The ACT and federal governments will fund three new public artworks as part of a support package designed to increase the arts sector's capability as it recovers from the ongoing impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
The package, worth more than $700,000 over a year, will also see two local artists join the ACT government in a six-month pilot creative-in-residence program.
Arts Minister Tara Cheyne said there was a new environment in the arts with a greater willingness to try new things and to take bigger risks.
"I think we should be as an ambitious as we can possibly can be in being Australia's premier arts city, and that means supporting artists in a whole variety of different ways," Ms Cheyne said.
Local artists will be commissioned to produce three new works with Contour 556, Canberra's art biennial first held in 2016. The artists will work alongside community groups or organisations, which will then own the art work.
The funding will also support a creative recovery and resilience forum at the University of Canberra, and eight residencies for artists at the university and the Ainslie and Gorman House arts centres.
A grants program will support small live events in venues and businesses across Canberra. The program will partner with You Are Here, a decade-old arts organisation which stages events in non-traditional arts venues in Canberra.
Up to 10 artists will also have the opportunity to connect with marketing and communications experts in a six-month program designed to share skills.
The ACT government expects the program will create more than 80 job opportunities for artists and arts professionals over the next year.
Ms Cheyne said there was a greater recognition of the need for government arts support after the sector felt the full force of the Covid pandemic, and would be one of the slowest industries to fully recover.
"I'm not sure we've always had such strong support. While I think we have strong support for the arts, I think sometimes public commentary about funding for the arts can wax and wane in different ways," she said.
Ms Cheyne said the ACT government had a variety of levers to support the arts sector, and the new resilience package demonstrated different ways the ACT could do that.
"I think that the government has a real role here in encouraging those partnerships, creating those environments, amplifying those opportunities - and helping artists to increase their capability, which of course increases their resilience. But it increases their reach and indeed the impact and quality of their work as well," she said.
Federal Arts Minister Paul Fletcher said the program, which also had Commonwealth funding, would support economic, social and cultural development in the ACT.
"Our investment of more than $98,000 towards the ACT's Creative Recovery and Resilience Program will support local artists and arts workers to establish new work and provide opportunities for collaboration in the sector," Mr Fletcher said.
