Creative Australia
Creative Australia, formerly known as the Australia Council for the Arts and the Australia Council, is the country's official arts council, serving as an arts funding and advisory body for the Government of Australia.
The council was announced in 1967 as the Australian Council for the Arts, with the first members appointed the following year. It was made a statutory corporation by the passage of the Australia Council Act 1975. It became the Australia Council in 2013, and then Creative Australia, with a new organisational structure, from 24 August 2023.
The organisation has included several boards within its structure over the years, including more than one incarnation of a Visual Arts Board, in the 1970s–80s and in the early 2000s.
History
Prime Minister Harold Holt announced the establishment of a national arts council in November 1967, modelled on similar bodies in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. It was one of his last major policy announcements prior to his death the following month. In June 1968, Holt's successor John Gorton announced the first ten members of the council, which was initially known as the Australian Council for the Arts. Economist H. C. Coombs became the first chairman of the body, while the other members included radio quizmaster Barry Jones, school principal Betty Archdale, magazine editor and state Liberal MP Peter Coleman, socialite Virginia Erwin, architect Karl Langer, author Geoffrey Dutton, theatre producer Jeana Bradley, arts patron Mary Houghton, and retired academic Kay Masterman.The council issued its first grants in December 1968, which were distributed via the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust as the council did not yet have its own financial apparatus. Gorton stated that the council "had adopted a principle widely accepted that high standards can best be achieved by a concentration of available funds, rather than by a thin spread over a wide area". The council subsequently received criticism from smaller professional and semi-professional companies, leading to the establishment of an Arts Special Projects Fund to assist smaller organisations. In December 1969, Coombs announced a new formula for grants whereby organisations could only receive a maximum of two-thirds of their budget from the council.
In February 1973, Prime Minister Gough Whitlam announced a new structure for the council whereby funding recommendations would be made by seven autonomous boards for different areas of the arts. Later that year, the council produced a report recommending that it be established as a statutory corporation.
Aboriginal Arts Board (1973)
The Aboriginal Arts Board was created in 1973. Comprising Aboriginal Australian artists, writers and performers, its purpose was "to stimulate Indigenous Australian arts and lead to the preservation of many art forms almost lost since the settlement of Australia by Europeans". Dick Roughsey was the inaugural head of the board, followed by Yolngu artist and activist Wandjuk Marika. One of its earliest activities was the hosting of a seminar called Aboriginal Arts in Australia at the Australian National University, with around 800 attendees, with the intention of working out how government could best support Aboriginal culture and art in the future.When created, AAB had similar aims as the Aboriginal Publications Foundation, leading to some duplication of work by the two bodies. From mid-1975, promotional work carried out by the APF was put under the control of the AAB, while the APF became a referral body for the AAB. The APF was wound down, with its main responsibility the publication of the quarterly journal Identity until its closure in 1982.
The Australia Council became the biggest consumer of Aboriginal art, as there was not much interest in it during those years. Works were bought directly from artists, and often sent to galleries in the US and Canada.
The Board was later renamed the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board or ATSIA Board, and is as of 2021 the ATSIA Panel.
Change of name (1975)
After being given statutory authority in March 1975 by the Australia Council Act under the Whitlam government, it was renamed to Australia Council. The Council then incorporated other government projects, such as the Commonwealth Literary Fund and the Commonwealth Art Advisory Board.The Visual Arts Board existed during the 1970s and mid-1980s.
In 1978, the Australia Council began managing and supporting the national representation in the Australia Pavilion in the Venice Biennale.
21st century
The Visual Arts/Craft Board was renamed the Visual Arts Board around 2007–8.The Council's operations were independently reviewed in 2012, and the Australia Council Act 2013 commenced on 1 July 2013.
In early 2014 federal Arts Minister George Brandis and Minister for Communications Malcolm Turnbull told artists at the Sydney Biennale that they were ungrateful and selfish to protest about the role of Transfield in the Nauru immigration detention centre. In December 2014, Brandis withdrew a large portion of literature funding from Australia Council.
In May 2015, Brandis cut $26 million a year for four years from Australia Council arts funding, a third of its arts funding, receiving significant criticism from the arts community. The money was reallocated to a new program, the National Program for Excellence in the Arts. NPEA in turn was criticised by many artists and arts organisations for lacking the "arms-length" funding principles that had applied to the relationship between the government and Australia Council since its inception in the 1970s. These principles have traditionally had bipartisan support. Brandis was criticised previously for giving Melbourne classical music record label Melba Recordings a $275,000 grant outside of the usual funding and peer-assessment processes. Brandis's changes to funding arrangements, including the quarantining of the amount received by Australia's 28 major performing arts companies, were widely seen to disadvantage the small-to-medium arts sector and independent artists.
Following Malcolm Turnbull's successful spill of the leadership of the Liberal party in September 2015, Brandis was replaced as arts minister by Mitch Fifield. In November Fifield gave back $8 million a year for four years to Australia Council, changed the NPEA to the Catalyst Fund, and stressed it would have a focus on smaller arts projects. The arts community was not impressed by the changes.
As a result of the reduced funding, Australia Council cancelled project funding rounds for small groups and individuals in 2015 and then cut funding to over 60 arts organisations across the country in May 2016. Small arts organisations such as the Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia, Leigh Warren & Dancers and many others were affected, forcing them to contract, merge or make drastic changes to their programs.
In 2019, the Australia Council took over the commissioning of works for the Venice Biennale, which it does by open call for proposals. The final selection is made by five independent experts, who first shortlist of six artists before selecting the successful candidate.
''Revive'' national cultural policy (2023)
The Australia Council Act 2013 was amended by the Australia Council Amendment Act 2023, by which instrument the new name and organisational structure was created on 24 August 2023, described as "an expanded and modernised Australia Council". The number of board members was doubled from 12 to 24, but it continues to be known as the Australia Council Board. Councils for Music Australia and Creative Workplaces were created.The Music Australia Council was appointed by Arts Minister Tony Burke in August 2023, consisting of eight members. The new legislation establishing this division came into effect on 24 August 2023.
The Creative Workplaces Council was announced on 11 August 2023 and commenced in their roles on Thursday 24 August 2023.
Still to follow are the First Nations-led Board and Writers Australia, as outlined in the National Cultural Policy and the "Corporate Plan 2023–27".
In July 2024, the Creative Australia Amendment Act 2024 created First Nations Arts and Writing Australia, which would be on equal footing with Creative Workplaces and Music Australia. This is the final piece of legislation in establishing all the functions of Creative Australia under the National Cultural Policy, Revive.
The First Nations Board members were announced in September 2024. The Act also establishes Writing Australia, due to commence on 1 July 2025.
In May 2025, the chair of the agency, Robert Morgan, stepped aside in favour of his deputy, playwright Wesley Enoch, as an interim replacement.
Function and governance
Creative Australia is the Australian Government's principal arts funding and advisory body. Its purpose is to promote and invest in Australian arts. It is "accountable to the Australian Parliament, and to the Government through the Minister for the Arts".People
Adrian Collette became CEO of the Australia Council in January 2019 and remains in the position as CEO of Creative Australia as of 2023. He was formerly chief executive of Opera Australia.Sam Walsh was appointed chair of the Australia Council in 2016. In July 2021, Robert Morgan was appointed chair. Morgan has a degree in economics, and had been head of Australia's largest advertising and marketing business, Clemenger Group, but is also passionate about the arts, and was a member of the board of Opera Australia for over 10 years.
Since 24 August 2023 and as of 2023, Robert Morgan is the chair and Wesley Enoch deputy chair of Creative Australia.