interview
Catharine Lumby What level of financial crisis is Artspace facing at the moment?
Sally Couacaud We've extended our lease for the next two years to give us security of tenure. However, that does mean that the increase in rent will continue to be substantial. We already face a $12,000 deficit at the end of the year. Fundraising is going to be very important. The funding bodies are not going to be giving us any more money. There's no way that their budgets are going to be increased given the economic situation at the moment. The bottom line is that we have to find the money through other means. It's difficult to get commercial sponsorship. That's one of the reasons we are interested in relocating to the Gunnery at Woolloomooloo. It would give us a higher profile and enable us to approach corporate sponsors.
Catharine Lumby What's happening with those plans?
Sally Couacaud We're still waiting to see the outcome of our proposal. Even if it doesn't come off I think that it will have been a useful exercise in convincing funding bodies of our need to relocate and the importance of their participation in that process.
Catharine Lumby Do you see any problems with the priorities of funding bodies at present?
Sally Couacaud In relation to the Australia Council, over the past three years we've seen a very real retreat from a policy of funding a contemporary artspace properly in each state. The original idea was to enable an artspace to operate professionally in each state, to pay fees and so on. I believe the Australia Council needs to come out with a policy stating its current position so we... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline