Arts groups to merge

Two of Australia’s pre-eminent arts support organisations, Australia Business Arts Foundation and Artsupport Australia, will merge from July next year.

The merger follows a recommendation of a federal government review into the Australia Council for the Arts, released earlier this year.

Artsupport has been funded by the federal government through the Australia Council and AbaF separately through its Office for the Arts.

The merged entity will have a new name, new national chief executive and chairman.

Artsupport and AbaF will also have joint offices in each state from next year.

A steering committee made up of Australia Council chief executive Kathy Keele, AbaF chief executive Jane Haley, newly appointed Australia Council chair, well-known philanthropist Rupert Myer and AbaF chair Terry Campbell will oversee the merger.

Arts philanthropy expert Frankie Airey will give expert advice to the council on the merger.

Mr Myer and Mr Campbell are working through the governance structure while Ms Keele and Ms Haley are working on the operational structure of the new entity.

Ms Keele said the new entity would have a greater capacity to work with an increasingly skilled arts sector and take support of the arts to the next level.

“What we are really doing, is extending the support to the arts sector and making it easier for them to deal with the group of people who are all about just that,” she told WA Business News.

“Artsupport works very, very leanly, and so does AbaF, so if they work together they will work more effectively.”

Federal arts minister Simon Crean is due to release his National Cultural Policy in October, which is likely to involve other recommendations from the independent review of the Australia Council.