Advocacy Update

9 Sept

Written By MARION

Dear MARION members and community,

Firstly, thank you to everyone who has already written a letter about our core funding situation so far. Adding your voice to this campaign is vital, and we are grateful for the time and energy you have each contributed.

You have already heard from our wonderful patrons, Aunty Jenni Kemarre Martiniello and Craig Cormick. Now as Chair, I would like to update you on what our Patrons, Board and staff have been doing to advocate for MARION and our community.

So far we have:

Had an initial meeting with artsACT to seek feedback on our application and explanation of the funding decision
Met with members of the ACT Legislative Assembly to make sure they understand the literary sector and the impact of this funding reduction on MARION, writers, artists and the broader community
Engaged with media to highlight the inequity of support for literature as an artform
Begun preparing the next steps in our campaign

As we prepare for the next steps in our advocacy campaign, I want to share some information with our members in response to:

the comments made by an anonymous ACT Government spokesperson in this Region media article
the responses some of you have received to your letters to the office of Minister Petterson
the feedback we received from artsACT about our application

The recent Arts Organisation Investment Program announcement has raised deep concerns for both MARION as an organisation and for literature as an artform. I am sharing a lot of information in this update, but it is important to us that we are transparent and that we provide this information with as much clarity and specificity as possible.

THE SITUATION: Literature has not been adequately valued as an artform

It has been widely publicised that the Arts Organisation Investment Program has received a 25% increase to its funding pool, a commitment welcomed by the broader arts sector. Of the 21 organisations recently awarded funding, two service the literary sector, receiving a combined 1.9% of the total funding pool (based on publicly available data published on the artsACT website).

In assessing applications, artsACT has said that it took a portfolio-wide approach, developing funding recommendations for the Minister that consider the balance of artforms, organisations, and services across the sector in line with the funding available.

Looking at the investment artsACT has announced across both arts facilities and arts organisations (including emerging arts organisations), 1.87% of the overall funding pool has been allocated to literature. This is down from 2.05% in the previous round.

Recommending that literature receives less than 2% of the investment artsACT makes at a Centre and Organisational level suggests that the funding body believes that figure correctly values our artform compared to the others within their portfolio.

MARION categorically rejects this outcome, a position which we have communicated directly with artsACT, Minister Petterson, our members and the broader community.

Drawing on data made available on the artsACT website, we have created a data set unpacking the investments made per artform across arts centres, arts organisations and arts activities. I’ll continue to summarise our findings below, but feel free to take your own deep dive via this link: [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1S4-Bo4UiLw5W2hrZ67mrW-EeAxIAIhMibQZ6cqmNRGM/edit?usp=sharing].

THE ACT GOVERNMENT RESPONSE PART 1: The Value of Literature

When presented with our reading of this funding outcome, artsACT and the ACT Government have offered the following justifications:

1. An ACT Government spokesperson pointed to the $70,000 in funding awarded to the Canberra Writers Festival (CWF) as an Emerging Arts Organisation as evidence of literature’s value as an artform. However CWF was already receiving ACT Government support through its previous events funding arrangements. Its move into artsACT therefore does not represent $70,000 in entirely new government investment in literature. It bears repeating, even with the addition of CWF within the artsACT portfolio, overall funding for literature has decreased at a centre and organisational level.

2. This same ACT Government spokesperson has also said that “literature has not been overlooked as the Arts Organisation Investment Program is only one part of its broader investment in Canberra’s literary sector”. Let’s unpack what that investment looks like:

The bi-annual $5,000 to $50,000 Arts Activities Funding rounds support specific arts activities across all artforms. While these rounds are open to individual artists, groups and some organisations, organisations receiving Arts Organisation Investment funding are specifically excluded from applying. artsACT’s own guidelines state that funded arts organisations are expected to have budgeted for their program and administrative costs within their organisational funding. Looking at the most recent six rounds of Arts Activities Funding, 13 literature projects have been funded a collective $374,104, representing 14.6% of investment across all artforms. This is an important investment in individual literary activity, but it is not an alternative source of funding available to MARION.
The difference in investment in literature at a project level compared to an organisational level is significant. Literature is attracting 14.6% of the Arts Activities Funding across the last 6 rounds, yet receives approximately 4.5% of the Arts Organisations (including Emerging Arts Organisations) allocation with no representation at an Arts Centre level (hence the 1.87% of funding for literature across the combined funding pool). Literary projects are clearly demonstrating their value and competitiveness when assessed for project funding. When comparing the percentage of investment in each artform across Arts Activities Funding and Arts Organisation and Arts Centre investment, no other major artform represented across both funding streams has such a disparity of this scale.

Clearly, there are greater structural issues impacting literature based organisations compared to those representing other artforms.

If the ACT Government truly valued literature, increased core investment would play a significant role in addressing this disparity.

The ACT Government also supports literature through the annual ACT Book of the Year Award, with $17,000 allocated to the award each year. The award provides recognition and financial support to selected ACT writers and forms part of the Government’s broader investment in literature. However, it is a specific annual program with a different purpose to core organisation funding. Funding the annual ACT Book of the Year Award does not address the question we are raising about the level of ongoing investment in literary organisations and the year-round work they undertake.

3.Finally, this same ACT Government spokesperson has also said that organisations unsuccessful in securing the level of funding they sought “could apply for other funding opportunities”. There are no other funding opportunities available through the ACT government for arts organisations to receive core, multi-year funding. While it is true that we can apply for additional project-based funding at both a state and federal level (which MARION already regularly applies for), project funding serves a different purpose. It does not provide the stable operational funding needed to employ staff and maintain the organisation that delivers those projects. Pursuing additional project funding also becomes extremely difficult when core funding is cut, because there is less staff capacity available to develop applications and deliver the outcomes. It is misleading to present project-based funding as a sustainable or reasonable alternative to stable, core organisational funding.

OUR ASSESSMENT

Our initial assessment remains true: literature is being undervalued as an artform. A reduced core funding offer threatens the long-term sustainability of not only MARION, but the literary sector in our region.

THE ACT GOVERNMENT RESPONSE PART 2: Reasons given for reducing MARION’s funding

In our application, MARION applied for $230,000 per year for four years. The result of the competitive assessment process is an offer of $150,000 per year for two years.

For reference, we have received $185,000 a year for the past four years. In relation, the current offer represents a reduction of $35,000, or almost 19% of current core funding, and is almost 35% below what we applied for.

Crucially, the offer of $150,000 per annum reduces MARION's funding below the $160,000 per annum we received a decade ago. That is ten years of absorbing increases in wages, artist fees, insurance and almost every other cost involved in running an arts organisation, in addition to the impact of a global pandemic.

When asked why MARION received such a reduced offer, this is feedback we received:

1. In our meeting, artsACT raised concerns about MARION’s financial position expressing a lack of confidence in our ongoing financial stability. MARION does not accept this assessment.

We have successfully executed a multi-year plan to return to surplus, evidenced in our acquittals and audited accounts. MARION achieved a surplus in 2025 and is projected to deliver another surplus in 2026. Through close financial management, we have achieved consistent year-on-year improvement in our overall financial position, while maintaining fair remuneration for staff, delivering our program and contributing to the objectives of the Arts Organisation Investment Program.

We have every confidence in our staff and Board to continue managing the upward financial trajectory we are currently on.

We categorically reject the characterisation of MARION’s position as “fragile" or “unstable”, and do not accept that it provides a reasonable justification for reducing our core funding.

2. Additionally, MARION was told that a funding offer of $150,000 per year for two years (down from our current funding level of $185,000 per annum) was arrived at as part of the moderation process in which artsACT considered us against other organisations of a similar operational footprint and sector reach. Based on the funding offers made, 6 of the 21 successful applicants have each been offered $150,000 per annum. In addition to MARION, they are three of the four funded dance organisations, one of six funded music organisations, and one of three funded theatre organisations.

For thirty years, MARION has supported writers and literary practice across a broad range of forms, genres and career stages.

Comparing organisations in this way does not adequately account for the very different roles they play within their respective artforms or broader arts ecology. It reflects a concerning lack of understanding of our arts ecology. We do not believe this provides any reasonable basis for reducing MARION’s core funding offer.

3. Lastly, artsACT raised concerns about the “popularity” of our programs in our application. The feedback on this point was unclear. MARION provides participation figures and other data through its regular reporting to artsACT, including survey outcomes, testimonials and letters of support. When asked directly whether the accuracy of our reporting or statistics was being questioned, we were told it was not. What they seemed to be saying was that we had not provided enough written explanation around the figures in the documentation itself. This has never been raised as a concern in our reporting.

Given the vagueness of this feedback we are still not clear what artsACT thought was missing or, most importantly, how this might justify reducing MARION’s core funding.

OUR ASSESSMENT

In a piece of correspondence a member received from the Minister’s office, the Minister’s arts advisor stated that: ‘the nature of a genuinely competitive process is that it cannot guarantee every incumbent will maintain its current funding’.

We do not dispute this statement. We accept the nature of a competitive process.

Our concern is that the decision to reduce our core funding has been made based on a fundamental misunderstanding of our financial situation and a moderation process that demonstrates a lack of understanding of the literature sector and MARION’s place within the broader arts ecology.

This outcome empirically represents a lack of value in our organisation and our artform. We do not accept it and we will continue fighting it.

A reduction in core funding to $150,000 per annum will mean:

A reduction in staff hours
Fewer programs and opportunities for writers
Fewer paid opportunities for writers
Fewer professional development opportunities for writers at all levels
Greater difficulty retaining experienced staff and organisational knowledge
More staff time spent chasing project funding to keep programs running, instead of doing the actual work of supporting writers
Less capacity to plan programs and partnerships over the longer term, with only two years of funding, rather than the four years we applied for
The financial instability artsACT has incorrectly characterised as an existing problem risks becoming a reality as a direct result of the funding reduction
We will have to undertake the resource-intensive process of re-applying for core funding in two years time
Our reduced capacity will make it harder to contribute to the objectives of the Arts Organisation Investment Program, potentially making our next application less competitive than we are now

We cannot accept this outcome.

WHERE TO NEXT

The Minister's office has indicated that future investment opportunities for MARION beyond what has been offered ($150,000 per annum up until 31 December 2028) will depend on demonstrated progress in a range of areas that have been communicated to the board and now to you, our members and community.

Pushing back on this outcome isn’t just about the future of MARION. It is about our community of writers and artists who are stronger than ever and deserve better than 2% of the ACT Government organisational investment in the arts.

Our impact as a sector is undeniable. We have an incredible literary community across the ACT and surrounding region, and if the ACT Government truly values literature, it should be working with MARION to nurture and build on that. A reduction in our core funding, not only undercuts the ACT Government's own previous investment in our organisation and sector, it risks setting back that growth by years.

Here are the actions we can collectively continue to take to make sure this outcome is changed:

If you have already written a letter and received a response, we invite you to write back. We know that many of you have asked questions that weren’t answered by the correspondence you received. Ask why those questions weren’t answered. Ask more questions. Say what MARION means to you and why the literary sector is important.
If you haven’t written a letter yet, it’s not too late.
We will be meeting directly with the Minister at the beginning of October and the more letters his office receives in the lead up the better. Use the information we have shared here to question this decision.
The office is obligated to reply if you ask a question. Ask many. Make sure you say why the literary sector is important.
The details of who to address your letter to are below. At a minimum, please send letters to Minister Petterson and Minister Barr. Or Minister Petterson with Minister Barr on CC.
We are currently investigating a petition to the ACT Legislative Assembly. When this becomes live, share it widely.
Use social media to share your feelings about this outcome and its impact. Tag artsACT and the Minister’s office.
Share our dataset and the information within the communication widely with anyone interested.
Encourage them to join in our campaign.

I am proud to Chair this organisation. I am proud to advocate for our artform, our sector and our community, as are our staff, our Board and our Patrons. We all deserve to be fairly valued and our impact recognised and we will continue to do everything in our power to make it so.

In solidarity,