Australia’s principal arts funding body has revised its grants programmes in response to major budget cuts.

The Australia Council for the Arts have published an outline of revisions to its grants programmes in response to the major funding cuts announced in the 2015-16 Federal Budget. In addition to almost $105 million dollars, redirected from the Australian Council to fund the new Ministry for the Arts administered National Programme for Excellence in the Arts, the budget also imposed mandatory “efficiency savings” of $7 million over the same period. In the immediate aftermath of the budget cuts the Australia Council announced the cancellation of applications to its June funding round and the suspension of its new six-year funding programme, as well as three other programmes aimed at supporting emerging individuals and arts organisations: the ArtStart, Creative Communities Partnerships and the Artists in Residence initiatives.

“The Board and Executive have carefully considered how we can provide the most effective support to Australian artists and arts organisations within the framework of the Council’s legislative functions and Strategic Plan goals,” Australia Council CEO Tony Grybowski said in a statement issued this morning. “The revised funding model has been developed in response to the budget...