The Victorian Government has announced a $16.8 million arts survival package
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The Victorian Government has announced a $16.8 million arts survival package

Due to COVID-19, most of the nation’s art’s institutions have closed their doors for the foreseeable future to help contain the spread of the virus, including theatres, galleries, live music venues and more, causing the industry to come to a halt.

On Friday, the Victorian Government announced a $16.8 million survival package designed to save hundreds of jobs in Victoria’s creative and cultural sector, and ensure the cultural sector can survive the shutdown.

The package was presented by Victoria’s Minister for Creative Industries Martin Foley who stated; “Victoria is proudly the creative state. Even in these unprecedented times, our creatives continue to find ways to connect and inspire us – but they are doing it tough and they need our help.

“Ensuring that our cultural and creative sector gets through to the other side of this crisis will be critical to Victoria’s economic, social and cultural recovery.”

The funding – which consists predominantly of new money rather than monies repurposed from existing programs within Creative Victoria – will provide immediate support to Victorian arts organisations and individuals, helping them sustain employment, develop new works, provide opportunities for creative community participation and keep Victorians connected through the Coronavirus crisis.

The arts survival package consists of two separate streams.

The first is a new $13 million Strategic Investment Fund for arts organisations, designed to provide them with stability and meet immediate and urgent needs during the coronavirus shutdown. This will be shared by almost 100 non-government arts and cultural organisations including festivals, performing arts companies, and museums and galleries. Collectively, these organisations employ almost 2,000 people and generate $270 million for the Victorian economy each year.

The second stream is a new $2.2 million Sustaining Creative Workers initiative, which will support individual artists and micro-organisations by allowing them to continue work on existing projects, create new works, develop skills, and conduct research and/or market exploration. Within this stream, grants of $5,000 will be available for individuals, and $10,000 for micro-organisations and businesses. An additional $2,500 in access funding will be available for creatives with a disability, and disability-led organisations.

A further $1.6 million from existing grants programs has also been fast-tracked and will be invested directly into the sector over the next three weeks.

Details of the latest grants will be available at Creative Victoria from midday on Monday 27 April.

Photo is sourced from Melbourne Fringe, whose annual festival will be presented in November, is one of the many Victorian organisations to be receiving support through the Strategic Investment Fund.