoria spokesperson said: “Creative State 2028 offers an aspirational vision for Victoria’s cultural future, articulating commendable commitments to First Peoples First, the creative rights of children and young people, and greater equity for the benefit of more communities including regional and outer suburban communities.
“From an Ausdance VIC perspective, these priorities resonate strongly with the evidence of need emerging from community-embedded dance practice, particularly the importance of place-based approaches that recognise the cultural, social and economic conditions shaping access to the arts and the need to hear youth and non-dominant voices.”
The spokesperson continued: “The document notes the rising operating costs, skills shortages, and workforce precarity that accurately reflect the systemic pressures facing the dance sector with independents, small-to-medium organisations and outer metropolitan studios being disproportionately affected by increasing rental, insurance, and compliance costs.
“However, while Creative State 2028 signals a strong understanding of these challenges, there is a need for more information on the resourcing, [including] implementation timelines to support the sector’s strategic planning needs, fundamental to building critical mass.
“A key strength of Creative State 2028 lies in its explicit commitment to equity; however, for the dance sector, such goals must be translated into artistic, social, and economic pathways to harness meaningful measurable outcomes.”
They conclude: “Ausdance VIC welcomes the directional clarity of Creative State 2028 and looks forward to working with government to ensure that these policy commitments translate into sustained, community-aligned, adequately funded and measurable actions, capable of strengthening the entire Victorian dance ecology for the benefit of all Victorians.”
Writers Victoria
As a key member of Victoria’s creative industries, Writers Victoria welcomes and strongly supports the Creative State 2028 Strategy.
“Writers Victoria is a significant contributor to Victoria’s creative offering,” said Janice Gobey, Chair of Writers Victoria. “We are proud to be part of what is a major economic and social force. Writers Victoria recognises that Victoria’s creative organisations contribute $41.2 billion annually (8.4% of the state economy), employ 331,000 people and encompass over 48,000 businesses across writing and literature, the performing arts, culture, design, screen, games, fashion, music, creative tech and more. We are a key part of that economy.”
The organisation’s statement noted that Writers Victoria’s own base is made up of multiple stakeholders including First Peoples writers and those with disabilities, the latter whom are engaged through the successful Writeability program. ‘As we embody our own positive vision for providing services to writers in Victoria, we look forward to participating in and supporting the Four Pillars of the Creative State Strategy 2028: First Peoples First; Growing Our Creative Community; Expanding Our Creative Economy; [and] An Inspiring Creative Future,’ the statement read.
