Victorian arts organisations to receive $6 million in RISE funding
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06.09.2021

Victorian arts organisations to receive $6 million in RISE funding

Teamlab Borderless
Photo: teamlab.art
Words by Lucas Radbourne

Victorian arts organisations have been allocated $6 million in federal government funding amid a spate of further cancellations.

The funding is being allocated from the federal government’s RISE fund, which has now spent $160 million of its total $200 million funding allowance.

Victoria has received just over $6 million of the $20 million in total that’s been allocated in this funding wave. The Melbourne Fringe has received just under $1 million in funding after announcing it would have to cancel its physical festival program due to lockdown restrictions.

What you need to know

  • Victorian arts organisations will receive a further $6 million in funding
  • It’s part of an Australia-wide $20 million arts funding round
  • The federal government’s RISE fund only has $40 million left to allocate

Stay up to date with what’s happening in Melbourne here.

The Melbourne Digital Concert Hall and Straberry Music Festival have both received around $400,000, while the Melbourne Art Foundation has received just under $200,000. Half of the total funding in this wave has gone to regional organisations across Australia.

“This latest $20 million of funding is creating a pathway to recovery that will support nearly 23,000 jobs in more than 560 locations, more than half of which are located in regional and remote Australia,” federal arts minister Paul Fletcher said.

“As the vaccine rollout continues at a strong pace, with 60 per cent of Australians 16 and over now having received at least one dose, it is important that our arts and entertainment sector is primed to get activity restarted just as soon as public health requirements allow. The National Plan clearly sets out the key benchmarks for opening up at 70 and 80 per cent vaccination levels.

“As those benchmarks come into sight, funding under RISE has a critical role in catalysing the restart of activity. RISE funding, under this round and previous rounds, has been allocated to an extensive range of projects, across all states and territories, and across many different forms of arts and entertainment.

“The Morrison Government’s objective, in providing this record level of funding for arts and entertainment, is that as states and territories open up, arts companies, promoters and festivals are ready to go. We want to see venue doors thrown open to audiences; we want to see the curtains going up; and we want to see performers coming on stage to a welcoming roar of applause.”

While the federal government has allocated $1 billion in arts funding in its 2021/22 budget, the arts sector has been one of the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The arts brought in over $17 billion to the Australian economy in 2018/19.

Read the full media release and list of organisations here.