In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has shut down performances across the country, the news that innovative new music group Ensemble Offspring would not be receiving support through the Australia Council for the Arts’ Four Year Funding for Organisations program was a blow for Artistic Director Claire Edwardes. “We are absolutely devastated,” she tells Limelight.

The Australia Council’s announcement revealed 95 organisations receiving funding for the years 2021-2024, well down from the 128 organisations listed in the 2016 round – which was itself dubbed Black Friday for the 62 organisations who lost their funding that year. With the industry having essentially been ground to a halt by the COVID-19 crisis, the Australia Council has reduced the new cohort’s first year of funding to 70% in order to offer the 49 newly unfunded organisations an extension of one year’s funding, also at a reduced a reduced rate of approximately 70%. The list of companies whose funding will come to an end after this extension period includes the Art Gallery of South Australia, Australian Book Review, Australian Theatre for Young People, Barking Gecko Theatre Company, Melbourne’s La Mama Theatre, the Museum of...