Late last year things were looking pretty grim in the local arts sector with word that Orana Arts, a regional arts development organisation (RADO) covering the Orana Region failed to receive any funding in a competitive process in which every other RADO in NSW was funded. It effectively shut down Orana Arts.

At the time, Regional Arts NSW and Create NSW insisted the Orana region’s artists, practitioners and artsworkers would not be abandoned.

It is a situation this journalist (as a published author and member of Orana Arts) has followed closely noting many councils, including Dubbo Regional Council, received funding for arts-related projects while Orana Arts as a RADO serving a huge swathe of regional NSW – Orana Region encompasses roughly one quarter of NSW geographically – did not.

Earlier this month, Orana Arts’ newly installed chair, Steve Vidler, released a statement indicating Orana Arts' volunteer board was working with Regional Arts NSW and Create NSW to commence a “structured renewal process”.

“This includes reviewing our governance, refining our strategic priorities, and strengthening the foundations that will support the organisation in its next chapter,” Mr Vidler said in the statement.

“As part of this renewal, we will be undertaking a broad community consultation later this year. We want to take the time to design this process carefully so that when we invite input from artists, partners and community members across the Orana region, it is meaningful, well-supported and genuinely influential.”

If you’re wondering why the arts sector is important, it’s because a world without art – in all its forms – is a world without colour, without voice, without music, without words, without movement, without creativity, without hope.

Worldwide, the sector saved lives during the dark days of the pandemic lockdowns, providing free concerts, plays, tuition, programs and more – much of it online – for isolated populations.

In Australia, the arts sector employs more people than the mining industry and lacks the same level of hero-worship as male sport, yet it is frequently the first area to feel the lash of government funding cuts. Competing for slices of the ever-shrinking funding pie is akin to pushing deckchairs around on the Titanic, some in the industry suggest.

Steve Vidler asks the artists, practitioners and artsworkers of Orana Region not to give up while the renewal process takes place, because there is a light at the end of the dark tunnel that has been in place locally since late last year.

He told Dubbo Photo News that a loud message has been sent from across the sector to the NSW Arts Minister, John Graham MLC, that arts in all of the regions should not go unfunded.

“That was the message that was delivered to the minister, very vigorously, by all of us,” Steve said.

In response, he added, the Minister has earmarked $200,000 in subsistence funding over two years to keep Orana Arts operating and moving through the renewal process.

“We expect to be in a position before the end of that to put in a an extremely compelling application to Create New South Wales to get back to full core funding,” he said.

“Orana Arts is going to be on a reduced capability, but we will still be generating and actively putting in place a number of arts programs and projects,” he added.

The 65-year-old NIDA-trained actor, screenwriter and director who grew up in the Coolah region said the immediate priority is board renewal, and seeks expressions of interest from community members who are passionate about arts and regional development to join the Orana Arts Board.

“My primary objective is to make myself redundant,” he said cheerfully.

“I want to ensure that we recruit people from the region onto the board, that we find a highly qualified and really dynamic board chair to drive the organisation into the future, and that has to be somebody who is either ideally still in the region, or who has a very strong ongoing connection to the region,” he concluded.

Readers can have their say on the future of the arts in Orana region by completing a survey on the Orana Arts website at oranaarts.com, and or submit an expression of interest to join the board.