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There was more than a hint of desperation in the end-of-financial-year public appeal of Darlinghurst’s Australian Design Centre.
Asking the centre’s 30,000 social media subscribers to donate $100 each, executive director Lisa Cahill said it was do or die for the organisation that has nurtured the skills of thousands of artisans and designers, many of them women, since 1964.
In January, ADC lost $200,000 in federal funding, and on Easter Thursday this year it received an email from NSW arts agency Create NSW with the devastating news it had also missed out on four-year state operational funding despite being recommended by peer assessors.
Australian Design Centre director Lisa Cahill and cultural adviser and artist Jason Wing in the gallery in Darlinghurst.Credit: Janue Barrett
From 2026, NSW’s only government-supported centre dedicated to craft and design practice, from jewellery and glassmaking to ceramics and weaving, will no longer have the $500,000 in base-level funding needed to pay staff and keep its lights on.
“It was a shock. It was so unexpected,” Cahill said. “I thought at least we’d get $450,000, an uplift to ameliorate what we had lost in federal money. We got nothing.”
Among the 76 applicants knocked back for four-year funding were more than a dozen regional public galleries, whose activities are partially funded by Create NSW’s Arts and Cultural Funding Program.
Other successful arts organisations said they received significantly less than they had asked for and at a level that compromised the delivery of events and programs. Announcements for the next two-year funding round are due in September, but competition is expected to be stiffer as unsuccessful candidates are bounced into this last-resort funding round.
The funding squeeze comes after it was revealed the workforce of the agency delivering the grants, Create NSW, is to be cut back by a quarter. The Minns government has promised to reinvest million-dollar savings into frontline arts and culture programs. Arts Minister John Graham is also pursuing tax changes to help resuscitate the flagging sector.
But there is growing unease in the arts sector that short-term government investment decisions are being made, such as spending on one-off festivals that don’t have ongoing effects for the rest of the year.
This four-year funding round included a dramatic increase for arts and cultural festivals, with more than $1.9 million committed in 2026 and beyond. Four new First Nations organisations were successful, and three regional galleries: Murray Art Museum Albury, Ngununggula/Southern Highlands Regional Gallery and Lismore Regional Gallery.
Brett Adlington, chief executive of Museums and Galleries NSW, said the latest funding round equated to a $1.2 million drop in funding to public galleries.
“The small to medium public gallery sector is often the lifeblood of regional communities, providing not just quality exhibition programs but also a whole range of initiatives bringing connection to diverse communities,” he said.
“We fear that programs such as art and dementia, children’s programs and access programs could be the first to be cut.
“Additionally, these organisations are often the ones providing early career opportunities for artists of the region, as well as metropolitan-based artists, providing platforms for their work.
“We have heard from many organisations that will now be winding back artist commissions and the curating of new and locally relevant programs.”
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Time is running out for Cahill, who has so far raised $40,000 from the design centre’s public appeal. No option is off the table, including potential part-acquisition or partnership, with the ADC board to decide if the centre has a future later this year. Sydney Craft Week in October for designers and craftspeople may be ADC’s ninth and final citywide event unless a guardian angel arrives.
Industrial designer Rina Bernabei is working with ADC on an international project for work that will be exhibited at Design Miami. “As a designer and maker, there is no other leading state organisation for design and craft. It is vital to these fields,” Bernabei said. “It is our only voice and our future.”
Post-pandemic, it was a critical time to support and strengthen the small to medium sector, which continued to face precarious conditions, said National Association for the Visual Arts executive director Penelope Benton.
“Funding decisions need to consider the broader picture. It’s not just about which individual applications are strong on paper, it’s about what’s needed to keep the whole arts system going,” she said. “That means backing organisations that support artists over the long term – and make sure people across NSW, not just in major cities, can access the arts.”
A Create NSW spokesperson said the next new two-year funding program was at the assessment stage. The full funding profile of support for regional galleries would be available following that.
“The NSW government recognises the significant contributions made by regional art galleries to the arts and culture ecology across regional NSW,” they said.
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