Over $30 million to restart NSW arts & cultural organisations

30 Years of Sixty Five Thousand (detail), Bangarra Dance Theatre. Photo: Daniel Boud.

In major step towards recovery, the arts and culture sector will soon receive $30.1 million through the second stage of the NSW Government’s Rescue and Restart package.

Stage 2 of the Rescue and Restart package will help the recovery of over 160 companies, including significant investment for 60 organisations across regional NSW, with more than $24.2 million in funding to immediately kickstart their programs.

The Stage 2 funding allocation has focused on Create NSW multi-year and annually funded organisations as they have the greatest capacity to stimulate the not-for-profit arts and cultural sector. Funding amounts are based on average turnover from 2018 and 2019 and capped to a maximum of $750,000 per company to ensure a wide funding distribution.

$2.5 million has been allocated to support sector specific initiatives, including contemporary music, literature and writing as well as to support a regional residency program for individual artists across a wide range of artforms.

A new competitive funding round will open in the new year, with $1.75 million available to not-for-profit NSW arts and cultural organisations not otherwise eligible for funding under this package. More information, including guidelines and details on how to apply will be available on the Create NSW website in early 2021.

To support smaller organisations during this challenging time, $1.5 million from Stage 1 funding has been allocated to help volunteer, community-based arts and cultural organisations remain operational with one-off grants of up to $5,000.

Image: 30 Years of Sixty Five Thousand (detail), Bangarra Dance Theatre. Photo: Daniel Boud.

Published: 10 November 2020