Media Release: Western Riverina Arts on Arts Funding Decisions 2025
MEDIA RELEASE
Date: Friday 4th July 2025
The Arts is Essential to Regional Life Yet Left Behind by NSW Government
Executive Director of Western Riverina Arts, Aanya Whitehead, is appalled at the NSW State Government’s outcomes for arts in Regional NSW saying: “The arts are not a luxury, they are central to health, connection, and community strength.” She goes on to say that “while the evidence of the value of the arts is overwhelming, the NSW Government has now treated the arts in regional areas as an afterthought, slashing vital funding to regional organisations and cutting off access to programs that improve lives”. Whitehead believes these funding cuts will result in a greater inequity between regional and metropolitan areas.
Western Riverina Arts is part of the NSW Regional Arts Network that started over 70 years ago. It is a unique and highly effective system of 15 independent arts service organisations that collectively cover the entire regional and remote footprint of the state. From delivering youth art programs and partnering on First Nations cultural projects to supporting festivals, exhibitions and creative recovery after natural disasters, these organisations are often the only structured arts support available outside metropolitan areas. Each is run by an outreach team working face to face with the communities they operate in, and they carry deep knowledge of their regions.
Whitehead explains that the organisations collectively run on a tiny fraction of the NSW budget. The entire network, along with its peak body Regional Arts NSW and the Aboriginal Regional Arts Alliance, costs just $3.4 million dollars a year, which is not even 1% of the $500 million concessions that the government has budgeted to poker machine operators who provide no services. “We deliver considerable social, educational and health outcomes for a cost that pales in comparison to spending in other sectors. The value for money is unparalleled, delivering state-wide impact, providing jobs, sustaining creative economies, and fostering careers. We directly contribute to developing and supporting cultural tourism activities in Regional NSW that generate 5.8 million visitors a year, more than metropolitan NSW or any other regional area in Australia (1).
Whitehead insists that access to the arts is a right, not a privilege and that regardless of their party politics, “the NSW Government has an obligation to serve all its citizens regardless of their votes. This principle is enshrined in the very oath elected officials uphold when they swear their allegiance to the People of NSW. This does not mean those just living in Sydney!”
The Western Riverina Arts Board has stated in its most recent Strategic Plan that “Arts is essential to the human condition” which is backed by research. Globally without exception and across all cultures, art is central to human life. Evidence shows that humans sang before they spoke, using melody and rhythm to communicate long before structured language emerged (2). From ancient cave paintings to contemporary music festivals, creativity is a vital element in helping humans to survive, bond, and heal. “This is especially true in regional and remote areas; school holiday workshops, a theatre performance, live music, a story shared through painting, arts, craft and dance groups for all ages. These are not extras. They are part of what keeps our regional towns liveable, inclusive, and hopeful.”
The World Health Organisation (2019) found the arts significantly reduce stress, aid in mental health recovery, and support community wellbeing. Neuroscientific studies show that engaging in art improves brain and mood function (3). In schools, students involved in the arts perform better academically and build stronger communication and empathy skills (4). The arts are a major contributor to the development of a child’s brain and their learning capabilities. To deny the arts to a child is to deny their human rights to learn and grow to their fullest. Additionally, a 2021 Australia Council for the Arts survey showed that 84% of Australians believe the arts make life richer and more meaningful.
Says Whitehead: “This NSW Government has chosen to reduce funding to regional arts in favour of questionable metropolitan spending, further isolating our communities. This is not equitable, and they have a duty to correct this.”
The Western Riverina Arts Board takes the view that the arts must be treated as essential services in Regional NSW and is as important as health, education, and roads; because when the arts thrive, communities do too.
Media Contact:
Zooey Korhonen
Communications Officer
Email: comms@westrivarts.com.au
Mobile: 0455 217 671
Additional contact:
Aanya Whitehead
Executive Director
Email: rado@westrivarts.com.au
Mobile: 0428 882 059
References:
(Regional Arts Network, Cultural Tourism Report, 2024) a comprehensive study of cultural tourism in regional NSW carried out by Patternmakers.
(Mithen, The Singing Neanderthals, 2005). Mithen brings together evidence from archaeology, anthropology, psychology, neuroscience and musicology to explain why human beings are so compelled to make and hear music. He provides evidence that music is a fundamental aspect of the human condition, encoded into the human genome during the evolutionary history of our species.
(Bolwerk et al., PLOS ONE). The study demonstrates the neural effects of visual art production on psychological resilience in adulthood.
(Catterall, Arts Education Matters, 2009): In the late 1990s, data from 25,000 secondary school students over four years found significant connections between high involvement in arts learning and general academic success. In 2009 ten additional years of data related to the same cohort of students, now age 26, connected arts learning with both general academic success and pro‐social outcomes.
Western Riverina Arts Inc. INC9894595 – ABN 312 330 899 48
