Sam Ryan
Last month, in more confessional mode than usual (needs must!), we wrote about ABR’s funding predicament in 2024: without federal funds and with only one state arts grant. Readers seemed shocked by the stark comparison between 2019 (when ABR received a total of $245,000 from six governments around the country) and 2024 (a total of $12,000, all from Arts South Australia).
Since then the response from supporters – regular donors and a pleasing number of new ABR Patrons (all listed on page 4) – has been extraordinary. Pace sceptics who always said that Australians will never support literature in the same way they support other sectors and related charities, ABR continues to receive sterling support from those who believe that Australia deserves a sophisticated literary magazine culture of its own, not just an imported one.
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