Landmark multi-year funding for scores of organisations across Victoria will drive the recovery of the state’s creative industries.
113 Victorian creative entities – from icons like Melbourne International Comedy Festival and La Mama to ground-breaking collectives including fashion label The Social Studio and Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio – will share more than $85 million in funding.
This funding injection will allow creative organisations to plan ahead and create the art, experiences and festivals that Victoria is famous for.
Delivering on key actions of the four-year Creative State 2025 strategy, this funding opens up Creative Victoria investment to new and diverse organisations across a broader array of creative sectors than ever before. Some 25 of the recipients haven’t previously received multi-year government investment.
Bringing the strategy’s ‘First Peoples First’ principle to life, Koorie Heritage Trust, Songlines Aboriginal Music Corporation, Baluk Arts and Kaiela Arts are receiving funding boosts.
A further five First Peoples-led organisations are receiving multi-year support for the first time – Joel Bray Dance Company, Na Djinang Circus, fashion label Gammin Threads, Jacob Boehme Company and The Torch Project.
Funded organisations span Victoria including Bendigo’s Arena Theatre Company, Ballarat International Foto Biennale, Castlemaine State Festival, Arts Mildura, Community Burrinja Cultural Centre in the Dandenong Ranges, Warrnambool’s Find your Voice Collective, and Float Inc in Lake Tyers Beach.
Reflecting the diversity of Victoria’s creative talent, other recipients include Arts Project Australia, which works with artists with intellectual disabilities; acclaimed contemporary dance in the form of the Stephanie Lake Company; Asian-Australian literary platform Liminal; and Australia’s first and only Deaf Arts Festival, FLOW.
The funding, which supports organisations over either four or two years, has been provided through the new Creative Enterprises and Creative Ventures programs. Providing further certainty is additional funding through the Sustaining Creative Organisations COVID-recovery program.