We are witnessing a cultural bloodbath in Australia that has been years in the making

Mon, 13 Apr 2020 05:17:39 +1000

Andrew Pam <xanni [at] glasswings.com.au>

Andrew Pam
<https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2020/apr/06/we-are-witnessing-a-cultural-bloodbath-in-australia-that-has-been-years-in-the-making>

"As any performer or comedian will tell you, timing is everything.

The cliché was never more painful than last Friday, when the Australia
Council for the Arts handed down the results of its four year funding
round for smaller cultural organisations.

The results were heartbreaking. Some of Australia’s most important and
innovative arts organisations have lost their federal funding: the
lifeline that they had counted on to try and ride out these
extraordinary times. The list of organisations being “transitioned out”
of Australia Council funding includes the Sydney Writers’ festival; many
of the nation’s literary magazines, including Australian Book Review,
Overland and the Sydney Review of Books, and a long string of theatre
and dance companies, such as Sydney’s Australian Theatre for Young
People, Adelaide’s Restless Dance Theatre, Perth’s Blue Room and
Melbourne’s famous small theatre La Mama.

For perennially hard-pressed cultural organisations, funding cuts would
be difficult in any climate. Unfortunately for Australia’s small
cultural organisations, this is the very worst time of all.

The coronavirus outbreak has heralded wrenching changes to all sectors
of our economy. But with the possible exception of aviation, no sector
has fared worse than culture."

Cheers,
        *** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net                   Andrew Pam
http://www.xanadu.com.au/                 Chief Scientist, Xanadu
http://www.glasswings.com.au/             Partner, Glass Wings
http://www.sericyb.com.au/                Manager, Serious Cybernetics

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