The Sydney Morning Herald
October 15, 1998, Joyce Morgan
The Sydney Dance Company has received a grant from AusTrade that will allow
it to develop overseas markets for its work.
It is the first time a major performing arts organization has received the
grant, and it is likely to prompt other arts group to seek similar funding.
The grant, which is initially worth $60,000, allows Sydney Dance to claim
a rebate on its overseas marketing costs.
The general manager, Leigh Small, says this is an enormous help to the company,
which will tour Free Radicals to Europe and North America next year
and tour Salomé to Europe. It will also premiere a new
work by Graeme Murphy in Sydney next September.
Graeme Regan, Austrade’s client service manager, says the arts have been
under-represented in the Export Market Development Grants scheme.
“There is a bit of a bias towards goods and manufacturing, as distinct from
services and arts, but nothing specially that has excluded the arts,” he said.
While sections of the film, music and television industry have used the scheme,
the SDC is the first big performing arts company to do so.
“We consider the arts community under-represented and we want to promote
them,” Regan said. “We are happy for the Sydney Dance to get a grant and we
encourage other performing arts companies to do the same.”
Under the $150-million-a-year scheme, companies can claim a maximum rebate
of $200,000 annually.
“We can support a company in one market for up to eight years …after that
you have to show you are going into different markets [to continue in the
scheme],” Regan said.
“It is not about research and development. It is about reimbursing exporters
who spend money on promotion and marketing for export markets
and we basically reimburse [part] of the marketing costs.”