Platform Papers > Issue 15: A Sustainable Arts Sector

A Sustainable Arts Sector:
What will it take?

by Cathy Hunt and Phyllida Shaw

Read the first three pages (PDF).

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Paperback. $13.95 rrp. Publication January 2008

ISBN 978-0-9802802-5-8, Series ISSN 1449-583-X

Sustainability in the arts is about much more than money. It suggests a willingness to learn and a commitment to the long-term. While in economic terms it means sustained success in competition, publicly-funded arts define success as producing something society values. This essay looks at the pillars of sustainability: a stable income, a supportive infrastructure and vibrant creativity.

Wherever governments support the arts, the demand for money outstrips the supply. This paper looks at how government agencies in Australia and Britain are beginning to complement traditional methods of subsidy with more multi-dimensional approaches to the achievement of artistic, financial and organisational sustainability. The time is right, the authors suggest, for Australia to get creative in its quest for a more sustainable arts sector. They propose the establishment of a public-private endowment fund that would support risk and innovation, long-term projects and their evaluation, and promote the value of the arts to Australia and Australians.Cathy Hunt is a founder of Positive Solutions in Brisbane and recently led a team investigating sustainability in Indigenous arts centres in far north Queensland.

Phyllida Shaw is a UK-based researcher and facilitator with extensive experience of the British arts funding system and of organisational development.

This issue also includes responses to Kay Ferres and David Adair.

Platform Papers invites considered responses to Cathy Hunt and Phyllida Shaw for publication in the April 2008 edition.