Australia’s symphony orchestras join cultural organisations and Australian musicians, artists and creators in celebrating the release of Revive, the National Cultural Policy.
“We warmly welcome the release of this important policy, and the significant investment of funds into our sector after the challenging times we have all faced in recent years” stated Sophie Galaise, Managing Director of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Chair of Symphony Services Australia.
The restoration of arts funding that was cut in 2014 is particularly welcomed, as is the establishment of the newly created Creative Australia. The fourth Pillar of the Policy, Strong Cultural Infrastructure, recognises and will provide support for cultural institutions of all sizes. As major employers of Australian musicians, conductors, composers and arts workers the orchestras welcome additional investment that will support our ongoing ability to play an important role as large performing arts companies and critical enabling arts infrastructure.
The orchestras recognise that the detail contained in Revive will require time to be translated into action. We congratulate the Government on the vision contained in the Policy.
“We note the emphasis on collaboration across portfolios” said Galaise. “This is something the orchestras have supported for some time. We applaud the goal of using a variety of investment, regulatory, revenue and policy mechanisms to reflect that arts and culture are part of every Australian’s life and experience."
Revive offers the blueprint for our sector to realise its full potential, and we recognise some of the core actions in the five-year plan are yet to be funded. We encourage the Albanese Labor Government to fully leverage this once-in-a-generation opportunity to appropriately invest in the complete plan, and we look forward to further announcements on these financial commitments in the coming months. Australia’s symphony orchestras will play an active role in realising the full potential of the National Cultural Policy.
Symphony orchestras continue to make a significant impact in our community through education programs, health and wellbeing activities, impact in regional and remote communities and much more. The orchestras applaud Revive’s reference to incentivising giving and private investment through matched funding programs and taxation incentives, and encourage the Government to extend these initiatives to the funding of a Reserves Incentive scheme.
Australia’s six symphony orchestras collectively employ 433 permanent, full-time musicians plus a further 721 casual musicians and 440 administrative staff. In 2021 we delivered 833 performances of works by 186 different Australian creators, including 113 commissions of new Australian works. [1]
[1] Data provided by the six state symphony orchestras for calendar year 2021.