Human creativity is embedded in everything we enjoy: the shows we watch, the books we curl up with and the music we dance to. It's not just about fun either. Despite encroaching AI, almost every single image or product or piece of clothing on our backs has the human spark of design behind it at some crucial stage of its process.
And yet in Australia, we still think of the Arts as a luxury, a hobby, a 'nice to have' icing on top of the real economy with its real jobs. This is not only sad and contemptuous of all those professionals who contribute; it's factually wrong. Australia's Cultural and Creative Economy: A 21st century guide, a 2020 report by A New Approach (ANA), put the arts and creative activity at 6.4 per cent of Australia's GDP, worth more than $111 billion.
But it's impossible to really put a number on the value of the arts to healthy and diverse communities and functioning democracies: to having people who can think and feel, make and express.
Limiting TAFE in Tasmania
"What courses can I study in Tasmania if I'm interested in something creative?" I'm on the phone to the TasTAFE hotline and the person on the other end is apologetic.
"We no longer offer them," she says. "We used to, but not anymore." She scans her website, adding hopefully. "You could put down an expression of interest for 'Make Basic Web Content' (that sounds a bit creative) and we'll let you know if we run it?"
This is the tragic and almost farcical situation for prospective Tasmanian arts students after TasTAFE's shocking announcement in September 2025 that all nine courses in Arts and Design would be slashed at the end of the year (as well as phasing out an essential Lab Tech diploma and Certificate IV).
These cuts came following the Tasmanian Liberal state government's changes to TAFE deeds and subsidies to align vocational education more closely with skills priorities in "construction, energy and care giving". The loss of those government subsidies sent course costs sky-high, with TasTAFE deeming them unviable, and a distressing pattern around Australia.
Abandoning arts
"This is the death of the Creative Industries in Tasmania and we're absolutely gutted."
Tristan Sabol, AEU Tasmania deputy president, TAFE Division
Sabol was heavily involved in supporting the 17 Arts and Design staff made redundant in December after the union's valiant but unsuccessful fight brought the issue to wide media attention.
The creative courses no longer offered at any of Tasmania's TAFE campuses are:
- Certificate III in Design Fundamentals
- Certificate III in Screen and Media
- Certificate III in Visual Arts
- Certificate IV in Design
- Certificate IV in Music Industry
- Certificate IV in Screen and Media
- Certificate IV in Visual Arts
- Diploma of Graphic Design
- Certificate III in Apparel, Fashion and Textiles
"People are struggling to understand it," Sabol says. "Tasmania's supposed to be this creative state, where visitors come for our Arts, and we've lost this huge part of what supports that. These sudden cuts have killed off opportunities for young Tasmanians (kids at school planning their creative study pathways, it's a mess) and also for mature age students who might want to come back to skill up and move into something they're passionate about. It's all gone now. People will have to either move away or give up their dreams."
Sabol says the vague idea, suggested in the government announcement, that private providers might fill the gaps is just not supported.
Erin Madeley, CEO of the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA) says: "As the union for creative and media workers, we are extremely concerned about funding cuts to the TAFE sector restricting access to training and careers in the arts.
"Publicly funded TAFE courses provide access to training for students from diverse backgrounds across the country, enabling them to build skills, find meaningful work, and contribute to their communities."
Thinning out the options
In Far North Queensland, there are similar issues of declining and disappearing opportunity for people wanting creative training at both TAFE and university levels. Every year the options thin out and creative communities quietly dissolve.
Townsville photographer Cathy Friel runs a successful local portrait business. She was a graduate of the Diploma of Arts program at TAFE Queensland Pimlico 30 years ago, and 15 years ago completed a photography course that's no longer offered. Although Visual Arts is still offered locally, Friel says that many of her children's friends "have given up on any opportunity to study the arts and stayed locally doing other things. A very lucky few have the funds to move away to study Creative Arts."
She says that when students go away to study, most don't return.
"The fact that we also don't have [local] creative arts programs anymore is causing problems for our workforce," says Friel. "To try and find a recently graduated graphic artist or videographer is almost impossible, even though they can earn far more here than in the larger centres in some cases."
Regional opportunities needed
Also based in Townsville, Dr Barbara Cheshire is an award-winning visual artist and teacher. She's the kind of local character who's referenced by many in the community, including Friel, as an inspiring mentor. Now nearly 80, she's still trying to retire.
"TAFE gave me a second chance," Cheshire says, remembering her first creative qualification, a Diploma of Art at Townsville TAFE in 1987. She was the mother of three young children retraining after her former working life in pharmacy dispensing. TAFE led to more study at university, where she eventually got her PhD in 2013.
Having spent 25 years teaching art at TAFE (where she left in 2012), Cheshire says she strongly believes "it's a place of second chances for many other people too".
"Art and the creative subjects are so important, especially for young people who are struggling with the mess and confusion inside themselves. This is where they can really get to grips with who they are, their individuality: their souls."
Dr Barbara Cheshire, visual artist and former TAFE teacher
She cites the example of a former art student who managed to escape substance abuse and went on to graduate as a teacher herself.
"It makes me so sad to see the cutting of resources and courses, making one teacher do all the subjects. It's just not fair to anybody and then it follows that enrolments go down," she says.
Making music
There are richer choices for creative students in major capital cities. Melbourne Polytechnic for instance, offers an expanding and respected suite of subjects in music performance, songwriting and sound production, with an emphasis on preparing students for real world live and recorded music industry careers.
Multi-instrumentalist musician and composer Phil McLeod, one of the founding members of the internationally renowned Blue Grassy Knoll band, has taught at Polytechnic for over 10 years, including into the Advanced Diploma of Music Performance.
McLeod says his highlights range from teaching complex music theory and seeing "those lightbulb moments", to watching second-year students flourish and blossom on stage after lacking the confidence to say their name out loud.
But McLeod wishes Australians would place more value on music and its training and participation in everyday life. "I remember one of the first times I went to Ireland to perform and jumped in a taxi," he says. "There was no question about the weird case I was carrying: everyone knew it was an accordion, because over there, they play music as kids. Their uncle played it, it's part of the culture. Whereas here, we champion those we love (lots of people went to see AC/DC) but what about the band at the local pub?"
McLeod says that with the costs of higher degrees and the precarity of creative careers, it's never been more important to have music training available at the vocational level, where students can get practical industry skills in a one-year course, with the option of springboarding into more study.
Basic income for the Arts
Speaking of Ireland, in October 2025 it was announced Ireland would extend its three-year Basic Income for the Arts (BIA) pilot scheme to make it permanent. This came after reports found that for every €1 invested, the arts delivered €1.39 back.
Begun after Covid to resuscitate the suffering sector, the pilot ran from 2022 to 2025 and saw 2000 randomly selected eligible artists across disciplines paid €325 (AU$545) per week as a stipend. Not a huge sum, but enough to make a big difference, with recent data from the Department of Culture, Communications and Sports showing the pilot generated over €100 million in social and economic benefits: including increased audience engagement, improved mental wellbeing for the artists (many of whom could now afford long-term rent) and the creation of 40 per cent more Irish artworks.
Sharing insights as to what made the scheme successful and whether it could work in places like Australia, Ireland's National Campaign for the Arts (NCFA) Chair, Angela Dorgon, said to ArtsHub in 2023: "The first question you have to ask yourselves [as a sector] is: 'How does the population in your country value the arts?'"
Bridging the divide
The need for skills investment in construction, energy and caregiving is not debated, but why are the arts expendable? Arts are trades, as specialised, skills-based, predominantly hands-on occupations vital to communities. And they belong in public TAFE.
As MEAA's Erin Madeley says: "The arts serve as the heartbeat of our communities, shape our collective identity, and contribute significantly to our economy. Artists and creative workers play a critical role in telling our stories, preserving our cultural heritage, and bridging divides between people from all walks of life.
"In this age of artificial intelligence, which is built off the stolen work of artists, musicians and other creatives and is threatening to displace workers, it is more important now than ever that we recognise, support, and invest in the arts."
Erin Madeley, CEO, Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance
