Why Must They Devalue Art?
A Story about How the Art Industry will Always Fight Back
I used to be able to see the silver linings of 2020 a couple of months back but as the year progressed, I have felt more and more personally victimised by people in power in this country; In particular the head of universities and the government. For most of my life I have been told that art is useless and that artists are asking for too much when it comes to government funding. I’ve been told that it’s a sensible suggestion that when funds are low, the visual arts should be cut. In high school I was told that I should think about doing another type of job because there is no money in visual art and that I was least likely to get a job in the arts industry. I used to believe when I was younger that my art was meaningless and that I wasn’t worth much because of people telling me these messages when I was younger but now, I strongly beg to differ.
If I have one take away from my visual arts degree, it’s that art is not useless. Art is very much valuable in our society and it boosts the tourism industry. So why are government and academic institutions slashing away our funds and deleting so many good art courses? This is just one of the many benefits that the visual arts industry provides. The visual arts also give power to survillians urging democracy to continue and encouraging people to keep their democratic voices loud and hard to ignore. By encouraging people to harness their democratic voices, allows them to have choice in the world they are living in. The arts also give meaning to people’s lives. They help people with mental health issues, and they help drive activism in order to help us create a better world. The arts also help people to connect in this world and reminds us that we are not working machines, we are living breathing creatures who are always in pursuit of happiness and for a lot of people, art makes them happy. By destroying the arts, universities and governments are saying “We don’t care about your happiness. We only care about money and the pursuit of making it.”
During this pandemic, academic institutions have ignored the basic human right of enjoying and creating art and have used the economic crisis as an excuse to make drastic cuts to the arts. In my immediate art circle Kudo’s has lost its physical gallery space, my major has been cancelled, they are merging the visual arts with the arts and social sciences faculty, they have deleted courses such as the undergrad professional experience subject, and they have made funding cuts to the majority of galleries in Western Sydney. They have also made cuts to Visual Arts Degrees in the ACT and Queensland. My university has had two major exhibitions in protest of this. The first was IN THE WAKE which was an exhibition I took part in at Randwick Community Park which happened in August of 2020 and the second is the Anti Annual which has been on between the 9th until the 19th of December in various locations in the city such as Marrickville and Redfern. UNSW Art students are proving that they will not just accept these cuts and move on. UNSW Art students will not go down without a fight and this includes me.
When it comes to Western Sydney Galleries, they rely heavily on receiving government grants each year, which allows them to pay their gallery staff, in particular casual staff. In an article on the website Arts Hub Esther Anatolitis says that only $10 million of the state’s $59 million Arts and Cultural Funding Program in 2019–2020 was directed to regional artists and organisations while other arts organisations in the state are to receive a $28,000 boost of funding per year. With the constant closure of international borders and local economies struggling financially, it makes sense to boost arts funding as the visual arts industry will in turn boost the tourism industry. The recent Australia Council reported that those travelling for arts events are “more likely to stay longer and spend more” NSW arts funding is among the lowest in Australia. So, the government choosing to cut art funding is something that will put a spanner in the works when it comes to getting our economy back on track.
In an article in the Sydney Morning Herald Linda Morris writes that NSW needs $100 million in extra arts funding to keep up. She says that Victoria and Queensland spend far more on the arts than NSW’s does and with the population in NSW’s being much bigger than both Queensland and Victoria, it doesn’t make much sense. Not only is NSW behind in the Contemporary Art Industry but it is also very behind in the teaching of it. In 2013 The University of Sydney started discussing a desire to get rid of their Lilyfield Visual Arts campus and merge them with their main campus. Sydney College of The Arts was one of UNSW Art and Design’s main competitors when it came to Visual Arts Academic Institutions, but it has now lost the ability to stand out as an art school. Sydney College of The Arts was the only University in NSW where you could study glass blowing but now it has lost one of the major qualities that made it stand out.
UNSW started its decline when it fired Tess Allas in 2019. Allas had worked at UNSW for over 13 years as the Director of Indigenous programs and had helped many Indigenous Visual Arts students Graduate and find their place in University. With the firing of Tess Allas, students started to lose trust in the management of the university. When the pandemic started it put the university in a very difficult position and instead of evenly spreading the funds in the university many casual staff lost their jobs and courses were deleted. Then they decided to merge our faculty with the Arts and Social Sciences faculty leaving students unsure whether they will be able to keep their Paddington Campus. The Pandemic also saw the end of the Kudos physical gallery space which heavily disadvantaged students wanting to do gallery internships, professional exhibitions and experimental exhibiting opportunities. UNSW Art and Design students are angry and their commitment to protect their faculty deeply shows with their Anti-Annual Exhibition. Their main objectives are ~ Demonstrate an apology, accountability and tangible amends to Tess Allas, and Uncle Vic Chapman. Reinstate staff cuts — including all workers from full time staff, academic, and non-academic, and casuals. Restore cut courses — we think in particular of the rigorous Art Theory courses, of which have been slowly removed since the University degree cut in 2019. Implement accessible amenities on campus including, but not limited to, gender neutral bathrooms, ramps & lifts. The Anti-Annual was spread out over 4 venues in Sydney, 107 Projects, Airspace, Join the Dots, and Flow Studios. They set up an online fund and as I write this article, they are $300 away from their $5000 goal.
It clearly shows that it’s not just artists and art students that care about funding cuts to the arts. There are many spectators of art that would fight to keep the arts going as well. The former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s wife was particularly a lover and supporter of the visual arts. In an article about her in The Guardian, it states Lucy Turnbull has also served on the boards of the National Portrait Gallery, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Australian Museum and the Sydney festival, and as a commissioner of the Australian pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale. Lucy Turnbull was also the former mayor of Sydney so as you can see, not all politicians are against the arts. It seems that politicians that are against visual arts funding are also against support of the working class and would rather feed the economy with overseas trade rather than boosting our economy at home.
If Covid-19 has taught us anything, it’s that supporting our local economy is important. One way we can actually support our local economy is to boost funding to visual arts. As a result of the harsh cuts to visual arts funding many visual art student graduates may not have a possible job to go to. Many casual staff already employed in regional galleries may lose their jobs and many art students at UNSW, ANU and QCA will lose opportunities to study in areas that may be their specialty. So, in turn many of us may have to find other jobs in other areas that our university degrees did not train us for. This will not stop our determination and drive to make things better for the visual arts industry. As I look at additional employment options for after my degree, I will not be doing floristry or retail forever. These are jobs I will have to do to survive whilst I continuously work even harder to get a job in the art industry and if these poor conditions towards arts students continue into 2021, then I will definitely be taking part in the next Anti Annual.
Bibliography
Anatolitis, E, “Defunding Regional Arts NSW won’t ‘make funding stretch further’.”. in ArtsHub Australia, , 2020, <https://www.artshub.com.au/news-article/features/grants-and-funding/the-conversation/defunding-regional-arts-nsw-wont-make-funding-stretch-further-261376> [accessed 20 December 2020].
Morris, L, “NSW needs $100m in extra arts funding to keep up.”. in The Sydney Morning Herald, 2020, <https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/nsw-needs-100m-in-extra-arts-funding-to-keep-up-20180323-p4z5xc.html> [accessed 20 December 2020].
Bacon, W, “UNSW sacks Indigenous artist — City Hub Sydney | Your Local Independent News.”. in City Hub Sydney | Your Local Independent News, 2020, <https://cityhubsydney.com.au/2019/12/unsw-sacks-indigenous-artist/> [accessed 20 December 2020].
Jabour, B, “Lucy Turnbull: the illustrious career of Australia’s new ‘first lady’.”. in the Guardian, 2020, <https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/sep/15/lucy-turnbull-the-illustrious-career-of-australias-new-first-lady> [accessed 20 December 2020].
“The Anti Annual”. in , 2020, <https://www.unswaad.com/> [accessed 20 December 2020].
Barnes, J, “Defunding arts degrees is the latest battle in a 40-year culture war.”. in The Conversation, 2020, <https://theconversation.com/defunding-arts-degrees-is-the-latest-battle-in-a-40-year-culture-war-141689> [accessed 20 December 2020].
“Police forcibly remove Sydney College of the Arts student barricade after 65 days”. in, 2020, <https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/police-forcibly-remove-sydney-college-of-the-arts-student-barricade-after-65-days-20161025-gsaj30.html> [accessed 21 December 2020].
in arts.gov.au, , 2020, <https://www.arts.gov.au/covid-19-update> [accessed 21 December 2020].
