When the world shut down, so did the stage, but now the performing arts industry is fighting for the spotlight again.
Nearly five years on from the onset of COVID-19, Western Australia’s performing arts industry is clawing its way back to life.
Between April and June 2020, employment in WA performing arts venues dropped by 72 per cent.
Freelance and casual roles, the lifeblood of many productions, were among the hardest hit.
By 2022, a survey by the Chamber of Arts and Culture revealed that 75 per cent of arts organisations were at risk of closure if COVID-related closures continued.
For a sector built on bringing people together, social distancing proved nearly fatal.
Now, in 2025, the landscape is beginning to shift as state and local governments are trying their best to revitalise the arts industry.
Local governments lead the charge
The City of Joondalup’s flagship arts and culture celebration, the Joondalup Festival, experienced multiple disruptions over the years due to pandemic restrictions.
However, Deputy Mayor Adrian Hill says the city is determined to rebuild.
“Over the course of time, what we’re trying to do is bring events back into the [Joondalup] CBD.”
Cr Hill, who has a background in the performing arts, believes cultivating a strong arts culture in Perth’s northern suburbs is key to long-term recovery.
“We do ultimately want to have a performing arts centre in the CBD,” he says.
“My view is we need to be building that performing arts culture in the community whilst we are waiting for that to arrive.”
Rebuilding through innovation
For independent artists like Pony Cam, recovery means rethinking what performance looks like.
Claire Bird, Ava Campbell, William Strom, Dominic Weintraub, and Hugo Williams make up the Melbourne-based theatre collective that has trained together as an ensemble for over five years.
The award-winning group recently brought their experimental work to WA, performing at this year’s Joondalup Festival.
Describing their work as “an investigation into the form of theatre”, the group aims to make performance more accessible and interactive.
“We very rarely make work in theatres,” Mr Williams said.
“We tend to leave the house lights on.
“We don’t love the feeling of audiences sitting in the dark silently while we do our performance for them, we want them to feel like they’re engaging with us.”
Their recent piece, Anything You Can Do, was born out of Melbourne’s intense and extended lockdowns – a reflection on what was lost when communities were forced apart.
“There’s a really strong loss of community when we’re all separated like that,” said Mr Williams.
“Particularly a loss between intergenerational connections, and the capacity to learn from intergenerational connections.”
The funding discussion
In response to growing calls for support, the WA Government allocated $5.9 million over two years in the 2024-25 State Budget to support major arts organisations.
Additionally, $1.9 million has been committed to 42 independent arts projects across the state.
Yet for many in the industry, it’s not enough.
A 2024 survey indicated that 55 per cent of respondents believe the government’s current investment – roughly $2.44 per person per week – is too low.
40 per cent said they’d be willing to contribute more themselves.
When asked about whether or not they think there should be more funding for arts, the members of Pony Cam laughed.
“The obvious answer is yes,” Mr Weintraub said.
“The trickier question is ‘should there be more arts festivals?’ Should there be more arts opportunities?”
The more you have, potentially, the more you dilute, the more you have artists working for smaller fees.”
They agreed there was no simple answer to such a complex issue.
Encore!
Despite ongoing challenges, there’s a sense that the industry is finding new footing.
Perhaps not returning to what is once was, but evolving into something more experimental, more flexible, and more community focused.
From local councils pushing for new infrastructure, to collectives redefining how we connect through performance, the curtain may have fallen during the pandemic – but now, the encore is just beginning.
