Australia Is Failing Its Artists
This Article Was First Published In The Canberra Times on 27 June 2020
The federal government’s $250 million package to support the arts is some reprieve for an industry in crisis. However a negligent delay, its distorted structure and the manner of its announcement are all symptoms of a concerning reality — we are catastrophically failing to value the arts in our society.
From here, it very much feels like yet another game designed by those with only the vaguest mapping or interest in the reality they are hoping to impact.
With 81 per cent of artists working as freelancers, far too many slip through the cracks of programs like JobSeeker. Emergency arts grants were announced by state and territory governments. Failing to secure any for myself, I managed to survive due to the generous support of my own patrons, and by rushing through a digital release of previously recorded works. Even then, I was down to my last $30 of borrowed money just last week (downstream from the ACT government’s quick policies, however, I have since gained contract work for the Canberra Theatre Centre).
But what of those with dependants, mortgages, and the ongoing expenses and sunk costs of work and lives disrupted?
Why did it take until June 25 to announce any targeted support?
The sad conclusion is one that lies at the end of too many questions — Australia is either not interested in or not capable of valuing its own voice, its own cultures.
This is a failure highlighted in the distorted composition of this week’s overdue package.
Firstly, at $250 million, it is a mere 0.35 per cent of the industry’s annual value by some calculations — unimaginably small. Live Performance Australia estimated that $345 million would be required just to keep the performance industry afloat.
Then there’s the allocation without rationale. $90 million is for concessional loans, which will benefit only those positioned to take on further financial risk. Another $50 million for film and television and $35 million for Commonwealth-funded organisations — both worthy recipients, but why them? Neither are the biggest employers, nor are they the hardest hit. Which leaves the $75 million open for competitive grants to create new work, and no grant funding to support existing artistic events or venues.
The problem with this $75 million remainder is that it’s difficult to imagine much landing with small or medium artistic practices — but it’s that multitude of smaller arts operators, which does a huge amount to support community wellbeing and cohesion, which is most likely to have found itself completely out of work at this time.
For example, a proposal I might submit to produce the locally popular suburban song competition “Canbeurovision” may well be assessed against the Splendour in the Grass festival or Belvoir’s 2021 programming. And all of us in turn will be competing against large, publicly funded organisations who can pay full-time employees to prepare and submit an application.
From here, it very much feels like yet another game designed by those with only the vaguest mapping or interest in the reality they are hoping to impact.
And I can see why. A common trait among those who reach the highest political offices is that they are outlier certain about themselves and their path in the world. How can they instinctively feel the value of deconstruction, inquiry, collaboration and exchange — characteristics which typify the best cultural practices but are starkly absent from the floors of parliaments?
Arts as a portfolio is typically relegated to the “other” basket. Federally, it currently doesn’t even warrant a noun, sitting within the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications. Very grim.
Even in the ACT, where we have a very active and passionate Arts Minister in Gordon Ramsay, it is a responsibility that he wears alongside the far more demanding hat of Attorney-General, among others.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is a particularly depressing figure in this.
Leading a government that appears at best dismissive and at worst disdainful of cultural works, even the announcement of the package earlier this week didn’t pass as a celebration of our genuinely compelling arts scenes. Scott felt compelled to demonstrate the legitimacy of cultural practices by reminding us that it is “tradies who build the stages” and “computer specialists [?] who create the special effects”. It’s the equivalent of couching a drought rescue package in the importance of “the high-res images that adorn the company letterheads”.
The inherent value of transformative cultural exchange is simultaneously known by all of us who naturally yearn for music, stories and beauty. It is so cruel that this value is seemingly invisible to the political class responsible for so much of its stewardship.
Dismissing the value of cultural exchange isn’t a uniquely Australian trait — but there is a strong Australian brand of it. “But what do actually you do?” and “When will you get a real job?” are not questions I have ever faced when telling people that I’m an artist in Europe or America.
I often wonder whether this devaluing of our own voice is a colonial hangover — where we can only accept something as important if it has been conferred authority from the “legitimate” cultural homelands of the UK or the US. It is easy to think of musicians, actors, writers and even academics whose success in Australia has come only off the back of international approval.
Australia is a liberal, pluralist society, and people who are passionate will pursue lives in the arts and will continue to find a way to survive. But the failure to integrate this enriching and dynamic vein of society into the fabric of our systems as equal citizens costs us all. It narrows the range of voices in our public sphere, it disempowers those who work to master a craft that brings joy to others, and leaves us incapable of exploring the world with our own voice.
As I’m sadly hearing myself say too often in reflection these days, a society that fails to value the arts, fails to value itself. I hope there’s cause to find more positive observations on the other side of this crisis, and we can better revere the wealth to be found in the creations of others.
