In his Q&A appearance on Monday night, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull revealed a profound ignorance of his government’s mishandling of arts funding when quizzed by singer Katie Noonan. He insisted that the Australia Council has been better funded under the Abbott-Turnbull Government, that most Catalyst Funding went to regional arts (37% in fact) and used Geelong’s Back to Back Theatre (he clearly didn't know who they were) as an example of a regional company that might not otherwise have been funded had it not been assisted by Catalyst. Browse Catalyst funding results and you’ll see familiar names of organisations usually funded by the Australia Council, some now additionally advantaged, while some larger players have taken the opportunity to source funds that were once the province of the small to medium sector which now faces a bleak future. Former Arts Minister George Brandis envisaged a broader and more competitive funding model; instead, he and his successor have catalysed an aberration: brutal, chaotic and divisive. Make your vote count, but not for an out of touch, uncaring Turnbull.
JACK SARGEANT
The inimitable Program Director of the idiosyncratic REVELATION Perth International Film Festival guides us through a 2016 program rich in features, documentaries, shorts and surprises.
ANNIHILATING MELANCHOLIA At the Lorne Sculpture Biennale earlier this year, prize-winning essayist Peter Wright encountered a site-specific performance that resonated like “a low-tech outtake from Bowie’s Blackstar.”
GIVE! Australia, step up in Fallujah humanitarian crisis! “Australia’s investment in aid in Iraq is just a few per cent of the hundreds of millions of dollars we spent on our military intervention.” Donate now.
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