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The peak body for the visual arts in Australia is among dozens of arts organisations counting their losses today, while others are celebrating a more secure future as the Australia Council announces the recipients of its new Four Year Funding program. 
While 128 groups were successful in receiving multi-year funding worth $70,000 to $300,000 annually, more than 50 arts organisations are thought to have missed out, including the National Association for the Visual Arts, longstanding literary magazine Meanjin and the Centre for Contemporary Photography.
Yet 43 organisations, a third of successful applicants, are receiving multi-year Australia Council funding for the first time under the new program, chief executive officer Tony Grybowski??? says.
"I'm so ... proud and in many ways pleased about this," Grybowski says of the grants restructure, the culmination of three years work following the passage of the 2013 Australia Council Act.
The successful applicants will receive an average of $219,000, compared with $157,000 under the previous programs, he says.
In what has been dubbed by some as the worst week ever in the Australian arts, Grybowski rejects the characterisation of doom and gloom in the sector.
There has been much speculation about whether many organisations can survive if they miss out on Four Year Funding following the redistribution in 2015 by former arts minister Senator George Brandis of $105 million from the Australia Council to a new fund, the National Program for Excellence in the Arts, administered by his office.
His successor as arts minister, Senator Mitch Fifield, has renamed the fund Catalyst and turned its focus to small to medium organisations, while also returning $32 million to the Australia Council.
Several companies that received funding in the Catalyst grants announced in recent weeks, including Geelong's internationally-acclaimed Back to Back Theatre and Melbourne's Dancehouse, have also received Four Year Funding.
While the focus is on small to medium groups, some major organisations such as the Art Gallery of South Australia and the Museum of Contemporary Art also received multi-year funding. 
"Of course there comes uncertainty and a bit of disturbance," Grybowski says. "But hand on heart, this framework is a foundation which I think was the response to much sector input, consultation and dialogue over three years.
"Having an open access grants program, this is the first time ever that we've looked at a whole of the small to medium sector as a whole. It really is history-making.
"What it does do is it enables, it drives [the] transformation ... that has provided the access for new applications."
The new structure is much more responsive and allows for any additional resources to be immediately injected into the grants system, he says.
"We acknowledge that the change will be challenging. I not agree it is a time of change, but it's not a dark time ... I'd actually like to shift the conversation to the art, not just the funding."
The unsuccessful applicants from the pool, worth $28 million a year, include some of Australia's most high profile organisations in their field. 
The National Association for the Visual Arts, an outspoken advocate for artists that has led a campaign protesting cuts to the Australia Council, was among the unsuccessful applicants.
NAVA director Tamara Winikoff??? said it had previously received $245,000 under previous funding streams, which comprised almost half of its operating costs. ???"We've lost the amount we would have got from the Australia Council," Ms Winikoff said. 
Ms Winikoff said that while the loss of funding was substantial, it would not mean the end of NAVA, which still received some funding through the Australia Council's Visual Arts and Crafts strategy.
"NAVA will continue, we're not going to be silenced ... Of course what this will mean will be that we will have to seriously examine our business model and change how we do things in the short term.
"Theres no pretending that this isn't a blow, but we're very determined that we're going to continue to do essential work for the sector. 
"We are the support organisation for the whole of the visual arts sector. To lose that [would be] a big blow." 
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