Slamming shut a window of possibility: youth theatre in crisis – ArtsHub

The youth theatre sector is where the actors, playwrights and directors of the future first learn their craft, and where a love of the performing arts is instilled in audiences who may well grow up to become the next generation of theatre company subscribers.

That future is now under threat following the Australia Councils decision to defund a range of companies who are collectively classified as theatre for young people (TYP).

Companies as storied and respected as Barking Gecko (which celebrated its 30th anniversary last year), St Martins Youth Arts Centre, Polyglot, Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP) and Shopfront Theatre for Young People have consequently had their core funding drastically impacted, threating both their viability and their work with young people across the nation.

Read: Sector in shock as Australia Council 4-year funding announced

While our core earned revenue is through a paid workshop program, the programs that we run to support disadvantaged young people, marginalized young people, people from diverse backgrounds are central to the companys philosophy. Those programs are subsidized by the company in order for them to run, explained Fraser Corfield, Artistic Director of the Sydney-based ATYP.

And so one of the things that were examining is, if we lose a significant proportion of our operational funding, then we do not have the capacity to support the disadvantaged and marginalised communities that the company has been committed to supporting for so many years, and there are significant issues with that.

In Melbourne, the loss of organisational funding means St Martins capacity to create work with young people will also be significantly reduced, according to Artistic Director and Co-CEO Nadja Kostich.

It means, in the end, less contact with our young people, less ability to develop their voices. These are the people that we need to be developing and spending more on more time, more resources. Yes, theyre future artists. Yes, theyre future art lovers. But we also work with young people in exploration of their world view, in them as humanitarians, as creative thinkers in the world and thats whats at stake because of this new OzCo model, she told ArtsHub.

Kostich added: But we also have to remember that what it also means is less resources. Because keeping the doors open and making new work is carried on the backs of people - and real people burn out.

- Nadja Kostich, St Martins

Defunding a swathe of youth companies also threatens future artists and arts workers in a direct and damaging way, said Luke Kerridge, the Artistic Director of Perths Barking Gecko Theatre.

My entire career pathway has been through Shopfront, ATYP and St. Martins, and now Barking Gecko. To see those companies defunded in one fell swoop was gut-wrenching on a personal level. So I think of all the artists who specialise in this space, whose expertise revolves around creating art for and with children, and what pathways will be available to them in the future pathways that are at risk of being lost, he said.

The slow but persistent erosion of the youth arts sector has to be acknowledged, Kerridge continued.

It sends a message to children, and the artists that create theatre for and with them, that they are dispensable in our shrinking arts ecology If you look at the messages the adult world sends to young people it's often about maintaining hierarchy and discouraging any sense of overt activism or opinion. Children are routinely underestimated by the adult world. Yet the same system expects them to then turn up at 18 as fully formed citizens ready to partake in adult life.

I cant help but see an imprint of that paradigm playing out in our arts ecology an underestimation of young audiences and of what it is we do in the youth sector, whilst still expecting the next generation of artists and audiences to turn up fully formed, he said.

A DAMAGING HISTORY

This is not the first time that theatre for young people has borne the brunt of the Australia Councils reduced capacity. As ArtsHub has previously reported, the sector has been hard-hit by successive funding blows, including in December 2015 when only three of 13 youth performing arts organisations were successful in applying for 2016 project funding.

As Corfield explained: Its an old statistic now, but in 2007 we had 21 federally funded youth arts companies. By 2022, well have three. We currently have five.

While many might assume the Brandis intervention of 2015 was the chief cause of calamity, according to Corfield the problem began much earlier, when the Australia Council abolished the dedicated Youth Arts Program Fund

The Australia Council had designated that the Youth Arts Program Fund was to be closed when the programs were revised by the Australia Council in 2014, I think it was. Ever since that announcement was first made, the youth sector has been flagging very strongly that this would have a terrible impact on the sector. And thats been played out, he said.

Whats devastating to see is that not only has that loss of the Youth Arts Program Fund seen so many of the smaller companies lose funding, but its now obviously extended to the largest companies also, Corfield added.

- Fraser Corfield, ATYP

Kostich also questioned the Australia Councils decision to abolish the Youth Arts Program Fund and force companies making work with and for young people to compete on the same footing as theatre companies for adults.

In addition, she raised the question of conscious or unconscious bias towards the work of companies such as St Martins, Barking Gecko and ATYP.

Is there an actual oversight that means people are looking at our work as less important, or is there just an unconscious prejudice or judgment about work made with young people? Because since the abolition of the Youth Arts category at OzCo before that we were on a level playing field and that is absolutely no longer the case, she said.

Kerridge believes that the current situation highlights what appears to be a lack of respect for the agency and creativity of young people and their value as an audience.

We now have three federally funded theatre companies making work for young audiences in a country of 4.7 million children. The numbers just dont add up. Why are children so under-served as an audience? Why are they not a priority? he asked.

We know the impact that quality theatre for young audiences can have on children there is incredible research out there that demonstrates how regular attendance at the theatre develops childrens imaginative skill sets, and that as theyapply those skill sets to their own lives they imagine theirfutures differently.Going to the theatre actually inspires hope in children, and right now I can think of no greater gift we could be giving them.

So whichever way you look at it, whether as cultural citizens and deserving audiences of right now or audiences of tomorrow, there is a real urgency there, and a window of possibility that is being overlooked and it is children that are losing out, Kerridge said.

WHATS TO BE DONE?

Fraser Corfield believes that historically, the Australia Council has been good at recognising when there is a clear need in the sector as well as finding ways to address that need. Now is a time for such decisive intervention, he argues.

What is really clear and what the Australia Council has always been effective at doing is when a clear need within the industry is demonstrated, then the Australia Council and the Ministry for the Arts have moved to address that need, Corfield said.

Weve seen it through producers initiatives, weve seen it through Indigenous program initiatives. Its really clear that whats happened through the funding structures since the 2008 "Make It New" process began, of everyone needing to utterly justify their existence every three or four years, that the youth arts sector has been disadvantaged and its been left behind.

The result of this most recent four-year funding round, Corfield continued, has been to effectively defund the research and development arm of Australias performing arts.

Read: Defunding the sectors R&D arm sounds a warning note for the future

Weve defunded the sector that builds future audiences, that builds future artists, that showcases emerging artists and gives them spaces to try, experiment and fail. And the result of that is going to have long term impacts on the whole industry and the whole of Australian society, if something is not done to intervene sometime soon, he said.

So I think theres a really strong case to be made at this point that there needs to be special initiative funding from the Ministry for the Arts and the Australia Council to ensure that opportunities exist for young people to be participating in professionally run arts experiences and for emerging artists to have spaces where they can showcase and test their skills.

Kostich is in fervent agreement. There is an urgent need for looking into some kind of initiative or incentive that can now give a lifeline to youth arts companies because not only do our young people need it, but our world needs it. We need this in Australia. We need young people to feel regarded at this time. We need their voices heard, she concluded.

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Slamming shut a window of possibility: youth theatre in crisis - ArtsHub