Where did the music money go?
An investigation into the arts grant application process during the Covid-19 pandemic
Chris Brownbill is having a demoralising year.
His income as a musician and as the owner of Underground Audio recording studio in Brisbane turned from measly to nothing when the coronavirus pandemic obliterated the performing arts industry in an instant in March, due to public gathering restrictions.
But perhaps what was worse was trying to access help.
When he applied for a relief grant from the music crisis charity Support Act, Mr Brownbill was confronted with what he called a “very intrusive” process. He was asked to provide a detailed financial breakdown of his annual expenses and income on a fortnightly basis. Upon viewing Mr Brownbill’s financial breakdown, a counsellor from Support Act suggested he spend less on his mental health.
“I didn’t really wanna have the conversation with her. I’ve been in and out of hospital so many times, and seen so many different psychologists and psychiatrists and doctors and I have a system now that really works for me,” Mr Brownbill said.
Support Act initially told Mr Brownbill they wouldn’t be able to help him because they didn’t consider him an eligible musician as a studio owner – a further dispiriting accusation.
“I record bands all day every day. I provide a rehearsal space and studio for a huge part of the underground community in Brisbane. It’s pretty weird to have to validate myself like that,” he said.
Eventually, the charity forced Mr Brownbill to “fudge some numbers” in order to have him considered for a grant as an individual artist, rather than a business owner – the real reason for his application. He received $1100 paid directly to his landlord and two $50 Coles vouchers. Mr Brownbill was grateful for any money at all, but didn’t understand the system or why it was so difficult to apply.
“It just seemed like it was being made up on the spot as they were going,” he said.
“Other friends [who applied] have had better financial situations than I have and gotten three months of their rent paid and other friends I have that are in worse situations than me were able to only get one week rent paid from Support Act.
“I just want a different system that has more organisation, more structure and much, much more detail.”
ABS statistics canvassing the three months following the March shutdown show job vacancies in the arts and recreation sector dropping by 95%, while total employment in the arts declined by 35%.
Mr Brownbill is one of thousands of freshly unemployed Australian musicians and artists finding grants application processes difficult and uncomfortable amidst the pandemic, reflecting problems with grants as a means of support for the arts industry at large.
Chris Brownbill, Brisbane musician and owner of Underground Audio recording studio. Mr Brownbill was told by Support Act to spend less on his mental health to assist in his eligibility for a financial grant. Photo supplied.
Chris Brownbill, Brisbane musician and owner of Underground Audio recording studio. Mr Brownbill was told by Support Act to spend less on his mental health to assist in his eligibility for a financial grant. Photo supplied.
Why Support, Support Act?
Support Act has been the beneficiary of most, if not all major emergency appeals for the music industry during the coronavirus pandemic.
The charity provides crisis relief services to artists, crew and music workers via grants and operates a 24 hour Wellbeing Helpline open to anyone working in Australian music or the arts industries. From the beginning of the performing arts’ industry coronavirus shutdown in March, Support Act says there has been an 883% increase in demand for their services; grant requests have reportedly numbered over 1000 in the succeeding months.
“I think we need to trust people enough to just give them money. Because the problems that people face are often about low incomes or no income at all.”
But Support Act’s grant system is unusual. The charity does not provide cash to grant recipients – it can only pay bills and/or debtors, like landlords or utilities companies. To be eligible, applicants must prove that their household expenses exceed household income (with assets included), and that they have worked professionally in music for three years (reduced from five years pre-COVID) with two professional referees.
Grant applicants seeking to prove their household expenses exceed household income must provide Support Act with a detailed breakdown of their annual expenses on a fortnightly basis – leading to some of the unsolicited advice given to Mr Brownbill. Another grant recipient who did not wish to be named for fear of having their grant revoked, said he himself falsified the cost of bills in order to meet the requirement.
Confused about Support Act's process? Watch an explainer below.
Ben Eltham, cultural policy researcher and lecturer in media and communications at Monash University’s School of Media, Film and Journalism, criticised the system as “paternalistic”.
“If they are paying creditors and not just giving money to people, I have a problem with that,” Mr Eltham told City Journal.
“I think we need to trust people enough to just give them money. Because the problems that people face are often about low incomes or no income at all.”
Support Act CEO Clive Miller defended not dispensing cash grants as “historically how it’s been done”.
“It was set up that way just to ensure that the payments actually did go to where they were intended,” Mr Miller told City Journal.
“We have discussed that on several occasions whether, in fact, I mean, it would be a lot simpler for us if we just gave people cash. One would imagine that for the majority of people, they would apply those funds in the way that they're intended…[But changing it] is not something that really is on the agenda at the moment.”
Support Act CEO Clive Miller. Photo credit: Campbell Manderson.
Support Act CEO Clive Miller. Photo credit: Campbell Manderson.
In addition to dispensing $50 Coles supermarket vouchers, Support Act partnered with fast food chain Nandos in July and provided meal vouchers redeemable only at their physical restaurants. Miller confirmed the rationale for doing so was to again ensure money supplied by the charity was spent correctly.
“They’re a fundamental part of the assessment process. We might pay someone’s rent and give them food vouchers. They’re an integral part of what we do,” he said.
However, Mr Miller admitted the Nandos vouchers “wouldn't be much good” to those living under strict lockdowns like that in Melbourne.
The more unusual processes of Support Act are significant, as on April 9, 2020, the federal government announced it would grant $10million to the charity to provide “immediate crisis relief to artists, crew and music workers affected by COVID-19”. The federal grant was an unprecedented one, Mr Miller confirmed, raising questions around the appropriateness of delegating the bulk work of industry support to a non-government body.
A spokesperson for the Minister for Communications, Cyber Safety and the Arts, Paul Fletcher, told City Journal Support Act had not requested the federal grant. The decision to provide the funds was purportedly informed by several industry proposals by arts entities, including Live Performance Australia, which requested a higher amount of overall stimulus to the domestic creative arts industry, with some of that money going towards Support Act.
The spokesperson confirmed the government did not provide the $10million grant to Support Act with any assumptions as to whether grant recipients were receiving JobSeeker or JobKeeper benefits – but Miller said they considered it in the amount awarded to grant recipients.
“We do take [government benefits] into account. We have different tiers that we apply, so people that don't have any benefits, will receive a little bit more money than people that are on benefits. That's a key part of our assessment,” he explained.
Statistics on Support Act grant recipients supplied by Miller indicate nearly 70% of applicants receive government benefits. He noted the majority of Support Act grant recipients who were not also receiving JobSeeker or JobKeeper benefits were Australian artists living and working overseas.
City Journal lodged a Freedom of Information request with The Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications for the final briefing materials on the federal provision of $10million to Support Act. The department declined to release either of the two documents subject to the request, citing the confidentiality of the Cabinet process and an official opinion from the Department of Prime Minister & Cabinet. Read the rejection letter below.
Mr Miller differentiates Support Act from “competitive” arts grants. But the demographics of the charity’s grant applicants suffers from some of the same inequities as other arts grants, skewing 70% male.
“We have less control over the gender split. We can't dictate who applies...You know, we're just trying to make sure that we're providing the information as broadly as possible and encouraging as diverse a response as possible,” Miller said.
A state-by-state breakdown of Support Act grants in 2020 is below.
More Than Skin Deep
The handling and distribution of grants by Support Act are emblematic of underlying flaws within the larger ecosystem of arts grants.
During the pandemic, the federal government attempted to provide some form of financial relief of their own – the most substantial being a $250 million JobMaker arts relief package. $75 million of the amount will be directed towards a competitive grants program, while the rest will be split between other creative arts industries through a series of grants and loans.
However, Arts Minister Paul Fletcher is still yet to fully approve all funding guidelines, effectively trapping more than half of the entire relief package in limbo. Shadow Arts Minister Tony Burke disapproved of Fletcher’s delayed response in an August press statement, branding his office as “inept” and “dithering”.
In addition, these monetary injections are aimed at re-establishing the arts sector as a profitable economic body – which means the majority of these grants will go toward larger organisations promoting festivals and international touring. This effectively leaves a smaller slice of the pie for independent artists and sector workers.
Sound engineer Connor Ross is frustrated at the government’s lack of action, and is currently applying for grants himself in order to sustain his own livelihood.
“What’s going to be the reality is all of that money will be tied up in grants for organisations to put on large events,” Mr Ross said of the $250 million package.
“A lot of that money will go to the organisations to pay production fees, but that's actually not going to trickle down to the people who are working on those productions, which isn't just our production support crew. It's caterers, tour managers and more. And furthermore, that's money that is deliberately for the creation of large events, which we're not going to see happen for potentially another 12 months, if not longer. So that's money that no one will be able to access for a very long time.”
Independent music sector workers like Mr Ross are often forced to compete for smaller sized grants from industry bodies including Creative Victoria, APRA AMCOS and Australia Council. For Mr Ross, applying for grants to fund his projects had already been the norm even before the coronavirus pandemic existed.
“I've definitely done more in this year than I have previously, just trying to supplement lost income,” he explained.
“This has basically been the landscape of arts funding in Australia for many years up until now, and the current situation has kind of exacerbated that a little bit. But it's going to be the situation for many years to come as well.”
Mr Ross firmly believes Australia is financially ill-equipped to allow creatives to advance their careers on their base incomes alone. He refers to successful grant and fellowship examples set by various European countries, some of which even last up to the first ten years of an artist’s career.
“Australia does not have the level of consistent arts support and funding to allow people to advance their careers from just their income and the work they're producing without these periodic injections of large cash amounts,” he said.
“And that's more of a kind of a larger cultural and industry shift that we'd have to change to fix that, and it's not directly related to COVID. It's just that COVID has made people more reliant on that system than they might have been previously.”
Independent musician Tim Richardson shares similar sentiments. Contrary to Ross, Mr Richardson unsuccessfully applied for three grants earlier this year. All he received in return were multiple boilerplate emails of rejection.
“It makes you struggle to find purpose in the week. Some days I just wake up and struggle to find motivation because everything just seems so far away,”
“It seemed like very general emails that would have been sent out to many people,” Mr Richardson said.
“There were no specific reasons mentioned for my application specifically. Just the broad ‘it was really, really competitive. Thank you so much for your application. Unfortunately, it hasn't been successful this time, good luck applying for the next ones’”.
Prior to the pandemic, Mr Richardson had never needed to apply for any form of financial grant whatsoever. He agreed that the application process - from filling out lengthy forms to being arbitrarily rejected - is a vicious cycle, and admitted his mental health had been affected to an extent.
“It makes you struggle to find purpose in the week. Some days I just wake up and struggle to find motivation because everything just seems so far away,” Mr Richardson said.
“There’s always the fear of rejection [in applying for grants]. I’m sure a lot of people would struggle with that in these times - especially with self doubt. It’s hard being reminded that for the last year I’ve been able to create a steady stream of income, and now I’m working through the psychological process of having a stable job to going on JobSeeker. Basically the thing I’ve tried to do my whole life is redundant right now. It just seems like we’re ‘not essential’ to society.”
How Can Arts Grants Be Fixed?
Some experts believe fellowships are the answer to the convoluted conditions of the arts grant process.
Ben Eltham, Lecturer in Media and Communications at Monash University’s School of Media, Film and Journalism. Photo credit: Monash University.
Ben Eltham, Lecturer in Media and Communications at Monash University’s School of Media, Film and Journalism. Photo credit: Monash University.
Arts fellowships typically provide an enviable annual stipend for an artist to simply continue their work, unfettered by commercial consideration. Few currently exist in Australia, with the Australia Council for the Arts the most prolific – dispensing eight two-year $80,000 fellowships annually. Mr Eltham argued “hundreds” more should be given.
“It's very hard to get a grant in Australia simply to make art. You know, let's say that you're a painter or novelist. And, you know, you just want $50,000 a year to pay the rent, to write your book or to paint your paintings. It's almost impossible to get a grant like Australia,” he said.
“We’re actually often expecting artists to pay for materials, to put on performances, hire a venue, to pay for installations, canvases and paints and things like that out of that art grant. The actual income that actually goes to the artist is far less than the figure of the grant that they get.”
Arts fellowships, Mr Eltham said, simply “pay artists to be artists”. In the pandemic so far, artists haven’t even been able to access money to live in the arts grant process.
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