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A word from the Minister
Welcome to Artbeat . This edition comes at a time when Australia prepares for the most significant exposure ever of our national cultural life.
Both at home and abroad, Australian visual artists, actors, musicians, dancers, writers, and multimedia artists will have the opportunity to shine before a vast international audience.
We celebrate Australia Week in London in July, Australia Day at the World Expo 2000 in Hannover on 11 July, the Olympic Arts Festival, and the Festival of Pacific Art in Noumea in October.
There is much to celebrate at these landmark events. Not the least, the enduring importance of the arts and the role they play in our lives.
The Government has long recognised the importance of the arts-to our creative and intellectual life, to our economy, to our regional development and to the image Australia projects overseas.
This is why the recent Federal Budget continues the Government's strong and long-standing support for Australia's cultural sector by allocating $945 million to this vital area of the economy.
Key Budget initiatives for the cultural sector include:
- $43.3 million extra over four years to give a substantial funding boost to the nation's major performing arts companies, by implementing recommendations from the Major Performing Arts Inquiry chaired by Dr Helen Nugent. This takes Commonwealth funding to $66 million per year for these companies alone;
- $650 000 per year over three years to the National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA), to help its establishment on campus at the Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, and for recurrent costs;
- A significant investment in Australian film production with a commitment to in-principle triennial funding of $50 million per annum from 2001-02 until 2003-04, for the Australian Film Finance Corporation; and
- $3.2 million additional to the $36.9 million already allocated to the Centenary of Federation in 2001. A full year of programs and events will involve all Australians wherever they live.
We are extremely proud of our cultural sector, and look forward to watching it grow through these important initiatives.
Peter McGauran
Minister for the Arts and Centenary of Federation