Artists Sing For Their Supper
Bec Bowman spoke with with the Executive Director of the Chamber for the Arts and Culture of Western Australia Shelagh Magadza about some of the policies surrounding arts and culture funding.
The Arts and Culture sector is struggling even though we are experiencing an economic boom period. While arts infrastructure is being actively developed and will significantly boost jobs and opportunities for people in the creative space we are seeing a distinct lack of funding for live shows, festivals and audience facing performance.
COVID-19 is playing a role in the slowing down of the live entertainment scene, with smaller crowds and it being difficult for artists to tour the eastern states due to lockdowns and quarentiens. It’s not just local bands, pubs and clubs that are struggling. It’s everyone from big commercial festival organisers to homegrown Mum and Dad arts businesses that are struggling to find funding.
Bec Bowman and Shelagh Magadza help us wrap our heads around these ideas and what the plan is moving forward for the Arts and Culture Industry.
