Australia Council steps away from supporting youth theatre

The latest round of Australia Council grants appears to have moved away from supporting youth theatre with 10 of 13 youth performing arts companies losing funding.

Within funding in the Australia Council’s September grants round, announced last Thursday, of the 13 youth performing arts organisations that applied for 2016 funding, only three – Corrugated Iron Youth Arts Projects, Northern Territory; St Martins Youth Arts Centre, Victoria and Powerhouse Youth Theatre, NSW – were successful.

Following the cancellation of funding rounds earlier in the year as a result of the now-amended National Program for Excellence in the Arts (NPEA), the September round was highly competitive.

Of almost 1,700 applications submitted, only 290 were successful.

As a result, 10 youth theatre companies now have no Australia Council funding in 2016. These are: Backbone Youth Arts, Queensland;  Canberra Youth Theatre; Cirkidz, South Australia; Courthouse Youth Arts, Geelong, Victoria; Outback Theatre for Young People, NSW; Platform Youth Theatre, Victoria; Riverland Youth Theatre, Australia; Shopfront, NSW; Southern Edge Arts, Western Australia and Western Edge Arts, Victoria.

These companies were previously supported through the Australia Council Theatre Board’s Youth Program Fund. However, following the Australia Council’s 2015 restructure, the Youth Program Fund was merged with the wider pool of theatre funding, requiring youth arts companies to compete with the entire theatre sector for funding.

The loss of more than $70 million of Australia Council funding to support the Ministry for the Arts’ new Catalyst fund has reduced the overall amount of funding available, having a further impact on the youth theatre sector.

Image: Canberra Youth Theatre/Facebook.

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