With Victoria’s next state election approaching, a coalition of artists, cultural organisations and industry bodies has launched Don’t Break Our Arts – a grassroots campaign calling for the restoration and increased investment of state funding for the arts and cultural sector.
The campaign is seeking firm commitments from the Victorian Government and all election candidates to restore funding for artists and cultural organisations, arguing that years of reductions have placed significant pressure on the sector and threaten the state’s longstanding reputation as a national cultural centre.
Backed by peak bodies and unions including Writers Victoria, Theatre Network Australia, the National Association for the Visual Arts, the Public Galleries Association of Victoria and the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance, Don’t Break Our Arts plans to take its campaign directly into electorates, with a series of actions in marginal seats and a rally planned for early November.
“The arts have always been an essential part of human existence,” said Ursula Searle, Equity President of the MEAA in Victoria. “The ability for all people to participate in, enjoy and share art is absolutely vital to every community. As artists, we deserve economic recognition for the significant role art plays in democracy and the enjoyment of life.”
The campaign is expected to focus particularly on inner-city electorates including Footscray, Northcote, Albert Park and Preston, as well as regional electorates such as Macedon, where there are significant communities of cultural workers.
At the heart of the campaign is a stark assessment of the state’s recent funding trajectory. According to budget analysis by Monash University lecturer Dr Ben Eltham, Victorian Government funding for artists and small-to-medium cultural organisations has declined by 35 per cent in real terms since 2022.
For some organisations, the consequences have already been decisive. Abbotsford Convent, Writers Victoria and Australian Print Workshop are among Victorian cultural organisations that have lost their arts funding entirely, while funding available to independent artists has also been substantially reduced.
The campaign argues that the impact extends well beyond the organisations directly affected. Small companies, studios and artist-run spaces provide the entry point for many emerging artists and creative practitioners, developing the talent and ideas that eventually contribute to Victoria’s broader cultural landscape.
As the campaign puts it, without that pipeline, the next generation of artists, writers, performers and musicians faces an increasingly difficult path into professional creative life.
“The arts in Victoria are in crisis,” said Max Delany, campaign organiser and former director of the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. “Funding has been slashed to artists and the small-to medium sector. We know some organisations are facing closure and artists are leaving the sector – it is now becoming existential for many.”
Victoria’s reputation as a cultural capital was not created overnight. It has been built through decades of investment in artists, cultural workers, organisations, infrastructure and local communities. Melbourne’s festivals, theatres, galleries, music venues and independent creative spaces have all benefited from that ecosystem.
The question now being put to political candidates is what role government should play in sustaining it. Don’t Break Our Arts is seeking a commitment not simply to preserve what remains, but to restore funding and establish a stronger foundation for the next generation of Victorian artists and cultural organisations.
With the election campaign yet to formally begin, the arts sector is making its position clear: cultural funding will be an election issue, and the campaign intends to ensure that artists and audiences are part of the conversation.
For more information about the Don’t Break Our Arts campaign and to get involved, visit: www.dontbreakourarts.org for details.
Image: Don’t Break Our Arts (supplied)