The Age, Kerrie O’Brien
19 December 2025

A number of arts organisations are reeling after being told by Creative Victoria they will receive funding for only two years rather than the traditional four in the latest Creative Enterprises Program funding round.

Theatre Networks Australia chief executive Amrit Gill said the change to a two-year funding cycle was a problem for companies creating new works.

“If you are a commissioning, presenting, touring organisation, [a two-year funding cycle] makes it very difficult to operate,” she said. “That is our key concern there. We are very cognisant that that is the reality for a lot of arts organisations.

“It could mean commissioning fewer works, lower fees or lower incomes for artists going forward. That’s something that we are very concerned about. They are coming off a low base.”

Gill said there had not been an increase in community enterprise partnerships and multi-year organisation funding over the past 10 years.

“In real terms, for a lot of arts organisations, that is 35 to 40 per cent under what we should be on now, given the rise in all operating costs.

“A lot of organisations have been trading in deficit lately because they just haven’t been able to meet rising costs.”

Many industry service organisations – advocacy groups such as Theatre Network Australia, Arts Access Victoria, Regional Arts Victoria and youth music program The Push – have also been funded for two years rather than the traditional four.

“At this stage we do not know what the strategy is behind this decision,” Theatre Networks’ Gill said.

“Although we haven’t had official confirmation, we also understand there is no transitional funding for currently funded organisations that have been unsuccessful in this round,” Gill said.

“If they don’t have substantial reserves, they have to make some very tough and difficult decisions very quickly. Some are facing a funding cliff on December 31, when their current funding agreements end.

“Overall as a sector, we very much understand that the state is in financial difficulty, and really we just want transparency, consultation, collaboration and clarity in the way we work with the minister’s office and Creative Victoria.

“We need to do that if we are going to have to adjust; we need to be able to work collaboratively with them so that we don’t decimate the sector, and so we can maintain Victoria’s reputation as the creative state.”

10 of the 81 organisations funded in this round have been awarded significant grants for the first time, including Footscray-based group L2R Dance; Birrarangga Film Festival, celebrating Indigenous cinema and set up by actor Tony Briggs; Warrnambool’s Find Your Voice Collective, a choir for artists with a disability; and Circus Nexus.

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