Shock and anger as sector responds to funding crisis

The news that 62 organisations have lost operational funding has sent shock waves through the Australian arts community and its allies.

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Affected companies, state funding bodies and arts allies have begun to address today’s devastating news as the impact of the Australia Council’s reduced funding pool hits home.

Shadow Minister for the Arts, the Honourable Mark Dreyfus QC MP, noted that the ‘devastating’ news had come ‘just days after the Abbott-Turnbull Government snuck out $24 million in grants through Catalyst, its ministerial slush fund, destroying the principle of arms-length, independent funding for the arts in this country.

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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