Philanthropists offer help to Sydney’s beleaguered Carriageworks

More than 15 parties, including high-profile philanthropists, have come forward to offer their support to beleaguered Sydney arts institution Carriageworks as administrators assess the future of the company.

As reported by Guardian Australia, Carriageworks’ administrators KPMG held the first creditors meeting last week since the organisation went into voluntary administration on 4th May after suffering an “irreparable” loss of income due to its closure through the Coronavirus crisis.

With the NSW Government refusing to commit its support, documents made available to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission show that the multi-arts venue owes more than $2 million to more than 140 creditors.

The list of creditors include most high-profile arts companies, such as Tasmanian museum and arts organisation Mona, Sydney Theatre Company, the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, and Indigenous performing arts organisations Marrugeku and Moogahlin.

Sydney billionaire Kerr Neilson and his daughter, Paris, have come out as members of a group of potential backers that would help to get the organisation back on its feet as part of a bailout deal.

Neilson told Nine newspapers on Friday “the vision has to come from the management and board. We are simply interested in ensuring the country has as much exposure to ‘art’ as is practicable.”

Geoff Ainsworth and partner Johanna Featherstone, who have a long history of giving to the arts and particularly the visual arts sector in NSW, are also rumoured to have pledged substantial donations.

The reports follow news in the wake of Carriageworks’ collapse that the NSW Government was considering a proposal to pass management of the space to the Opera House Trust.

The board is “actively working on” a deed of company arrangement, the administrators noted at last week’s meeting, which will involve the company receiving an injection of funds from philanthropists - and some government goodwill.

One of the biggest stumbling blocks for Carriageworks’ long-term security is its month-by-month lease arrangement for the historic Eveleigh rail yards.

Carriageworks had been in negotiations with the NSW Government’s arts funding body Create NSW - through which Carriageworks subleases the site from Transport NSW - for a formal long-term arrangement “for some time”, the administrators noted, but no documentation or concrete agreement had been reached before the company went into administration.

Carriageworks is home to eight resident arts companies whose leases are tied to Carriageworks’ lease. Resident companies are also on rolling month-by-month leases, and in some cases have been for years.

All of the philanthropists’ offered funding is contingent upon Create NSW granting Carriageworks a long-term lease.

Carriageworks owes $432,000 in leave and superannuation entitlements to its 42 permanent and more than 90 casual staff.

Many of those casual staff were told in a letter on 8th May, seen by Guardian Australia, that as the company had stood them down and had not paid them for the month of April, they would not be eligible to receive JobKeeper payments.

12 staff remain employed on a part-time basis while the company goes through the administration process.

The next creditors meeting, including a comprehensive report from the company’s administrators, will be held by 9th June.

Image: Nick Cave exhbition at the Carriageworks. Courtesy of Zan Wimberley.