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Paul Kelly: ‘If You Make Each Song Its Own World, The Bigger Picture Will Take Care Of Itself’

How Australia's Artists Protested Budget Cuts & Creative 'Excellence'

22 May 2015 | 3:23 pm | Mitch Knox

The #FreeTheArts 'mass dance action' was staged in capital centres all around the country this afternoon

Australia's artistic community rallied around itself in several capital cities across the country this afternoon in an organised "mass dance action" protesting impending budget cuts to the Australia Council Of The Arts in order to establish a so-called National Programme Of Artistic Excellence.

As the Australia Council has now explained in a statement, the cuts will have wide-ranging effects for the creative industries as the body is forced to withdraw its June grant round (March's will continue unaffected, to be announced in June), as well as suspend the six-year funding-for-organisations program, and cease offering the ArtStart, Creative Communities Partnerships Initiative and Artists In Residence programs.

"Working within budget constraints, the Australia Council will continue to deliver national and international development activity, dedicated support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, research, evaluation and capacity building," the statement reads. "The Council will maintain its strong connections with the sector and provide ongoing updates related to these changes."

With such far-reaching impacts on the horizon, it's unsurprising that the nation's creative communities were out in force today: in Melbourne, demonstrators converged on the ACCA Forecourt, in Southbank, offering up a very public and visually stunning display of synchronised protest against Attorney-General George Brandis' plans, while Bill Shorten took the opportunity to pop his head in for appearances:

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Canberrans were also well behind the movement, with the city's participants clearly putting in the effort to learn the moves to The Fondue Set's 'Hoofer Dance' ahead of time (at least for six seconds), as evidenced by this handy Vine:

In Brisbane, the demonstration had originally been planned for the similarly outdoors-and-in-your-face locale of King George Square, but permit restrictions resulted in the group being relocated to a nearby laneway adjacent to CBD creative hub Metro Arts; despite the closed-in environment, however, Queenslanders still gave it a red-hot go, with local industry figures such as state Greens Arts spokesperson Jonathan Sri - who delivered a heartfelt spoken-word poem as well as an impassioned speech - La Boite Theatre artistic director Todd MacDonald and Ground Control Music director Rick Chazan, who made a point to highlight the necessity of Australia Council and QMusic funding in creating nascent stars such as Emma Louise, taking the time to address the gathered crowd before the laneway got grooving (eventually):

"We are preaching to the converted but I think the most important thing is … that we get moving forward positively on this whole thing; that we don't start whinging and Brandis-bashing," MacDonald told the crowd. "That's got nothing to do with what's gonna get us going forward. We've got to get together — and the idea of independent art, it separates us so immensely — but the notion that I can look down here and see an ocean of faces from every artform is vital to what we do." 

Brisbane wasn't the only city to see key figures rear their heads, however; in Perth, proceedings were opened by Kyle J Morrison of national indigenous theatre organisation YirraYaakin, while Blue Room Theatre executive director Kerry O'Sullivan was also among the protesters, telling the faithful, "Now's the time to raise your voice and say this is not good enough," according to the Perth Institute Of Contemporary Arts (PICA):

Meanwhile, in Sydney - despite the weather - a solid crowd gathered at Hyde Park, with industry speakers in the NSW capital including photographer William Yang and Sydney Festival programming head Fiona Winning, as well as identities such as Creative City Sydney's Rachel Healy, Australian Theatre For Young People's Fraser Corfield and Macquarie University's Dr Liza-Mare Syron:

South Australian Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young stepped out for the Adelaide event, posing an excellent question over whether any other Minister would be granted the power to personally determine funding:

Events also took place in Hobart, Bathurst and Lismore. Don't forget, if you couldn't make it to one of today's protests, you could always sign the petition.

See a handful more pics and tweets from the country's demonstrations below.

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