In March 2024, Figurative’s Fran Sanderson and Seva Phillips were invited by Creative Australia to visit Sydney and share their experience of making impact investments into cultural and creative organisations in the UK.
Creative Australia was established in 2022 out of a merger and restructure of the federal public funder in Australia, formerly Australia Council for the Arts, and Creative Partnerships Australia. It has developed a new strategy which seeks to reimagine and explore how public funding can support the cultural and creative sector.
In a presentation at Creative Australia’s office to the staff, executives and Board members, and then at a broader workshop gathering at the Sydney Opera House, Fran and Seva shared insights and case studies from Arts & Culture Finance (now part of Figurative) to an audience of public funders, impact investors, philanthropists, academics and cultural and creative practitioners.
Through facilitated discussion, live examples and worked exercises, a broad variety of participants from across the cultural, creative, impact and financial sectors and from public, private and philanthropic organisations, examined the feasibility of a pilot impact investment fund for the Australian cultural sector, leading to significant enthusiasm for further investigation.
Following the summit, Creative Australia has commissioned Figurative to produce a guide to impact investment for Australian cultural organisations.
While in Australia, Fran also contributed to a panel discussion at the South Australia Film Corporation for the Committee for Economic Development of Australia and the South Australian Premier’s office. This showed the exciting convergence of federal and state thinking around new economic models and the promise of impact initiatives in the cultural and creative sector.
