National Association for the Visual Arts misses out on Four Year Funding from the Australia CouncilBudget 2016: Hundreds of job losses expected in the performing arts
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has "seriously let down the arts community", according to a leading arts figure.
Michael Lynch, the former head of the Australia Council, Sydney Opera House and Sydney Theatre Company, described the decision to de-fund the dance company Force Majeure as "outrageous". 
"This is an outrageous decision to de-fund Force Majeure," he said. "The Australia Council is in an invidious situation that lies directly at the Government's door. Malcolm Turnbull has seriously let down the arts community. I am incredibly disappointed."
Force Majeure and Ausdance, the country's peak body for dance, are two of the victims in the latest round of Australia Council funding announced on Friday.
Executive producer Colm O'Callaghan said the company, based at Carriageworks in Eveleigh, had been "completely de-funded".
"We applied for $243,000," he told Fairfax Media. "We are assessing what the loss means at this very moment, but it will most certainly mean a scale down."
ANNOUNCEMENT: Force Majeure federal funding cut in the latest round of @auscouncilarts four year funding https://t.co/PXD5M4g9mn
??? Force Majeure (@majeurenews)      May 12, 2016
The loss of arts funding is threatening to turn into a major election issue, with O'Callaghan blaming the situation on a rash decision to siphon $105 million from the Australia Council in the 2015 budget (later partially restored by new Arts Minister Mitch Fifield).
 "A most bittersweet day for all," he said. "Delighted for our colleagues who got funded, devastated for those who didn't. And all this was completely unnecessary financially - caused by a rash decision by former Arts Minister and the current government."
Force Majeure's chairwoman Jo Dyer said comments made on Friday by Australia Council boss Tony Grybowski were "frankly insulting".
"I have a lot of respect for Tony Grybowski and many of the staff of the Australia Council but it is frankly insulting to say on this day of devastation that no companies have been cut or defunded as a result of this process," Dyer said. "Many fine companies, including ours, have gone from having stable, multi-year funding to having to apply for reduced, one-off, project-based funding in hyper-competitive rounds. They've been defunded."
Other arts organisations that missed out on four-year funding from the Australia Council for the Arts, announced on Friday, include the National Association for the Visual Arts, the literary journal Meanjin and the Centre for Contemporary Photography.
Other NSW arts companies that missed out on Australia Council funding include Legs on the Wall and PACT Centre for Contemporary Artists. 
National dance organisation Ausdance also missed out on funding, which has put the future of the Australian Dance Awards at risk.
Ausdance had been operating with annual Australia Council funds of $261,066, which allowed for an operating budget of $427,740 for 2016, according to acting chief executive Neil Roach.
"The loss of funding from the Australia Council will cripple the organisation, which has a 40-year legacy of supporting professional dance, dance teaching, and dance development and research projects," Roach said. "It will have to seriously consider the future of the Australian Dance Awards and other projects as it looks to survival, and the voice of dance will be diminished by a federal government policy that concentrates arts production in existing companies, and subjects it to a political influence through Catalyst funding." 
Arts Party leader PJ Collins said the grants distributed by the Australia Council were "an insult to community and Not-For-Profit organisations everywhere".
"With a federal budget worth over $470bn announced last week, the Australia Council has only $28 million to spread across the entire country and cover theirfour-year funding program for cultural work." 
Hundreds of job losses are predicted as a result of the funding cuts suffered by small and mid-sized arts companies. 
The Confederation of Australian State Theatre Companies, meanwhile, has issued a statement calling on the federal government to review its budget cuts to the Australia Council after the announcement that 62 arts organisations will be defunded after failing to secure key organisation core funding.
"These cuts have an impact just as dramatic and negative as the arts industry has feared and will cause irreparable damage across the sector - one that contributes over $4.2 billion to GDP in Australia," the CAST Executive Council said.
But Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations appear to be winners from the grants round with 17 organisations funded, while regional and remote organisations reportedly received 25 per cent of the funding on offer.
Says a lot about our white, middle class media that we're hearing only about Arts cuts, not that 17 indigenous organisations got funding...
??? Sarah Stokely (@stokely)      May 12, 2016
News of the funding cut for Force Majeure comes as the company prepares to embark on a national tour of Never Did Me Any Harm, its co-production with the Sydney Theatre Company.
The contemporary dance company is also preparing to premiere new work Off The Record at Carriageworks in   August, where Force Majeure is a resident company. 
Carriageworks' Director Lisa Havilah says: "Force Majeure consistently makes extraordinary Australian dance theatre."
More to come