From the AMPAG archive — restored from the Major Matters blog entry of 2014 on the case for sustained federal support of international touring by the major performing arts companies.
One of the recurring policy threads through AMPAG’s advocacy work was the case for federal support of international touring by the major Australian performing arts companies. The 2014 Major Matters piece on this subject — written for AMPAG by a contributor with first-hand knowledge of the international touring landscape — set out the strategic and economic case in detail, and identified the structural funding gap that had emerged in the federal funding framework once the Playing Australia programme had been refocused on domestic touring in the late 2000s.
The argument the piece made was three-fold. First, that international touring was the most efficient mechanism available to Australian Government for projecting Australian cultural identity onto the global stage; second, that the major performing arts companies were the best-resourced and most internationally credible Australian acts available for that projection; and third, that international touring was structurally underwater for the companies themselves — a typical international tour cost two to three times what an equivalent Australian regional tour cost, and the box office in international venues did not recoup the additional cost.
What the data showed
The piece set out the economic case using the touring history of Bangarra Dance Theatre, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Sydney Dance Company and Bell Shakespeare. Bangarra’s Patyegarang at the Lincoln Center, the ACO’s Carnegie Hall debut, Sydney Dance Company’s Sadler’s Wells residencies and Bell Shakespeare’s Edinburgh appearances had all required combined federal/state/private support to balance the budget — the productions had been commercially successful but the touring overhead (freight, visas, accommodation, technical staff) had been the gap-filler the companies needed support for.
The piece argued that the economic and diplomatic value to Australia of these tours was disproportionately large relative to the marginal additional cost — and that the loss of programme support after the Playing Australia refocus had reduced the international touring footprint of the major companies by close to 40 per cent over the previous five years.
Why this matters in the longer arc
The structural gap in international touring support that the 2014 piece identified was partially addressed in the 2017 launch of Touring Major Performing Arts Companies (TMPAC) and partially restored in the 2023 Revive policy through the rebranded Creative Australia. Bangarra, the ACO, Sydney Dance Company and Bell Shakespeare have all returned to substantial international touring schedules in the 2020s. The case for sustained federal support of international touring remains a live policy thread.
Original release: AMPAG Major Matters blog (2014), “Touring Overseas”. Restored from the AMPAG site Wayback Machine archive.
