Tuesday 3 December 2024
To our valued community,
In response to ongoing challenges with arts funding, rising costs, and reduced spending, Canberra Youth Theatre has been forced to evaluate the sustainability of our activities. We have had to make some difficult decisions for our 52-year-old theatre company, which means 2025 is going to look different for Canberra Youth Theatre.
We value honesty and transparency in how we operate. It is no longer possible for us to provide the breadth of artistic opportunities and programs we have been celebrated for with our current resources. We strive to make theatre accessible for young people, but the true cost of providing quality creative opportunities is not balanced by our income.
We are grateful for the continued support of the ACT Government through ArtsACT, our donors, partners, and advocates. However, our current funding barely covers our core operations, let alone the cost of delivering our quality programs and productions. We need to find new ways and new funding streams if we are to continue running artistic programs sustainably.
2025 will be a year of consolidation as we plan how to best serve our community, bring our creative ambitions in line with capacity, and safeguard our organisation’s future. We will be using this time to develop and implement long-term solutions to ensure that Canberra Youth Theatre is sustainable and will thrive for generations of young Canberrans to come.
We will not be staging any productions in 2025.
We are now reliant on dedicated project funding for each production, without which we can no longer produce quality theatre with young people in the way we have been able to.
We must be realistic about what we can achieve and this means that in 2025 we cannot do what distinguishes us: productions that value young people as artists, supporting them with professional mentorship, and elevating their work to a level of outstanding quality.
We receive generous support from our partner, Canberra Theatre Centre. Despite this, the income we generate from ticket sales, even with very successful shows, doesn’t cover our costs.
These changes will mean fewer opportunities for artists, who have been employed on our productions as directors, lighting designers, set designers, costume designers, sound designers, stage managers, and other roles. It will also mean fewer opportunities for audiences to experience professional-quality productions created by young and emerging artists, aged 7-25.
We are heartbroken by this, but remain committed to the development of new work, and will continue to explore models that provide young and emerging artists with the core learning experience of creating, rehearsing, and presenting a work of theatre to a high standard.
Our workshops will only be held at Gorman Arts Centre.
We will no longer be able to offer workshops in Belconnen and Queanbeyan, and will focus our energies on enhancing the programs we offer at Gorman Arts Centre. Our Ensembles program will be more accessible, and we are introducing a new pre-professional training program for secondary-aged participants, Next Stage.
Our Emerging Artist programs will be consolidated.
Our professional pathways programs for emerging artists are where we invest in professional artists and create tangible career pathways for emerging talent. These have expanded significantly in recent years, thanks to the generous support of the Jeremy Spencer Broom Legacy. But the resourcing required to employ professional practitioners to deliver our programs, and the subsidy required to ensure they are financially accessible for emerging artists, means it is no longer viable to continue some of these opportunities.
We are pausing our Emerge Company, Emerging Creatives, Writers Ensemble, Resident Artists, and Creative Leaders programs for 2025, until additional funding can be secured. Until then, we will offer more flexible opportunities for emerging artists through our new Open Studio program; offering studio space and in-house mentorship to support their practice, the work they want to create, and the pathways they wish to pursue.
Staffing and employment opportunities will be reduced.
In line with this reduction in activity, we have reluctantly made the incredibly difficult decision to reduce our staffing across all areas of the organisation: our core staff, workshop artists, and guest artists employed on our productions. We are devastated by the loss of these employment opportunities for professional artists in the region, where opportunities are already so scarce, and hope this is a temporary measure.
The core staff who remain with us will assume greater responsibility for delivering workshops and artistic programs, drawing on the skills and experience that already exist within the organisation to forge a more cohesive creative learning environment.
We need your help.
There has not been dedicated funding for youth arts in Australia for the past decade. The youth arts sector has been advocating for changes to arts policy and funding priorities, and increased youth engagement across our arts, education, and cultural sectors.
The benefits of youth arts are undeniable, despite being under constant threat of this diminishing funding, and oftentimes unfairly perceived as “less-than” to our “adult” counterparts. The value of youth arts cannot simply be measured through ticket sales or employment statistics. It lies in its contributions to social wellbeing, community enrichment, intergenerational collaborations, artistic expression, innovation, civic responsibility, education, and cultural leadership. We remain one of the leading companies in a sector that is struggling to survive. Despite the significant benefits youth arts creates, there is entrenched disparity in arts funding and support, causing youth companies like ours to be deprioritised, and the artistic quality of our work overlooked.
We strive for a world where every young person can experience the power of theatre; where art is essential, and fosters an inclusive culture of fearless creative expression, experimentation, and connection. We exist to develop and empower young people to create intelligent and challenging theatre that expresses the voice of youth.
If you would like to have a conversation about supporting Canberra Youth Theatre’s future philanthropically, please contact me at luke@canberrayouththeatre.com.au or 02 6248 5057.
We are hopeful, inspired, and excited for our future.
In 2025 our focus continues to be on creative and professional development opportunities for young and emerging artists, as we continue to support them to create brave, challenging, and uniquely Australian work. We’re committed to another 50 years and maintaining a sustainable, resilient Canberra Youth Theatre.
You can make a tax-deductible donation online at any time: https://canberrayouththeatre.com.au/donate
The future of arts begins with youth.
With love and optimism for the future ahead,
Luke Rogers
Artistic Director & CEO
PS – We’d love to see you on Wednesday 11 December!
Despite all this, there is much to celebrate. We’ve achieved so much this year and we’d love to see you at our wrap party:
Wednesday 11 December, 6:30pm
B Block, Gorman Arts Centre
We’ll also be on hand to answer any questions you may have about these changes and our offerings for next year.
