Australia Council funding shock
To the superstitious, Friday the 13th is meant to bring bad luck. Today it certainly was a black day for a number of arts companies. As many as 63 organisations were informed that they had lost their Australia Council funding.
Because the Australia Council only provides the lists of the companies it has funded, and not of those it hasn't, it is difficult to know exactly who and what have been affected. But it is certain that KAGE (Vic), Force Majeure (NSW) and Balletlab (Vic) were among those that lost their funding.
KAGE is a small dance theatre company and is nearly 20 years old. After having slogged away for 16 years on short-term and project grants, it had received its first AC Key Organisations grant of $633,355 (over four years) in 2012 and was looking secure for the first time. Yet this time their application failed completely. Artistic Director Kate Denborough and Creative Director Gerard Van Dyck were obviously dazed by the decision.
“It's a significant part of our funding, because it's core funding,” said Denborough. “We're eligible to apply for project funding but organisational funding provides stability and security. Without that everything becomes incredibly insecure and difficult to plan and much more tenuous.”
Such a blow is difficult to take at any time, but it seems particularly cruel at this stage of the company's development. “Gerard and I have been incredibly resilient and strong over those years and never given up,” Denborough said. “It was such a blessing to have ongoing funding because it provided an incredible sense of security and foundation and enabled us to have a long-term vision. We're actually at our most busiest, productive point now, philosophically and psychologically, because we've been through so many highs and lows. We now have a really good team, a really strong board, and over the last four years have tripled our output.”
The company is in a solid position financially – and is certainly not profligate with public money. Denborough and Van Dyck share a full-time income between them. Otherwise the staff consists of one full-time producer and two other part-timers. Furthermore, a great deal of KAGE's artistic program is devoted to bringing dance into the community as opposed to just putting dance on stage. “Both Gerard and I have given back so much to the community. We are passionate about teaching, we're passionate about exchange and about opening up dance, particularly to the general public who may never have seen a dance performance before.”
Among recent projects, as examples, have been collaborations with Aboriginal artists and the South Sudanese community. Presently KAGE is working with deaf artists and a jazz drummer on a project called "Out Of Earshot" which will premiere in 2017.
Just as many of KAGE's works are about “being a square peg in a round hole” so the company's work does not fit into the usual category of “contemporary dance”. “We use dancers and other collaborators to really try and rethink what dance can be and to challenge people's expectations."
KAGE, Balletlab and Force Majeure are all what could be called “dance-theatre” companies. Is it a coincidence that they have been targeted by the Australia Council? One can't help but wonder.
Australia's small-to-medium arts companies were aware that cuts were imminent ever since the Australia Council's funding was reduced by $105 million by former arts minister George Brandis last year. Though $32 million (over four years) of that funding was restored by the new minister, Mitch Fifield, there was still a big shortfall. Cuts seemed inevitable.
But one has to wonder at the Australia Council's strategy for distributing the grants. CEO Tony Grybowski has said he is “proud” that 43 new organisations have received multi-year grants for the first time. Few would begrudge those companies. Nonetheless, to fund new companies at the expense of established companies, which have spent many years developing their infrastructure, reputation and artistry, seems "inefficient", if we are to use strictly economic rationalist terminology.
"The money should be restored," Denborough says, referring to the shortfall. "There's just not enough money to go round. It would be extremely sad if all the 63 companies folded, with all that invaluable knowledge and experience. I wonder what strategies there are for our Australian culture to look after that knowledge. So that it doesn't get lost.”
- KAREN VAN ULZEN
In addition: The Australian Dance Council—Ausdance Inc (Ausdance National) has been notified by the Australia Council that it will not receive operational funding beyond 31 December this year. Ausdance National supports the Australian Dance Awards, the National Dance Forum and safe dance research, among many other activities.