Regional Arts WA is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year and, among the festivities, it has launched the new Thrive! Regional Arts, Culture and Creativity Investment Framework 2025-2029 to carry its commitment into the future.
Discourse to develop this framework began around the same time as the WA State Government’s 10-Year Vision for the creative industries, which is due to be released this year. Both respond to the call for statewide strategic development, and it was “clear that the regional arts sector needed to have a voice in that,” says Regional Arts WA CEO, Dr Pilar Kasat.
Regional Arts WA has been working with a group of eight regional arts organisations (or what it calls Hub organisations) through its Regional Arts Network, which acknowledges the vast geographic mass WA covers and, hence, the need for different approaches and representatives to advocate at a local level.
Extensive sector consultations, especially with Hub organisations, are what grounds Thrive!, and the overarching credo that ties all of them together is “arts and culture are the lifeblood of all regional communities”.
Kasat tells ArtsHub, “Regional Arts WA was formed in 1994 and the reason for establishing the organisations was this idea of access. It was so if you could see a show in Perth for $30, then you could see the same show in the regions for the same $30.
“However, things have changed dramatically and regional communities do not only want to be seen as a passive audience, they want to be known for being content creators and they want to be known for being able to have a voice that speaks to place.”
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Kasat adds that visibility for regional artists in WA needs to be drastically improved, so that their talent and expression can be appreciated.
Thrive! is not only about creating a collective voice for regional WA, but also about recognising the distinctiveness of the different regions in WA.
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Six main challenges faced by the regional arts sector in WA
As outlined in Thrive!, the main challenges currently faced by the WA regional arts sector include:
- fragmented funding and siloed support systems
- lack of statewide human infrastructure
- sustainability of organisations
- career development and leadership
- sector connectivity and visibility, and
- securing future planning and investment.
All of these challenges are interconnected. For example, the shortage of job and career advancement opportunities leads to talent leaving the state to pursue their ambitions, hence, leading to the lack of statewide human infrastructure.
Regional Arts WA’s goals and initiatives
In response to the identified challenges, Thrive! outlines several initiatives that will be developed and take place from now to 2029 and beyond. Regional Arts WA will aim to boost and extend the Regional Arts Sector Investment (RASI) program, which currently supports 17 regional arts and cultural organisations with three-year funding between $15,000 and $65,000 per year.
Another ambition is to develop a Creative Collaboration Fund (CCF). “Fragmented funding is a national issue and, while we recognise that those small amounts of monies can make a difference to individuals and groups, it’s incongruous if we’re thinking about long-term impact,” says Kasat.
“We want to establish a fund that funnels corporate giving, philanthropy, government and cross-sector portfolios… We want to create a pool where this core fund and cross-portfolio opportunities are created, and then we can enhance that in the long term.”
CCF is about bringing together fragmented funding to drive a collective impact and reducing reliance on one-off project grants. The Fund could be used to support cross-sector projects around placemaking and tourism, introduce new community-driven services for development and wellbeing, and assist organisations to employ staff. CCF’s operation and distribution will be assisted by an Advisory Group.
The development timeline of this Fund is yet to be determined, partly impacted by the 2025 WA State Election, which will see a new Minister for Culture and the Arts appointed. If implemented, CCF could pave the way for an innovative model of funding, not only for the regional arts, but across the sector for initiatives with long-term vision.
Kasat says throughout Regional Art WA’s 30-year history, the organisation has played a role in laying the groundwork for new initiatives. One of its greatest achievements was the establishment of the Aboriginal Arts Centre Hub WA (AACHWA) in 2009 and its subsequent restructure as an independent First Nations-governed industry body in 2015. In 2023, AACHWA took over the reins of the Revealed Aboriginal art exhibition, which will return in 2025 with a new partnership and location in Perth.
Other achievements include the Regional Art Triennial and a successful contemporary music touring program, Sand Tracks, which ran from 2009 to 2019.
One aspect that Kasat hopes the sector will strengthen is to make space for different perspectives and draw on their wisdom. “During my PhD, I looked at the role of the arts in empowering women, particularly from the lens of non-Western feminism… I’ve got a strong sense of the importance of diversity of outlooks and worldviews, and I don’t think we’ve truly capitalised on different worldviews to solve problems.
“In the arts, there is a sense that we are progressive as an industry, but I think we still have a way to go when it comes to enabling leadership roles for people who don’t have a Western background.”
Kasat continues that she also hopes the sector will lean into cross-sector partnerships. “Us small, not-for-profit organisations are much more agile and we’ve got an opportunity to really work across sectors – let’s say [for example] health.
“I think the thing is, some people feel that this is a way of instrumentalising the arts, that art is doing something for health or tourism, but I think that’s really an old-fashioned way of thinking – it’s not about one or the other, it’s about the true impact that arts can have on people’s lives. We know the arts can bring a great sense of wellbeing, place and connectivity – it’s about being humans, right?”
What Thrive! is setting the way for, is to “shift the way in which we think about the ecology of the arts, in a policy sense,” adds Kasat. “The rhetoric is changing, but we need to accelerate that change, and the small to medium sector does a lot of the heavy-lifting in innovation, which is why we need more investment,” she concludes.
Click here to access the full Thrive! Regional Arts, Culture & Creativity Investment Framework 2025-2029.
