Sector responses to Catalyst range from caution to dismay

Although some funding has been restored to the AusCo concerns about process, impartiality and doubling up on resources remain.
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Photo by huskyte77 via www.flickr.com

As revealed on Friday, Minister for the Arts Mitch Fifield has abandoned the divisive National Program for Excellence in the Arts (NPEA), replacing it with a new program, Catalyst — Australian Arts and Culture Fund. The Minister has restored $32 million to the Australia Council but kept the rest of the $104.8 million over four years that was to fund the NPEA for the Ministry-based Catalyst program .

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Richard Watts OAM is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, a Melbourne Fringe Festival Living Legend, and was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize in 2020. In 2021 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association. Most recently, Richard received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts