News

Sector responses to Catalyst range from caution to dismay

Although some funding has been restored to the AusCo concerns about process, impartiality and doubling up on resources remain.

23 Nov 2015

Richard Watts

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Writing and Publishing

Photo by huskyte77 via www.flickr.com

As revealed on Friday, Minister for the Arts Mitch Fifield has abandoned the divisive National Program for Excellence in the Arts (NPEA), replacing it with a new program, Catalyst — Australian Arts and Culture Fund. The Minister has restored $32 million to the Australia Council but kept the rest of the $104.8 million over four years that was to fund the NPEA for the Ministry-based Catalyst program .

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Richard Watts

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