Page 4469 - Week 12 - Thursday, 26 October 2017
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will be sharing in more than $765,000 in arts project funding, which exceeds the $750,000 of funding that we promised in the budget.
The range of successful applicants this year is impressive. It spans both emerging and established artists, as well as community art projects that will provide Canberrans with an opportunity to participate in the arts. They represent a broad cross-section of art forms and activities, including substantial representation by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists and a number of projects focused on inclusiveness.
Grants include over $25,000 to the Canberra Dance Theatre to produce a work for their 40th anniversary celebrations next year; $15,000 to fund an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth writing workshop called “Blak Writes” coordinated by Hayley McQuire; $40,000 to support the production of David Atfield’s play Exclusion, following funding in 2017 for its creative development; $29,000 to support musician Chris Latham to record his orchestral work The Diggers Requiem, which commemorates the end of World War I; $9,000 to support local children’s author Tania McCartney to write and illustrate a new junior fiction book series; and $30,000 to support local artists to present at public art festival Contour 556.
The arts are an integral part of Canberra’s social fabric and economic development. The arts strengthen our community and they are an essential part of our identity. Through this year’s project funding, all Canberrans will benefit from the opportunities to experience and to engage with local art and artists. I can advise the Assembly that there is a full list of the 2018 project funding recipients on the artsACT website.
MS ORR: Can the minister please advise the Assembly what other arts and community events have been funded so far this year?
MR RAMSAY: I can advise that, in addition to the arts project funding, three organisations will share in $42,000 of grants which specifically support their access to Llewellyn Hall to stage concert events. These are the Australian National Eisteddfod Society, Music for Canberra, and the National Capital Orchestra.
This year the government has also provided funding for Art, not Apart; the Writers Festival; and for the DESIGN Canberra Festival which will run throughout November, celebrating and promoting Canberra as a global city of design. We have also funded the ACT book of the year prize, nominations for which closed on 28 July. I look forward to announcing the winner in early December.
Government funding to the arts in the ACT in 2017 has also included $24,000 for various artists’ residencies; $15,500 for the Arts Law Centre; $25,000 for the arts in health partnerships; $100,000 to support specific Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts initiatives; and $1.3 million to the ANU to support a range of community outreach programs so that teachers, school students and the broader community can benefit from the university’s music, art and design experience.
The breadth of projects, prizes, services, events and programs funded by the ACT government is certainly helping to ensure that our arts scene is diverse, dynamic and world class.
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