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Arts education on the “endangered” list in Australia
As a result of COVID-19 restrictions, most planned arts activities in Australia were cancelled or severely modified to the point of being unrecognisable in 2020. This was across the board, affecting all modes of artistic expression. By the end of April, more than $340 million in lost work had been reported to the ilostmygig website.
As many in the arts sector are painfully aware, the federal, state and territory governments offered little or no assistance, leaving many thousands of arts and entertainment workers on sub-poverty dole payments. This has been an extraordinarily long and difficult time for artistic communities to survive.
The New South Wales government has spent less than $13m of its $50m rescue package for arts organisations hit by the Covid-19 shutdown. When the scheme was first announced almost six months ago, the NSW government said the $50m Rescue and Restart funding would be distributed in two rounds. With the second round of grant applications now open to access $30.1m, it is not clear how almost $7m from the NSW government’s emergency scheme is being.
<strong>Exclusive: </strong>Almost half the Rescue and Restart funds spent so far went to one company, while concerns remain about lack of transparency in other grant allocations