Vitalstatistix’s board is thrilled to announce that the organisation has been funded through Creative Australia’s Four Year Investment for Organisations (FYIO) program for 2025–2028.
Creative Australia (formerly the Australia Council) made the announcement of its investment into 159 small-to-medium arts organisations on Wednesday. Further details can be viewed HERE.
Provided through the Emerging and Experimental Art section of Creative Australia, the multi-year funding recognises and supports Vitalstatistix’s championing of contemporary arts practice, public dialogue, and progressive change through culture.
“Vitalstatistix is extremely pleased to secure this four year investment in what represents a significant achievement for the organisation, and an acknowledgment of the important national role we play. We welcome the stability, focus and opportunity that this funding affords us – our team, our partners and most importantly, the artists we work with,” said Vitalstatistix’s Chair, Angela Flynn.
“We are also buoyed by the overall acknowledgement of the emerging and experimental arts sector in this funding round, confirming the value of a strong and thriving arts ecology at all levels. We look forward to continuing to collaborate closely with our brilliant peers and partners, right across the country.”
Vitalstatistix’s Artistic Director/Co-CEO, Emma Webb OAM, said “This support will make a transformative difference to Vitals and the artistic, cultural and social practices we support. It enables us to plan ahead and include more artists and publics in our programs of performances, residencies, laboratories, events, collaborative projects, and professional development opportunities for artists.”
Vitalstatistix’s Executive Director/Co-CEO, Cassie Magin, said “In 2024, we will celebrate our 40th anniversary. This new funding will mean we can celebrate this milestone, knowing we are then entering our fifth decade in 2025 with stable support for our work with artists and our commitment to elevating experimental, progressive art and culture.”
Vitalstatistix’s 2024 artistic program is focused on feminist and queer performance practices that have been at the foundation of the organisation for four decades. We begin with the world premiere of I Hide in Bathrooms, by Astrid Pill and Collaborators, with Adelaide Festival and Insite Arts.
2024 is also the 15th anniversary of our experimental art lab Adhocracy and will include a bumper addition of this national initiative. Our full program will be announced in February 2024 with all events presented from our home, Waterside Workers Hall, Yartapuulti, Port Adelaide.
“In 2024 we also begin development on a range of new works and projects which will feature across our Four Year Investment for Organisations-funded programs from 2025. We are working with artists and artist-run collectives to support experimental and social practice-based art and culture, including artworks that speak directly to the intersectional feminism, labour rights, climate change and mutual aid, decolonisation and demilitarisation, and, of course, the public value of expansive, experimental art making to contemporary culture and community life,” said Webb.
Darling Vitals family, this is quite a long message and I appreciate the time you take to read it in these difficult days.
Our Federal funding outcome
Vitalstatistix was extremely disappointed to receive news on Friday that our Four Year Funding application for Federal Government support from 2021-2024 was declined by the Australia Council for the Arts.
As our dedicated supporters will remember, Vitalstatistix was defunded from multi-year Federal funding in 2016 alongside a swathe of colleagues from around Australia, in the wake of the Federal Government’s cuts to the arts under then Minister for the Arts, George Brandis.
In the four years since that loss of funding, Vitals still went from strength to strength.
We responded through prioritising our creative development programs – our residencies, labs and events such as Adhocracy, and their associated year-round public programs of free showings and artist talks, which we know our audiences love and regularly enjoy.
We also presented significant public projects including: works in partnership with Adelaide Festival, Adelaide Cabaret Festival, the Art Gallery of South Australia and many others; performance seasons at our beloved venue Waterside of exceptional Australian new works that South Australian audiences would otherwise not have seen; and our five year climate change project Climate Century, among other keynote projects.
We have spent the last year applying to the Australia Council’s Four Year Funding program for small-to-medium cultural organisations; proceeding through the expression-of-interest stage, submitted in April 2019, and then submitting a full application in November 2019. This is no small endeavour, practically and psychologically, as many of you know.
This latest funding outcome for Vitals does not technically represent a loss of funding, unlike some of our colleagues such as the brilliant Restless Dance Theatre – among many others –, to whom our hearts go out: we know the devastating shock of such an announcement.
However, for Vitals and many others, this heartbreaking result does represent a loss – one of potential, of work for artists, of new Australian art and culture, of the capacity to realise our vision for progressive contemporary art and community life.
For many of us, it feels like the Australia Council is in the business of palliative care at the moment. As Ben Eltham outlines, not for the first time, in his excellent Guardian piece yesterday, Australia Council funding has declined by nearly 20% since 2013; and around 60% of their budget is still quarantined for a small group of the largest performing arts companies. This doesn’t leave much left for small-to-medium organisations and especially for independent artists. It means that each time the Four Year Funding program is offered we will invariably see more and more small organisations defunded or unfunded.
As you would be aware, the Australian Government, rightly and in response to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, is currently spending an unprecedented amount of nearly $200 billion on various initiatives.
While some arts organisations and arts workers will benefit from some of these broader measures, as yet not one dollar of this spending has been put towards forward thinking arts specific initiatives to keep our sector alive. As Ben Eltham says, “There is enough money to fund Australian culture properly of course. It is simply a matter of political will.”
Of course, the times we are in show this to be the case for many areas we supposedly could not afford even a month ago – a raise in social security, free childcare for people who keep our society running, and many other things.
Somehow, in this current extraordinary environment, the arts have not managed to secure any new investment. This is how impotent the Australia Council, chaired by ex Rio Tinto mining boss Sam Walsh AO, has become. This is what the Federal Government thinks of the arts. We must work to change this.
We encourage our community to be actively involved in the current campaign for a Federal arts rescue package, to ensure no worker is left behind and to save our creators – please join and stay in touch with National Association for the Visual Arts, Live Performance Australia, Theatre Network Australia and the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance for actions that you can take. #CreateAustraliasFuture #SaveOurCreators #NoWorkerLeftbehind.
The future for Vitalstatistix
Vitals turned 35 years old in 2019 and we are not going anywhere but onwards.
While the Four Year Funding result has been extremely disappointing, to say the least, we are very fortunate to have the generous support of the Government of South Australia and the City of Port Adelaide Enfield, alongside the many larger cultural organisations we regularly partner with and of course our community of artists, audiences and supporters.
We are also fortunate to have current Australia Council project funding for Adhocracy, and we will make the most of their new small ‘Resilience’ grants, as we encourage all artists and small arts organisations to do.
We have our beautiful home, the Waterside Workers Hall, that provides our organisation an anchor for our contribution to contemporary art and community life. And we are extremely adept at making not much go far, Port Adelaide style!
Over the coming months we will be creating our plans for 2021 and beyond. These plans will focus on the things we do best – supporting artists to develop incredible new works, through residencies and artist labs; enabling them to show works-in-progress; connecting Australian artists; continuing to be a cultural hub in Port Adelaide; prioritising women, queer and First Nations artists; and undertaking keynote projects, where we can secure project funding and creative partnerships for these initiatives.
However, it is impossible to not grieve for the projects and works we had up our sleeves for you, if we had received the Four Year Funding, I will admit.
Meanwhile we are proceeding with our national call out for proposals for Adhocracy 2020, with some significant changes responding to the COVID-19 crisis. We are committed to getting this funding out to artists, so please do apply by May 25 – INFO HERE.
COVID-19
You can read our initial response to COVID-19 HERE.
In line with important public health measures, our venue Waterside is indefinitely closed and our staff team are working from home. This closure means that all of our 2020 public program, including some projects we had yet to announce, are cancelled or on hold until further notice. We are honouring all artists’ fees associated with these projects for the whole of 2020.
We are exploring other ways that we can offer some small, flexible funds to artists over this time and we have a number of new projects we still hope to announce for late 2020.
We know that our closure, and all the closures, significantly and disproportionately impact on the livelihood and mental health of independent artists. We remain committed to working for a better, fairer and just deal for artists and arts workers, and promoting community, kindness and justice more broadly.
Our love also goes out to the members of our choir-in-residence, Born on Monday – we know that not meeting weekly is really challenging and frustrating for many participants.
Comrades, all of you, we look forward to celebrating our reopening of Waterside with you at a time in the future. That is going to be one epic party.
Lastly, my big love to my wonderful staff team – Emma, Toby and Isobel – and my brilliant and supportive Board. Team Vitals is powering on.
In solidarity,
Emma Webb
Director, Vitalstatistix
Image Credit: Climate Century 2015 – Winds of Increasing Magnitudes by Sundari Carmody and Matthew Bradley. Photo by Sandra Elms.
Vitalstatistix has appointed a new Chair to our Board of Management on Tuesday night (May 14). Long-term board member Narelle Walker has stepped down after completing an eight-year term on the Vitalstatistix board including six years as Chair. Replacing Narelle is creative producer and First Nations leader Angela Flynn.
“Narelle has provided exceptional leadership to Vitalstatistix and our board of management, steering the organisation through a significant period of change and accomplishment. Her commitment and passion for Vitalstatistix has been boundless, and she has given significant time, leadership and a great deal of dexterity to the role. Narelle has always championed artists and workers in our organisation and has provided strength, generosity, a calm and always positive outlook and superb vision throughout the last eight years. We will miss her greatly – however we know she is forever part of the Vitals family and community.” – Emma Webb, Vitalstatistix Director
Angela Flynn has been a member of the Vitalstatistix board for two years prior to this appointment. Angela is a Tiwi, Larrakia and Chinese woman based in Adelaide where she works as a producer and arts manager. Angela is currently the director of Kukuni Arts, an independent arts management and production company, focused on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts.
Across her career, Angela has developed a depth of experience as a freelance producer that cuts across both the visual and performing arts. Angela was most recently the Performing Arts Manager for Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute and is the current Creative Producer for the Spirit Festival, South Australia’s premier Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander performing arts festival.
Angela has worked with several boards and committees within the arts including the SBS Cultural Advisory Committee, the Kurruru Youth Performing Arts Board, the Kura Yerlo Inc. Board, the TARNANTHI Cultural Advisory Committee, the BlakDance Board and the Arts Industry Council of SA Executive Committee. She is also an alumnus of the 2015 British Council Accelerate program.
“We are absolutely thrilled that Angela is stepping up to become Chair of Vitals after several years as a general member where she has contributed enormously to the artistic vision of our organisation, our work with First Nations artists, and has been a fantastic ambassador for Vitalstatistix. Angela’s national and international leadership is and will continue to be an important asset to Vitals. I am so looking forward to continuing our close work together.” – Emma Webb, Vitalstatistix Director.
“It has been such an enormous privilege to serve on the board of Vitals over the last eight years, and the last six as Chair have brought particular challenges and wonderful growth, both personally and for the organisation. I acknowledge my board colleagues, in particular Treasurer Rebecca Fraser and Deputy Jayne Boase for their brilliant support, and the indefatigable Emma Webb and the Vitals team who deliver a magnificent program Adelaide audiences each year. Vitals is in good hands with Angela Flynn taking over as Chair. Her industry insights and clear sighted approach will serve the company well in this next stage.” – Narelle Walker
“I would like to acknowledge the hard work and achievements of the outgoing chair Narelle Walker. Vitals has undoubtedly been changed for the better by Narelle’s championing of workers and artists, her vision and stewardship of the organisation through periods of great change and mostly her kindness, generosity and leadership. Narelle has been a great support to me in my time on the Vitals board and I know there are very big shoes to fill! I look forward to continuing and building upon Narelle’s work and wish her all the very best for her next chapter.” – Angela Flynn
