By Tracee Hutchison*
“DON’T it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone, You take out the arts, you’ll lose the Peninsula’s heart” – with thanks to Joni Mitchell.
When over 300 people turn up on a chilly night for a council meeting, that’s a community asking to be heard. When they’re singing a universally loved protest anthem, Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi”, and re-working the chorus into a call to action – that’s probably a sign the council has struck a wrong chord with its recent decision to cut $480k in creative arts funding from the FY25/26 budget.
The 20 May Mornington Peninsula Shire council meeting will be remembered as unprecedented, both for the number of people that showed up and the hasty relocation of the meeting from the 200-capacity Flinders Civic Hall to Rosebud Council Chambers, reducing the public gallery access to 50. But it didn’t stop the music, as local musicians Marty Williams, Poul Grage, Paul Dillon and Dingo Spender led a big sing outside Council Chambers as part of the community-led #SaveOurArtsMP campaign.
“It really showed the power of music and the power of community to come together to fight for something we’re passionate about, which is the value of the arts in our local community – and why funding the arts is fundamentally important. Why would you give that up?” Williams said.
Founder of Music on the Hill, Robin Griffiths, was among those calling on council to reinstate funding that has directly supported local artists, including current TripleJ favourites Velvet Bloom and Floodlights, both of whom have received council grants to record breakthrough albums, and are now touring nationally and internationally.
“Seeing so many music and arts lovers at the council meeting was amazing – including several musicians that have played at Music on the Hill (MOTH) and also audience members,” Griffiths added he’d seen the benefits of council grants up close. “Local musicians often play their early-career shows with us. These are the same local musicians who’ve been able to access the grants council is proposing to cut.” Griffiths said.
While the shared appreciation of arts and culture brought many people to their first council meeting, it was the broader council decisions targeting climate and first nations programs that had galvanised arts, environment and social justice groups into action.
Save Westernport President Jane Carnegie said the turn out showed there is strength in numbers. “It was an incredible protest, an immediate expression by so many organisations and individuals impacted by the Council’s recent cuts around climate action, marine education and first nations funding,” Carnegie said. “This protest is only a beginning; together we will hold this council to account.”
Around 50 people made it inside the public gallery last Tuesday night, while a couple of hundred watched on screens in the chamber foyer. As the mayor chastised the gallery for interjecting and the newly appointed CEO responded to submitted questions on funding cuts with one generic reply, it was a long night for those hoping for a change of tune on arts funding for the next financial year.
Shoreham-based artist Janenne Willis watched on with dismay. “At a time when council’s community vision speaks of inclusion, connection, and place-based vitality, cutting arts funding will stifle the threads that link our townships and villages. Our creative work at Deep See Survey Collective, along with other local artists, has demonstrated the transformative power of contemporary art to draw people together, generate economic activity and strengthen the cultural fabric of the peninsula – creative work enabled by council’s incredible support. To defund this is to erode the very future we are trying to build,” Willis said.
By print deadline the #SaveOurArtsMP campaign petition had attracted over 2200 signatures calling for the Performing Arts Development Fund and Creative Fund to be reinstated. With Council’s FY25/26 budget to be signed off in coming weeks, local creatives are hoping for a new song to sing.
- Tracee Hutchison is a local broadcaster, author, film-maker and creative producer.
