ACT arts minister Tara Cheyne intends to make Canberra the arts capital of Australia. Following her statement of ambition last year, the ACT Government this week released the policy paper and announced what Chief Minister Andrew Barr called “the most significant new investments in the arts portfolio for many, many years”.
The multi-million-dollar package includes designing the expanded Canberra Theatre Centre, restoring the Gorman House Arts Centre, and more funding for arts organisations.
But Lexi Sekuless, actress, producer, and former political arts adviser, has called it “nothing short of a missed opportunity and an example of short-sighted arts policy”.
“Last year, an amazing statement of ambition was presented by Minister Cheyne, and none of the actions released [28 July] will achieve the ambition,” Ms Sekuless said.
Canberra, Ms Cheyne said, is a national leader in creative employment (nearly 12,000 people in the cultural and creative sector in 2016, while the live performance industry generated $27.85 million in 2018, according to the ACT Government’s data snapshot). It has the highest arts and creative participation rate across Australia (45 per cent), as well as the highest attendance rate at cultural venues and events (92.5 per cent). And it is renowned for its cultural tourism offerings (of the 243,000 international tourists who visited the ACT in 2017, 69 per cent were international arts tourists).
The new policy, Canberra: Australia’s Arts Capital – Arts, Culture and Creative Policy 2022–26, sets out how to make Canberra recognised as the arts capital Ms Cheyne knows it to be, by creating amazing art and culture; developing arts, cultural and creative industry, practice, and facilities; and promoting Canberra’s arts and culture.
“While we have always celebrated our city’s hidden gems, this is our opportunity to show the world exactly what we have here and what makes Canberra so special – and that what we have is unmissable,” Ms Cheyne said.
At the same time, next week’s ACT Budget will invest $28.44 million to design the expanded Canberra Theatre Centre (including a new theatre), and $2.39 million for workplace health and safety upgrades for the theatre.
Construction will begin around 2025, and be completed around 2028, Mr Barr expects.
The new, bigger theatre will bring new audiences to Canberra, and put on blockbuster shows that Canberrans want, such as the musical Hamilton, in a 2,000-seat theatre, Ms Cheyne said. A studio theatre / rehearsal space will seat around 300 people. The precinct could also be home to national broadcasters.
A total of $7.9 million will be spent to restore and upgrade Gorman House Arts Centre, which has its centenary in 2024. The government has worked with Arts Capital on the early stages of the design, which will be finalised soon. The federal government has also announced $5 million for Gorman House.
$1 million will be spent to upgrade Lanyon Homestead, including replacing historical trees damaged by weather, and making the Nolan Gallery a storage and staff space.
“Our historic places are integral to who we are as a city, where we’ve come from, and reflect back on our history and also where we are today – and Lanyon is an absolutely critical part of that,” Ms Cheyne said.
Arts organisations can apply for funding for up to five years through a new Investment Program.
The government will increase funding for arts organisations by 10 per cent, setting up a $7.9 million pool each year to help them meet operational costs and contribute to the costs of their activities, Ms Cheyne said – whether established, ambitious arts organisations that want to grow, or emerging companies.
“This is one of the first opportunities in many years that arts organisations will have to enter into an arrangement of government funding,” Ms Cheyne said.
To ensure artists and arts workers are fairly paid for their work, the government released its new Remuneration Principles and Practices.
But Ms Sekuless doubts Canberra performers will see much of that money. The quantum of funding was approximately $46 million, she calculated; nearly $40 million went on infrastructure funding.
“No Canberra artist will receive anything from that $40 million.”
Building upgrades to Gorman House, workplace and safety upgrades, and expanding the Canberra Theatre Centre, “a venue to hire with no mandate to produce”, were not arts funding, Ms Sekuless stated.
“The Minister says this is our opportunity to show the world what we have here, and giving millions to builders so that we have empty halls for hire to be filled by Sydney and Melbourne practitioners means we will not be showing the world Canberra’s cultural voice,” she said.
“It is not buildings that make a city, it is the program and content which makes the building sing that makes cities. The edifice complex has ruined arts ministers in Australia for decades, and today the problem continues.”
Canberra Liberals MLA Nicole Lawder, shadow minister for arts, also objected to a serious lack of direct funding or support for artists in Canberra, rather than infrastructure – which, she said, did not help artists in the ACT today.
“The government has a disastrous record on arts infrastructure, and still it’s all they ever promise for the arts industry,” Ms Lawder said. (The Canberra Theatre expansion had been in the design phase for a decade, while the government “scrapped” the contract for the Kingston Arts Precinct last year, she pointed out.)
“Canberra artists deserve better, and they deserve real support now.”
Ms Cheyne urged critics to look at the entire suite of what had been announced, and what the government was trying to do: to grow the arts ecology in the ACT.
“A bigger theatre, a theatre that brings more tourists, would bring more audiences to our arts organisations across the ACT,” she said.
Actions and policies showed the government wanted a much greater level of collaboration within ACT-based organisations, from the Cultural Facilities Corporation or arts organisations, and with national cultural institutions, to show all the ACT could offer.
“Too long – and I’m very guilty of this – we’ve said: ‘Isn’t Canberra great? It’s full of hidden gems.’ No longer should we be proud of hidden gems! We should be elevating them and exposing them, and making them incredibly obvious to people so that they realise that what we have here is unmissable.”
Thus, the Statement of Ambition and this week’s policy paper had a strategy to promote Canberra’s arts and culture.
“We’ve got the creation, we’ve got the development, we’ve got the organisations, we’ve got the most incredible arts scene – but we could do a lot better at telling people about it and selling it,” Ms Cheyne said.
That included making sure there was appropriate funding for infrastructure, like the Canberra Theatre, and increasing funding for arts organisations so that established companies could enhance their programming, while new ones could enter the scene.
“This isn’t about ‘halls for hire’. This is about … ensuring that our arts sector reflects who we are as a city, and where we want to be.”
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