The Adelaide Festival Centre is celebrating its 50th anniversary this month. Opened in 1973, the building was completed before the Sydney Opera House, Arts Centre Melbourne and the Queensland Performing Arts Centre.

South Australia was regarded as a leader of the arts in Australia for around three decades from 1970 to the 1990s and dubbed internationally the “Athens of the South”.

Since the early 21st century, other states have woken up to the benefits of the arts and are now supporting lively creative industries within their midst. South Australia though has done the opposite.

The arts are no longer seen as a priority.

The Beginning of Nature, Australian Dance Theatre, Adelaide. Photo © Chris Herzfeld

Arts in the budget

In 2018, under the previous Liberal state government, the arts and cultural portfolio Arts South Australia was broken up and sent to different government departments.

Youth arts were put into the Education Department. The SA Film Corporation, the Adelaide Film Festival and the Jam Factory were relocated to the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science. The North Terrace cultural institutions such as the state art gallery, museum and library – while administered by the Premier’s department...