Submission to Senate Inquiry into the 2014 and 2015 Arts Budgets

Submission to Senate Inquiry by Quincy McLean & Helen Marcou

We are the proprietors of Bakehouse Studios and the founders of SLAM (Save Live Australia’s Music). We have recently been awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Facilitator’s Prize in 2015 and have received accolades and awards for outstanding achievements in the music sector, including nominations for both man and woman of the year in 2010 by Rolling Stone magazine. We both sit on a number of industry advisory committees and panels, including the Victorian State Government Live Music Roundtable.

At Bakehouse Studios we deal with up to 500 musicians per week and have worked with many of Australia’s leading musicians and artists from other platforms including; Gotye, Nick Cave, Jessica Maubouy, Vance Joy, Archie Roach, Hugh Jackman, Baz Luhrman, Tony Collette, Will Anderson, Olivia Newton John, Tina Arena and many international touring artists. Within their respective disciplines, all of these artists present to the world a unique voice from an Australian Perspective. The next Gotye or Baz Lurhman will be deemed ineligible for support under the proposed guidelines of the NPEA, unless they are employed by a major performing Arts organisation. The majors would be unlikely to employ them if they hadn’t cut their teeth in the small, medium and Independent sectors. The nurturing that many such artists received from the Australia Council was integral to their trajectory. As a community, we should not stand for the loss of this nurturing. We urge the Australian Government to restore all funding to the Australia Council for the Arts.

Our work with grassroots musicians led to the formation of SLAM and the staging of the SLAM rally where 20,000 citizens marched on Victorian Parliament in protest of the ‘unintended consequences’ of ill formed government policy. This was regarded as the “largest cultural protest in Australia’s History”. Within a six month period, 126 live music venues had either reduced their music programme or cancelled it completely. People marched on that day, families, friends, all music lovers from all walks of life; they signed petitions and took up the cause because their beloved culture was under threat of destruction. A nationwide loss of funding to independent artists poses a much greater threat to our cultural landscape. Already we are seeing the impact and ‘consequences’ of the defunding of AusCo to set up the NPEA, with the loss of jobs and economic uncertainty resulting in programs, shows and tours cancelled.

As operators of a small music/arts business that employs around 10 permanent staff, freelance engineers as well as sub-contractors, small and independent artists make up nearly all our clientele. Although we have never been recipients of Australia Council funding, many of our clients have. The flow on from this has led to countless collaborative opportunities with artists such as Gareth Liddiard, Patricia Piccinini, Emily Floyd, Michelle Boyde, Julia deVille, Veronica Kent, Mikelangelo and many more. Relationships like these have ensured our longevity over the last 25 years.

The cost of hiring our rehearsal & recording facilities has barely increased in the last 25 years, in fact some of our prices have reduced since 1991. Despite this, our rent has increased 400% in the last 5 years along with huge rises in wage costs, power, other bills and a substantial investment in equipment and upgrades. We simply can’t put our prices up because musicians don’t have the means to pay more. We have to operate on volume and a healthy Arts sector is crucial to our survival. The future of our studio and that of other small music/arts spaces is threatened by the ransacking of Ausco.

To the committee reviewing these changes, we cannot stress more vehemently that our cultural identity is being vandalised and the seeds for Australia’s next crop of outstanding artists and their creations are being decimated, along with the ancillary businesses that depend on Artists.

The Ausco funding must be restored and where possible increased, their independence must not be compromised and Senator Brandis should find funds elsewhere to set up his NPEA.

Regards,

Helen Marcou

Quincy McLean

Co Founders SLAM

[email protected] www.bakehousestudios.com.au http://www.facebook.com/BakehouseStudios https://twitter.com/BakehouseStudio www.slamrally.org