‘Feels like my heart’s been ripped out’: Centre latest casualty of arts funding crunch

The state’s only centre for craft and design will close its doors next June after failing to secure $350,000 from state and federal governments, becoming the highest-profile casualty of NSW’s arts funding squeeze.

Only a white knight philanthropist will be able to save the Australian Design Centre that has nurtured the skills of thousands of artisans and designers, many of them women, since 1964.

The Darlinghurst centre’s volunteer board notified its six staff members on Wednesday that it would be financially unviable for the 60-year-old organisation to trade beyond June 30, 2026.

Unless alternative funding is found before that time, exhibition programming will wind up at the end of February, and its sales outlet for NSW’s craft practitioners and makers, the Object Shop, will shut in late March to allow for the disbursement of products back to their makers.

All touring exhibitions will continue as scheduled, with any future changes to be announced before June. The future of the 2026 Sydney Craft Week Festival will be determined before applications open in April 2026.

Board chair Elizabeth Espinosa said all other options had been considered to avoid closure.

“Over its 61-year history as an independent, not-for-profit organisation, Australian Design Centre has supported the work of thousands of artists and presented outstanding exhibitions to audiences around Australia and overseas,” she said.

“The reality is that, without core operational support to pay staff and cover administrative costs, we have no choice but to cease operations by June 30, 2026.

“This means that NSW will be the only state or territory in Australia without an organisation dedicated to craft and design practice.”

ADC’s funding crisis was triggered in January when it lost $200,000 in annual federal funding, and on Easter Thursday it was notified that it had also missed out on four-year state operational funding of $300,000 a year, despite being recommended by peer assessors.

In a more recent two-year funding round, Create NSW awarded it $150,000 for each of the next two years, but it has been unable to find new sources to make up its lost funding.

The news of its closure comes in a week in which the Herald revealed that an investigation was under way into allegations of serious wrongdoing around the hiring and procurement practices of the highly funded Powerhouse museum.

Additionally, Greens MP Cate Faehrmann raised questions in parliament last month about two recent museum hires alleged to have been paid $2100 and $1000 a day, contracted on combined pays equivalent to what the ADC needs annually to keep its doors open.

“It feels like my heart is being ripped out of my body – the thought of that body not being part of the infrastructure of creative practice is devastating to many people,” said Mel Young, one of two artist representatives on the board. “Without philanthropy or reconsideration of government funding, that’s going to happen.”

The ADC was luckier than 17 other organisations – 10 in regional NSW, five in metropolitan Sydney and two in western Sydney – that were unsuccessful in the same highly competitive Create NSW funding which had been previously funded to the tune of $2.5 million.

But the erosion of its core funding base, while it exists on ever finer margins, was the final straw, said executive director Lisa Cahill.

ADC champions designers, makers and craftspeople who tend to fall between the cracks in the visual arts scene. Last year, the ADC reported it had supported 1000 artists and generated $542,831 for its makers while hosting 333 exhibitions and events.

Young, a craft person working in jewellery and textiles, said that for designers mid-career, established audiences and the whole community, the decision to close was “utterly devastating”.

“It feels like someone is about to die. I’ve been involved in this organisation my entire career. I first started going there with my parents as a child – it was my first job in the industry, the first place to show my work as an emerging maker.

“I’m one of thousands of people who have got their break as a craftsperson. Its influence is not just confined to Sydney, this is an organisation with serious national impact.”

Penelope Benton, executive director of the National Association for the Visual Arts, said the ADC was a confronting example of the precarious state of funding for the arts across the country.

Create NSW said its Arts and Cultural Funding program was designed to be fair, balanced and competitive - ensuring support goes to a wide range of arts and cultural organisations that deliver the greatest benefits to communities. The agency had no further rounds of funding available for the ADC but would continue to support the centre “through this period”.

Creative Australia said funding via its visual arts and crafts funding program was not ongoing or guaranteed.

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