On Monday 6 July, the Executive Committee of the Art Association of Australia New Zealand wrote to The Hon Paul Fletcher MP, Minister for Communications, Cyber Safety, and the Arts outlining their concerns with the proposed decision to cut staff by 10% at the National Gallery of Australia and what the ramifications would be with such a decision on the sector.
Dear Minister,
The Art Association of Australia and New Zealand (AAANZ), the peak professional body representing art historians, artists, and art curators in Australasia and the Pacific, objects strongly to the decision to cut 10% of staff at the National Gallery of Australia. The staff at the Gallery perform a vital role in facilitating access to collections, research, and exhibitions. Reducing the number by such a significant proportion, in a move precipitated by the government’s “efficiency dividend,” will irreparably damage the institution’s capacity to make its rich cultural heritage available to the Australian and international publics. It is essential that this decision is reversed.
From its inception in the Committee of Inquiry commissioned by Prime Minister Robert Menzies in 1966, the National Gallery of Australia has focused on acquiring art from Australia, southern and eastern Asia, and the Pacific. As a result, no other art museum in the country has such a comprehensive collection of this region. Right now, 50-plus years on, Australians more than ever need the extraordinary art collection at the Gallery to help us to understand our own culture and that of our near neighbours. However, without the important work carried out by curators, conservators, registrars, security staff, and other workers in the Gallery who make it possible for visitors to fully experience its rich holdings, this pre-eminent national institution cannot serve the public in the way in which it was intended.
The Australian government has enforced an “efficiency dividend” on the Gallery which applies to other government agencies as well. However, the idea that continual improvements in productivity can be achieved in a highly labour-intensive sector like the visual arts is profoundly mistaken. Without the core activities of thoughtful research and innovative programming developed by its staff, the Gallery will not be able to perform its important national role. Moreover, staff at the Gallery already work intensively overlong hours and reducing the number of existing staff by 10% will overburden the remaining workers, leading to a diminishment of quality and the potential for serious health issues.
The key role that the Gallery plays in bolstering the ACT and Australian economies is another reason to resist this cut. The 2017 exhibition Versailles: Treasures from the Palace, for example, contributed $29 million to the economy of Canberra. Reducing staff at the Gallery threatens the vital role the institution plays in attracting visitors to and promoting economic activity in the ACT. How is it possible that the Australian War Memorial, a related national institution, can be the recipient of half a billion dollars of new funding while the National Gallery Australia languishes under savage cuts that reduce its ability to function? The only conclusion one can draw is that the decision to cut jobs at the National Gallery Australia is an arbitrary one.
All the above points raise fundamental questions about the rationale for the proposed job cuts at the National Gallery of Australia. The importance of the Gallery staff to the continued vitality of the institution’s programming, and in turn the viability of the Gallery itself, means that there simply is no clear, defensible justification for the decision. The only conclusion one can reach is that the Gallery has been unjustly targeted due to a misperception or misunderstanding of its significance.
The Art Association of Australia New Zealand insists that the decision to cut 10% of jobs at the Gallery, and the enforcement of the “efficiency dividend” which has precipitated this decision, be overturned.
Yours sincerely,
The Executive Committee of the Art Association of Australia New Zealand
Wendy Garden (President); Veronica Tello, Kate Warren, Raymond Spiteri, Sally Quinn, Melanie Cooper, Linda Tyler, Chari Larsson, Karen Hall, Matthew van Roden (Regional Representatives); Steven Gilchrist, Ngarino Ellis, Andrew McNamara, Anthony White, Katrina Grant (Member Representatives).
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