Further boost for Tasmania’s arts and cultural sector

Elise Archer,Minister for the Arts

The Tasmanian Government is an avid supporter of the State’s cultural and creative industries as evidenced by our early stimulus package for the sector to assist with the unprecedented challenges of COVID-19.

As Tasmania’s Minister for the Arts, I have been actively lobbying for further Federal Government support for Tasmania’s many artists and arts organisations. This sector is worth $179 million to the Tasmanian economy.

Today, I was delighted to hear that the Federal Government is providing $250 million for an Arts Stimulus Package.

The program will help people in the entertainment, arts and screen sectors move back into employment and will be delivered as a mix of grants and loans over 12 months, stimulating different parts of the $112 billion nationwide creative economy and supporting the more than 600,000 Australians the sector employs.

Measures contained in the Federal Arts Stimulus Package include:

  • Seed Investment to Reactivate Productions and Tours – $75 million in competitive grant funding in 2020-21 through the Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) Fund;
  • Show Starter Loans – $90 million in concessional loans to assist creative economy businesses to fund new productions and events that stimulate job creation and economic activity;
  • Kick-starting Local Screen Production – $50 million for a Temporary Interruption Fund, to be administered by Screen Australia, that will support local film and television producers to secure finance and start filming again, supporting thousands of jobs in the sector;
  • Supporting Sustainability of Sector-Significant Organisations – $35 million to provide direct financial assistance to support significant Commonwealth-funded arts and culture organisations facing threats to their viability due to COVID-19; and
  • Creative Economy Taskforce – establishment of a ministerial taskforce to partner with the Government and the Australia Council to implement the JobMaker plan for the creative economy.

The Federal Government has indicated guidelines for the grant and loan programs will be released over coming weeks and the members of the Creative Economy Taskforce will be announced.

The Tasmanian Government has been working hard to support participants in Tasmania’s arts sector through the challenges faced by COVID-19, providing $3.5 million in support for the industry.

In fact, Tasmania has provided the largest level of assistance for the cultural and creative sector per capita when compared to other states such as New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland.

We will continue to look at more ways to support the arts through these very challenging times that for many in the sector will continue for some time to come.

/Public Release. View in full here.