Arts for Art's Sake?

The arts are for everyone. We are all of us at once an audience and at some point artists. Whether it's a garage band or symphony orchestra, artists need support.

Five years ago my daughter was a finalist in the Olympics of ballet, the Prix de Lausanne in Switzerland. She subsequently went to the Royal Ballet School in London. Pretty heady stuff for something that started as a Saturday morning friendly activity with other kids.

The arts define us culturally and contribute to a sense of identity. They entertain, provoke and offer interpretations of a sometimes shambolic world. Need political sanity? Satire is your friend. Thank you art.

Australian artists have always punched above their weight, but with diminished resources, we risk losing creatives and robbing ourselves of creative revenue and a source of pride.

The Creative economy

The creative economy employs over 400,000 people and contributes over 17 billion to the Australian economy¹ . It employs more people than the mining and IT sectors.

In an extraordinarily small world view in 2019 federal arts department was merged with the transport departments.

Funding the arts is not for fun. It's for our future.

For a thriving arts sector that employs hundreds of thousands and adds to our cultural identity, we need to reinstate funding and an Arts Ministry. If elected I will advocate for this incredibly important sector.

footnote. My daughter is no longer a ballet dancer. She is now studying design for performance. She's still an artist, one of 400,000 in the creative economy.

¹https://research.qut.edu.au/dmrc/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2018/10/Factsheet-2-Employment-by-sector-V6.pdf