By Christinede Kock
A PLAN to ensure the survival of the Footscray Community Arts Centre is set to be developed.
The centre will form a partnership with Victoria University, Maribyrnong City Council and Arts Victoria in a bid to build and raise the profile of the arts in the City of Maribyrnong.
The State Government has presented the Footscray Community Arts Centre $30,000 to develop a plan for its future.
State Member for Footscray Bruce Mildenhall said the centre’s future had been under a cloud since the Federal Government cut twothirds of its recurrent funding earlier this year.
“When it became clear the centre faced closure, the Howard Government reinstated another onethird of the funding for a year, but has indicated the original draconian cut will stand in future years.”
Mr Mildenhall said the cash would be used to prepare a strategy and investigate the possibility of greater involvement of the municipal council and Victoria University in the centre through shared use and joint funding.
However, at this stage, the centre has not received funding for its operations in 2006.
It leaves the centre’s director, Jerril Rechter, in the position where there is funding for projects but no guarantee the centre will be open next year.
Ms Rechter still welcomed the proposal to form a partnership with community groups.
She said the State Government grant would also be used to ask the wider community what future direction people would like the centre to take.
“Unlike other strategies used for consulting communities, like forums and public meetings, this project aims to listen to the opinions of communities which are not familiar with such systems, and therefore have no voice in decision making,” she said.
“To this end, we will stage a series of activities, artistic and daytoday, linked to events and places familiar to those communities, providing a more dynamic and comfortable context for dialogue.”
