Major gallery says Venice row endangers Australia’s global reputation

More than 3000 people including artists and patrons have signed their names to an open letter that alleges censorship and calls for Creative Australia to reinstall the dumped team.

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Australia’s international ambassador to Venice, Simon Mordant, has resigned, as has the program director and manager of the agency’s visual arts team and board member, Lindy Lee.

Federal Arts Minister Tony Burke has denied he directed the board and Creative Australia’s chief executive Adrian Collett to hold two all-staff meetings, the last yesterday, to settle internal tensions and rule out a change of heart.

Former MCA director Liz Anne Macgregor has criticised the silence of arts institutions in the wake of the controversy, contrasting it with the public positions taken when the federal Coalition set up the Catalyst fund, designed by former arts minister George Brandis in 2015, to give the arts ministry direct control over public funding of arts projects.

It prompted protests, and led many in the arts community to accuse the government of political interference. Labor labelled the program “a slush fund”.

Thanks to “bureaucratic ineptitude and political pandering to confected media outrage, we will not have the opportunity to make up our own minds through experiencing this work for ourselves in the splendid setting of the pavilion in Venice,” Macgregor said.