With COVID-19 claiming its first major arts scalp this month, we checked in with five organisations to see how they're coping with lost income and the shift to online.
from the Australia Council into the National Programme for Excellence in the Arts, a fund distributed at his discretion.In the last financial year, the Australia Council distributedPerth children's theatre company Barking Gecko is one of the 49 companies that will lose federal funding from 2021.
Kerridge says that by accessing JobKeeper and repurposing touring funds they have been able to retain their staff, which has enabled them to launch a new digital initiative to continue connecting and creating with children through the shutdown:This program sees Barking Gecko partner with Indian youth arts company ThinkArts to deliver weekly creative tasks to children, designed by artists.
Queensland Theatre has two spaces — the larger one with 350 seats — and Lewis says they've had to scale back hours at the company and let some of their staff go . With no income from performances, Queensland Theatre's expenditure nonetheless continues: they are still delivering their education program to 100 schools around the state , staffing the winding down of their subscription season — and starting to plan for the eventual re-opening.
"I feel like we've failed as an industry to convince government over the last 20 years of our inherent worth to the society that we live in. I think we've got to stop trying to lobby government and I think we've got to take our focus back to winning over audiences."Queensland Ballet, also funded through the MPA framework, employs 180 people and has been able to keep staff on through the JobKeeper scheme.
"And the second thing for us is really planning ahead to not only survive this pandemic but also emerge a stronger and more focused organisation."Queensland Ballet performs in a theatre with a capacity of 2,000, making a return to "business as usual" highly unlikely in the short term; accordingly, the company has made the decision to move its entire 2020 season to 2021.
"I do hope when we come out of this that we all will be able to continue to practice or deliver the magic of this art form," says Cunxin.Declan Greene is the new artistic director of Griffin — the country's only theatre company dedicated to new Australian writing, which performs works in the 105-seat SBW Stables Theatre in Sydney's Darlinghurst.
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