Majority of the commitment will be directed to the state’s arts organisations in multi-year funding.
The state government has announced a pre-budget commitment of $37.6 million to Western Australia’s creative industries, with majority directed at the multi-year funding of arts organisations.
Fringe World festival, operated by Artrage, will receive $4.3 million over three years, following an announcement by Creative Industries Minister Simone McGurk on the weekend.
Ahead of the May 2026-27 budget, Ms McGurk said $9.4 million would be funnelled over three years into WA’s major arts organisations, consisting of the Black Swan State Theatre Company, West Australian Ballet, West Australian Symphony Orchestra, West Australian Opera and Broome-based dance company Marrugeku.
Small to medium organisations in the creative industries, not yet named, will also receive $7.8 million across two years.
Ms McGurk said the government was focused on supporting the development of local talent and productions.
“We want to develop audiences,” Ms McGurk said.
“We want to people in Western Australia and Australia and further afield to know that we have some world class talent here, we want to support the development of that talent, but we also want to encourage people to go along and see live performance, to see visual arts, to hear live music, to experience art in all of its different forms.”
Black Swan State Theatre Company chief executive Ian Booth said the investment in ‘soft infrastructure’ was a welcome follow on from the state government’s work on ‘hard infrastructure’ funding.
“At Black Swan, we need a strong sector of high-quality artists to be able to live and work here, and the investment that has been proposed today by the minister in the small to medium sector and also the larger companies, really helps that infrastructure for Black Swan,” he said.
The funding over multiple years, Mr Booth said, was essential to create quality local productions.
“This funding gives us the confidence and capacity to invest in the development and production of Western Australian stories,” he said.
“To give an example of the need for confidence and the timelines we're talking about, our next play is an adaptation of Tim Winton’s novel The Shepherd's Hut, and it's taken four years from an idea of a play to opening night, which is going to be in a few weeks time, here at the Heath Ledger Theatre.
“So we need that sustained, long term investment to make these stories a reality.”
A further $14.1 million will go towards the maintenance of the state’s arts infrastructure and $2 million over two years will be directed into growing digital game production.
