Budget cuts into Federal arts and culture funding

With Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey’s 2014/15 budget making cuts to Government agencies to save almost $500 million, there will be large cuts to the Australia Council, the country’s main arts funding body, and to Screen Australia, which funds Australian films.

Announced last night (Tuesday 13th May), the 2014/15 Federal budget will see $87.1 million cut from the arts budget within the Attorney-General’s office – impacting the Australia Council, with $28.2 million of cuts over four years, and Screen Australia, with $25.1 million of cuts over four years.

Funding for the Adelaide Festival Centre’s support for Asian cultural activities will also be ended, with an estimated saving of $1.8 million.

In addition, the back-office functions of seven national cultural institutions will be merged from 2014/15: the National Archives, the Film and Sound Archive, the National Gallery, National Library, National Museum, Old Parliament House and the National Portrait Gallery, will be merged.

The merger will see the Canberra‑based agencies achieve an estimated saving of $2.4 million over four years.

Commenting on the merger of the agencies Joanna Mendelssohn, Associate Professor, College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales, stated “I’m not sure how, exactly, this can be obtained. If ‘back-office’ means marketing and publishing, it could be all well and good, as centralising these could mean more tightly targeted marketing and more finely tuned publishing standards.

“But there are real fears they will attempt to rationalise and homogenise collections management. These are the people whose job it is to make sure that every element of the nation’s cultural legacy can be located at any time, that works are conserved before they go on display, that exhibitions are coherent and tell different aspects of a national story … and that due diligence is undertaken before any purchase.

“The real lesson of the National Gallery’s acquisition - and return - of the statue of Shiva recently is that there is no such thing as too much research prior to acquiring works for public collections. Cuts will be made here at our peril.”

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