THE list of ACT Arts Fund project grants is out, and Canberra artists are horrified by what seems to be a 75 per cent drop in funding. 

“CityNews” has received calls and emails to the effect that, while the category last year saw more than 50 projects funded, this year the list has dropped to just 13.

“Either artsACT has published an incomplete list, or there’s been a drastic reduction in project funding,” one caller said.

A call to the offices of artsACT yielded only the response that the that “our media team” would get back to us if we left a phone number and that no project officer was available to take the call from “CityNews”.  But the figures of projects funded for 2016 and now 2017 tell the story.

The arts.act.gov.au websites says this category exists “to support one-off arts activities proposed by individual artists, groups, and organisations in the ACT. It contributes to the implementation of the ACT Arts Policy, specifically Principle One, ‘participation in and access to the arts’ and Principle Two, ‘support for great art and great artists’.”

Anxious artists have been waiting for news of funding but the website also reveals that “while arts project funding is normally announced in August or September each year, due to the 2016 ACT election and caretaker conventions, no funding decisions could be made during the period from September to November”.

Applications for film and screen projects are currently being considered by Screen ACT and the ACT government with an announcement to be made in early 2017.

Read updated story here.

The list of list of successful applicants is:

• Deafness Resource Centre to undertake digital storytelling for members of the deaf and hearing impaired community, $20,000;
• Atfield, David to conduct a creative development of a new play ‘Exclusion’, $12,849;
• Ausglass to support the (r)evolve: Ausglass Conference in Canberra, $25,000;
• Elliot Bastianon, to assist with costs of exhibiting new furniture work at M2 Gallery in Surry Hills, Sydney, $16,102;
• James Batchelor, to present a large-scale new dance performance at The Canberra Playhouse, $30,000;
• Boho Interactive, to develop an accessible digital performance platform, $22,103;
• Canberra Spinners and Weavers Inc For an anniversary project ’50 years of Canberra Spinners and Weavers’. $5400;
• Michelle Day, to develop new work for a solo exhibition at The Lost Ones Gallery, Ballarat, $2856;
• Cathryn Franzi, to develop ceramic wares depicting significant Canberra flora, $3173;
• Irma Gold, to develop a new full-length work of fiction ‘Rescuing Chang’, $10,000;
• Chiara Grassia, to support “Girls Rock!” a contemporary music mentorship program $24,689;
• Handel in the Theatre to develop a tourable adaptation of Handel’s “Esther” and premiere it in The Playhouse, $35,000;
• “Noted” to support the presentation of the Noted writers’ festival, $36,807;
• and Wendy Teakel and David Jensz, to participate in an international exhibition and develop networks and research in Chiang Mai, $4500;

Funding to support affordable access to Llewellyn Hall Funding went to:

• Music For Canberra, for four concerts by the Canberra Youth Orchestra, $19,559;
• National Capital Orchestra, for three concerts by the National Capital Orchestra, $6000;
• and Australian National Eisteddfod Bands and Orchestras, and Choirs sections, $12,000.

 

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