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Actors get behind campaign to restore Arts funding

TV faces join a national day of action to restore funding to the Australia Council.

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Television faces including Hugo Weaving, Robyn Nevin, Danielle Cormack, Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan are rallying behind a campaign to restore funding to the Arts community.

Funding cuts to the Australia Council will see the loss of 1300 jobs from 65 small to medium creative organisations around the country.

$60 million of cuts over four years was announced by the Federal government last month.

Amongst companies affected by the cuts are the National Association for the Visual Arts, the literary journal Meanjin, the Centre for Contemporary Photography, dance company Force Majeure, Legs on the Wall, PACT Centre for Contemporary Artists, Lismore-based Northern Rivers Performing Arts, Red Stitch Actors Theatre and the Next Wave festival.

Hugo Weaving said: “It’s vital theatre companies communicate the value of Australian arts to their audiences ahead of the federal election, so that the future remains bright for the whole arts sector. I stand with the arts and request the recent devastating cuts be reversed.”

The campaign kicks off today with a national day of action in protest at repeated cuts to cultural institutions and the Australia Council for the Arts.

After every single curtain call starting from Friday night until the election, performers from venues including the Sydney Theatre Company, Belvoir and Bell Shakespeare will address the audience — with an estimated 80,000 people expected to hear the message.

istandwiththearts.com

Source: News Corp, Fairfax

One Response

  1. God bless them for taking a stand. There are awful things afoot. In a country happy to fund its sporting people, what is happening to the arts sector is criminally shortsighted, deeply foolish, and unkind.

    I for one would not be alive today – and I mean that in the most literal sense – were it not for timely funding from the Australia Council. I can’t think of how many artists across all mediums, how many of our most beloved books, how many important theatrical projects and performances, etc etc, would never have come before the public, enriching their lives and the life of this country, were it not for the Australia Council.

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