As an election year begins, Victoria’s Shadow Minister for the Arts Martin Foley has gone on the attack, claiming the lack of a Victorian arts policy is a deliberate attempt to cast a smog over funding cuts. Below Minister for the Arts Heidi Victoria responds.
Victorians know that the arts are integral to our quality of life. Victorians also know that the arts animate and strengthen communities, provide rewarding employment and careers and make a substantial contribution to our economy. Put simply – creativity, art, culture – are vital to our state.
We recognise that the arts have the power to change lives. We reward artistic quality and ambition and have a vision of the arts as an enterprise that should benefit all Victorians.
In contrast to the empty rhetoric and promises of the Labor Party, the Victorian Coalition Government focuses on action and tangible outcomes. Our record in both preserving Victoria’s substantial cultural heritage, and embracing constant renewal through new and innovative artistic works is impressive. Our investment in the arts, at a time of necessary fiscal constraint, is extraordinary.
But let’s not forget that artists are the primary agents of change and renewal in the sector – we value and support them in this enterprise. Ours is a more democratic and affirming vision, I believe, than has ever been offered by the self-styled intelligentsia of the Labor party.
We do not take Victoria’s reputation as a leading state for the arts for granted. As Minister for the Arts, one of my key priorities is to strengthen the sector through fiscal responsibility, sound business management and good governance. Frankly, issues critical to the financial sustainability of the sector were left in Labor’s too hard basket for far too long. If we want future generations to appreciate and experience the best in arts we need to pay attention to all parts of our diverse and complex sector, and explore new ways of managing our business and growing our sources of income.
Our independent arts sector is thriving. We have taken steps to free artists from excessive red-tape and to open up new opportunities. Artists can now spend more of their time and resources on doing what they do best. After consulting with the sector extensively last year, this Government successfully replaced the 30-year old Arts Victoria program with the Organisations Investment Program (OIP) and made it possible for a range of exciting and culturally diverse organisations to access funding for the first time: Lucy Guerin Inc, Western Edge Youth Arts and The Black Arm Band, Red Stitch Actors Theatre, Creative Clunes, MKA: Theatre of New Writing, The Click Clack Project and Baluk Arts. Regional organisations now represent 22% of the organisations funded, compared to only 15% under the old program. With a minimum commitment of three years of funding, organisations can plan for the future, build their business capacity, and leverage support from other sources. For the first time, a peer assessment panel ensured a fair and competitive process. An extraordinary portfolio of 88 arts and cultural organisations right across Victoria received funding, totalling more than $26 million in the first year. Arts Access Victoria, a leader in promoting artistic opportunity and access for people with disability, received an increase in funding of more than 55%.
When Victorians attend performances and visit our galleries and museums they rightly expect choice, quality and value for money. The arts are for everyone, and clearly, our cultural institutions are in touch with what our audiences want. In 2013 a record-breaking 9.6 million people visited eight of Victoria’s state-owned arts agencies.
More than 300,000 people, including close to 33,000 children have walked through the doors of the National Gallery of Victoria – many for the first time – to attend the spectacular Melbourne Now exhibition. The exhibition showcases the rich and diverse talents of over 400 local artists to the world. Recognising the potential for Melbourne Now to introduce contemporary art and design to new audiences the Victorian Coalition Government provided $2.5 million in additional funding, helping to leverage an astonishing $3.3 million from other sources.
Often out of view of the general public are the important investments we are making to preserve our cultural heritage for future generations. It is under a Victorian Coalition Government that asset maintenance funding is moving from a costly ‘emergency’ funding model into a longer-term planning and investment approach. In 2013 we provided additional funding of $6.7 million to the State Library of Victoria to repair its 100-year-old dome, as well as other capital works at the heritage building. The failure of successive Labor governments to address the preservation of our cultural assets points to its preoccupation with ideological manifestos rather than action.
We support all parts of the sector to increase its sustainability. Free workshops and seminars are run for individual artists and arts organisations by Arts Victoria to build capacity in strategy, business planning and diversifying income. Our major agencies will be increasing their support for smaller arts organisations through mentoring, access to meeting rooms and practice spaces.
While our main focus is getting on with the business of supporting the Victorian arts sector to develop and thrive many in the sector would appreciate a more explicit articulation of our priorities. I will be releasing a statement of the Victorian Coalition Government’s priorities later this year. These priorities reflect the many discussions I have had with the sector and those committed to its development over the past twelve months.
Beyond this, I believe it is time to revisit an important piece of arts legislation, the Arts Victoria Act 1972, to assess whether the objects of the Act adequately express the aspirations of the sector for the future of the arts in Victoria. I will task the new Director of Arts Victoria to fully consult with all stakeholders in the sector and community to establish a new vision for the arts and culture in our State and a legislative framework that unequivocally enshrines this.
The Government has an essential role to play in supporting the arts sector, but it can only do this if it effectively harnesses the entrepreneurialism of our artists and art organisations. The vitality, innovation and drive that exists in all parts of our sector is truly remarkable – I believe there is even more scope, than we can even presently imagine, for the arts sector, community, government and our philanthropic and corporate supporters, to work together to secure the long-term artistic and financial health of the sector.
