Arts Hub
13 April 2016

The article for Arts Hub is no longer accessible to the public. Only parts of it are reproduced here. 

“The Director of the British School at Rome outlines the damage caused by cuts to the Australia Council’s budget, including the loss of an international residency program.

Last month, an open letter to the Prime Minister was published by ArtsPeak, the federation of national peak arts organisations, in which they called upon him to take ‘decisive action to restore sector and public faith in the government’s management of the arts and cultural portfolio’ following the chaos inflicted in 2015.

The letter’s publication has encouraged others to speak out in turn. ArtsPeak recently received a letter from Professor Christopher Smith, Director of the British School at Rome, in which he outlines the loss of an international residency program and the British School at Rome’s accompanying support, because of cuts to the Australia Council’s funding.

Smith’s letter begins, with permission:

Dear Ms Winikoff and Ms Beyer,

I have been encouraged to write by your open letter to Prime Minister Turnbull, and by some of my colleagues in the arts world in Australia…”