{"id":380898,"date":"2025-08-28T20:03:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T20:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/380898\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T20:03:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T20:03:09","slug":"looming-crisis-for-nsws-regional-galleries-averted-with-15-4m-in-state-arts-funding-australian-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/380898\/","title":{"rendered":"Looming crisis for NSW\u2019s regional galleries averted with $15.4m in state arts funding | Australian art"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arts organisations and galleries across New South Wales<\/a> have voiced their relief after the state government announced $15.4m funding over two years, allaying worries of a looming crisis for NSW\u2019s regional galleries.<\/p>\n

Sixty-two arts organisations across NSW will receive $15.4m funding for the next two years through Create NSW\u2019s Arts and Cultural Funding Program (ACFP), the state government announced on Thursday, with $7.5m going to 31 regional arts organisations, including 10 regional galleries.<\/p>\n

The announcement on Thursday comes a month after more than 50% of the applicants \u2013 76 of 158 \u2013 were knocked back<\/a> after applying for four-year funding from Create NSW. This shocked many previously successful applicants, who then had to rush to apply for two-year funding instead.<\/p>\n

At the time, some worried that the low success rate for regional public art galleries \u2013 below 18% \u2013 was a sign the state government was shifting costs on to local government, as many regional galleries already rely on councils to fund infrastructure and core staffing costs.<\/p>\n

But the chief executive of Regional Arts NSW, Dr Tracey Callinan, they were \u201cvery pleased\u201d with the outcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a really positive response and one that acknowledges that regional arts has great value, but its own challenges too,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot everybody has been funded, but that is the reality of a funding program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Callinan said Regional Arts NSW would work to support those galleries who missed out on funding, and she remained concerned that local councils \u201cwill have to pick some of this up to keep their galleries open\u201d.<\/p>\n

Broken Hill city art gallery, the oldest art gallery in regional NSW, applied for $100,000 a year \u2013 what it currently receives from Create NSW \u2013 but failed in both the four-year and two-year rounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a very disappointing outcome for the gallery and a sad day for artists and the industry in the far west in general,\u201d Broken hill city Art gallery manager, Kathryn Graham said.<\/p>\n

The gallery\u2019s role in supporting artists, students, tourism and First Nations cultural programs gave them a \u201ccompelling case\u201d for state funding, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a significant loss of funding for a gallery of our size, and we now face the unpleasant task of reviewing our operations and reducing our services in line with the funding shortfall,\u201d Graham said.<\/p>\n

Regional galleries who will receive funding include Wagga Wagga art gallery, which will get $110,000 a year; Tamworth regional gallery, which will receive $85,000 a year; and Maitland regional art gallery, which will also receive $85,000 after applying for $110,000 a year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will probably impact our forward plan, but we welcome the funding,\u201d Maitland\u2019s director, Gerry Bobsien, said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a really fantastic program scheduled for the next two years, and we\u2019ve been sitting here wondering what we need to cut. Now, we\u2019re just keen to get on with it.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor many of us in the sector, we\u2019ve been working with less for ever. Finding savings, being entrepreneurial \u2013 it\u2019s just business as usual,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Just under $3m was allocated for 23 arts organisations in Sydney, including Australian Design Centre in Darlinghurst, which now receives $300,000 a year from Create NSW and will now get $150,000 a year. ADC also recently lost $200,000 a year in federal funding.<\/p>\n

\u201cADC is grateful for any funding support from the state government,\u201d the executive director of ADC, Lisa Cahill, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, we applied for $200,000 per annum \u2013 $150,000 per annum is short of that. It\u2019s also 50% of what we currently receive and have been in receipt of for the past decade \u2013 and obviously that $300,000 has not kept up with costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

ADC\u2019s recent public appeal raised close to $50,000 in donations, which Cahill said was \u201cwonderful\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut in real terms, we\u2019re receiving about a third of what we got a decade ago,\u201d she added. \u201cThis level of uncertainty and erosion of support is obviously creating a great deal of uncertainty and stress on the organisation, and the people in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The chief executive of Museums & Galleries of NSW, Brett Adlington, said the organisation was \u201cdelighted\u201d by the outcome of the ACFP after being \u201cnervous about what was coming\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s still some challenges out there for organisations who weren\u2019t funded and perhaps some organisations might need to rethink their plans. But generally we\u2019re very happy and very grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition, $3.29m has been allocated for individual projects that will support 1,296 artists and workers, Create NSW said. One of them is western Sydney artist Khaled Sabsabi, who was reinstated as Australia\u2019s representative at the Venice Biennale<\/a> after controversially being removed from the position.<\/p>\n

His unnamed \u201cmonumental\u201d work will explore \u201cshared yet distinct experiences of displacement and migration, focusing on the intersections of multicultural and multi-faith communities locally and globally\u201d, Create NSW said.<\/p>\n

The NSW minister for the arts, John Graham, described the regions as \u201cthe big winners\u201d from the revamped ACFP, which has dropped an annual application process in favour of the new biennial option after feedback from arts organisations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have heard the message from the sector that they want less paperwork, and less acquittals. That is why the move from annual to multi-year funding for so many of these organisations is so welcome,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arts organisations and galleries across New South Wales have voiced their relief after the state government announced $15.4m…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3939],"tags":[4021,4020,4022,77,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-380898","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-design","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115108184317128880","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}