I don't know why our Liberal Party State Government cut arts funding, especially TAFE. To say these courses do not lead to jobs is plain silly. I know many artists who began with TAFE and tech places, not universities, and are now all worthy contributors in our society. I can say, some of my best friends went to TAFE. And others have taught. I have begun a course with TAFE, which I am paying for in full, that I am doing to enhance my arts knowledge - it is a business course but to be good in business, one has to be creative and that I cannot continue after this certificate in an arts course with TAFE is unfair.
NAVA MEDIA RELEASE: Monday 11 March 2013
Call for reinstatement of TAFE Arts
In response to the release today of the draft report of the NSW Creative Industries Taskforce, the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA) called for the NSW Government to take urgent action to respond to one of the report’s key recommendations: “reinstating NSW Government funding to those TAFE fine arts courses that experienced cuts to subsidised funding from 1January 2013”.
Tamara Winikoff, Executive Director of NAVA (the peak body for the Australian visual and media arts, craft and design sector) said today, “If the NSW Government is serious about wanting to attract, develop & retain talent and encourage creativity to boost the NSW economy, it must reverse its ill-considered decision to axe the TAFE funding which supports arts training.”
Winikoff continued, “Increasingly in business and industry, people with arts and design training are recognised as having the key professional creative attributes needed for the 21st Century – adaptability, versatility and resourcefulness, innovative ideas and the ability to extract a lot from a little."
In the report, the creative industries were identified as having the potential to become one of the fastest growing contributors to the NSW economy over the next 10 years, with current employment growth at nearly double that of the state’s general workforce.
Innovation and Business Skills Australia has identified the arts as one of the occupations in demand. This runs contrary to the rationale for the TAFE cuts to Fine Arts courses cited by the NSW Government that arts training did not have a vocational outcome.
As well as the obvious benefits, arts advocates, including NAVA, are pressing the Government to recognize the vital contribution made by TAFE to social cohesion and community welfare through being local hubs for people with disabilities or disadvantaged by geography. TAFE graduates are vital to regional development and tourism.
Arts advocates are calling for the Office of Education within the NSW Department of Education to ensure that, when the new eligibility system is introduced in 2014, art courses are included in the list of eligible courses.
