{"id":254898,"date":"2025-09-26T00:47:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T00:47:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/254898\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T00:47:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T00:47:15","slug":"bondis-sculpture-by-the-sea-offered-200000-lifeline-after-financial-woes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/254898\/","title":{"rendered":"Bondi’s Sculpture by the Sea offered $200,000 lifeline after financial woes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sculpture by the Sea has been offered a $200,000 lifeline after organisers made an urgent plea for funding just weeks out from this year’s event.<\/p>\n

The annual exhibition, which is held on the Bondi to Tamarama cliff walk, was facing cancellation ahead of its October 17 start date after failing to secure federal government funding.<\/p>\n

Founder David Handley said the event relied on a combination of funding from the state government and Waverely Council, but had not received any federal money for the last two years, resulting in a $200,000 shortfall.<\/p>\n

After a public appeal for donations, organisers announced on Friday morning that it had acquired a major partnership with NRMA Insurance and the event will now go ahead as planned.<\/p>\n

Mr Handley told ABC Radio Sydney<\/a> the $200,000 would go towards paying this year’s artists and safeguarding future operations.<\/p>\n

“We’re going to be able to take time to reflect on how we try to set up Sculpture from the Sea as a more sustainable operation with a future fund,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Members of the public donated more than $125,000 within 30 hours of the appeal. (Supplied: Mitsuo Takeuchi)<\/p>\n

In addition, the event also received more than $125,000 in public donations within the 30 hours of launching its appeal.<\/p>\n

Mr Handley said the response had been “extraordinary”.<\/p>\n

“We went right down to the wire, that’s why we had to do this desperate plea. We are not an organisation with cash reserves,” he said.<\/p>\n

The annual sculpture walk, which attracts around 450,000 visitors each year, typically costs around $3 million with installation alone coming to $800,000.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"two<\/p>\n

Founder David Handley, artists Kasane Low and Niharika Hukku, and 2023 Sculpture by the Sea winner John Petrie. (ABC News: Pablo Vinales)<\/p>\n

Artists who exhibit at Sculpture by the Sea spend an average of $15,000 on each artwork, inclusive of materials, transportation and installation costs.<\/p>\n

Mr Handley said artists are paid $3,000 and the remainder of the money goes towards holding the exhibition as a free-to-the public event.<\/p>\n

“This year over $300,000 from our donors and sponsors is going directly into artists’ pockets to help them with their costs,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We started this with volunteers working out of my lounge room with $100 in the bank.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Artists who exhibit at Sculpture by the Sea spend an average of $15,000 on each artwork. (Supplied: Yoshiho Futo)<\/p>\n

Organisers had criticised Creative Australia \u2014 the government’s peak arts body \u2014 for the shortfall in funding.<\/p>\n

Creative Australia claimed the event had not submitted an application for funding, including from its recent arts project investments for organisations program.<\/p>\n

“Funding does not automatically renew at the end of a funding cycle. To be considered for funding, organisations must apply for funding through an open and competitive process,” a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sculpture by the Sea has been offered a $200,000 lifeline after organisers made an urgent plea for funding…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":254899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[1037,648,1032,8058,11329,134437,134436,1033,171,134439,134434,134440,1038,134435,5331,67,132,68,134438],"class_list":{"0":"post-254898","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-art","9":"tag-arts","10":"tag-arts-and-design","11":"tag-artwork","12":"tag-bondi","13":"tag-bondi-to-tamarama-cliff-walk","14":"tag-creative-australia","15":"tag-design","16":"tag-entertainment","17":"tag-founder-david-handley","18":"tag-funding-appeal","19":"tag-nrma-insurance","20":"tag-sculpture","21":"tag-sculpture-by-the-sea","22":"tag-tourism","23":"tag-united-states","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-waverely-council"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115267846509190373","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}