The Art Gallery of WA through funding from the Foundation have designed an initiative to support all living artists represented in the State Collection and all aboriginal art centres in WA. This scheme recognises the severe impact that COVID19 has had on West Australian visual art practitioners, curators and galleries. 

Over 350 artists are expected to receive $2000 each to generate updated archival information about the work in the State collection, updated biographical content and information about their artistic practice. 
$250 000 of the funds will be directed to a targeted acquisition program for Aboriginal artists and Art Centres. 
The return to the sector is estimated to be $15m. 

Further information about the scheme can be found here. 

The report from A New Approach (ANA) entitled 'A View from middle Australia, perceptions of Arts, Culture and creativity'  presents positive key findings that mainstream Australians have towards the importance of arts and culture within their own lives, to their communities, to the reflection of diversity and evolving national identity and general contribution to the 'public good'. The study reveals that while many Australians are unaware of the economic return produced by the sector they believe that creative skills produce opportunities in education and in work. The full report can be found here.

  

Seventy-seven events to be hosted in regional WA have been awarded funding via the Regional Events Scheme. With the expected influx of intrastate tourists holidaying within WA, these smaller and emerging events, ranging from a celebration of wildflowers in Esperance, to star-gazing in the Wheatbelt will help support jobs and local economies by attracting visitors to the regions.
Seven events were awarded funding under the Regional Aboriginal Events Scheme, to showcase Aboriginal activities and experiences, and encourage Aboriginal leadership and participation.
Successful funding applicants have been given the option of holding their event at any time up until December 31, 2021.
For a full list of events awarded 2020-21 funding, visit Tourism WA
Media statement 

Over 100 of News Corp’s regional and community titles will no longer produce print editions and will move to digital-only formats. 14 titles will cease to exist and there may be over 500 job losses.

In April, the media company said it was temporarily suspending 60 community print titles in the wake of COVID-19 and falling advertising revenues.

News Corp’s Australian executive chairman Michael Miller said the portfolio review highlighted that many of its print mastheads were challenged, and the double impact of COVID-19 and the tech platforms not remunerating local publishers had made them unsustainable publications.

“COVID-19 has impacted the sustainability of community and regional publishing. Despite the audiences of News Corp’s digital mastheads growing more than 60 per cent as Australians turned to trusted media sources during the peak of the recent COVID-19 lockdowns, print advertising spending which contributes the majority of our revenues, has accelerated its decline,” Miller said.

Read the full Mumbrella article. 

In his address to the National Press Club on 26 May, the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, outlined an overhaul of the VET sector in Australia as part of the JobMaker plan.  Mr Morrison wants a simpler skills education and training sector.  He said funding agreements with the states and territories, which currently see the Federal Government hand over $1.5 billion per year without oversight, needed to change.

Mr Morrison argued the confusing and inconsistent vocational education system in Australia was leading too many people to go to university, even if that was not well suited to their chosen careers.   Changes flagged included targeting funding to bolster skills the jobs market needs, simplifying the system and increasing the level of uniformity between the states and territories.

Read the ABC News article in full
View a video of the address to the National Press Club
Read the transcript of this address to the National Press Club

The Western Australian Government has established an urgent review of skills, training and workforce development in response to COVID-19.

The review team will engage with industry and business to identify training needs and develop specific proposals that respond to these needs.

The review will aim to identify practical and responsive training solutions for the post-COVID-19 recovery period and will be led by Ms Anne Driscoll, Director General of the Department of Training and Workforce Development; Ms Michelle Hoad, Managing Director, North Metropolitan TAFE and Ms Terry Durant, Managing Director, South Metropolitan TAFE.  Read more

The WA Government has established a top-level State Recovery Advisory Group to help lead Western Australia's recovery from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The State Recovery Advisory Group includes representatives from business, industry, not-for-profit organisations, UnionsWA, the public sector, local government and the community.

The group will provide high level and strategic advice on the impacts of COVID-19 and help to guide the development of the State Recovery Plan.  A draft Impact Statement will be released shortly to address each of the State's recovery areas - health, economic and infrastructure, social, industry and regional WA.

The community will be able to contribute their ideas through iThink (WA Public Sector) at ithink.wa.gov.au. Find out more information at http://www.wa.gov.au

Read more

Stakeholders have a 48 hour window to provide feedback into the ICT Information Communications Technology training package review, which is at Case for Endorsement stage. Skills Service Organisation PwC Skills for Australia are not anticipating making further changes to the reviewed products at this stage, but advise that "due to COVID-19 and the need  to address urgent up-skilling of ICT professionals and re-skilling of workers in various industries to enter the fields of cybersecurity, cloud computing, data analytics and internet of things, the Commonwealth have reduced the time available for feedback so as to present the Case for Endorsement at the June AISC meeting."

Please contact FutureNow's Industry Development Manager for ICT, Ann-Marie Ryan, to provide feedback by COB Thursday 28th May 2020.  Review materials here.

In response to the current crisis facing the Western Australian screen industry triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, Screenwest has announced a two-and-a-half million-dollar sustainability package, funded by repurposing existing funding provided by the State Government of Western Australia through Lotterywest.With almost all screen production put on hold for the foreseeable future, the package will be delivered in addition to funding already committed to current projects.
This funding support package is focused on screen practitioners’ activities over the next six months in particular, and has been designed in response to industry feedback through the various industry  associations and guilds, discussions between industry practitioners and staff, and feedback through the Screenwest Industry COVID19 Facebook Discussion Group, and the Western Australian Screen Industry COVID-19 Impact Survey.