The country’s largest performing arts company struggled at the box office, yet is as cashed-up as ever after selling one of its crown jewels.
Saving the company from oblivion in 2021 was $21.1 million of federal and state government support, on top its $22 million in annual base funding from the Australia Council for the Arts, as well as the sale of OA’s warehouse for costume and props in Alexandria, a gentrifying former industrial suburb in Sydney’s inner-south.
The site was sold for $46 million, but after a lease-back agreement while it searches for a new warehouse on cheaper land in Sydney’s west, OA booked a $37 million surplus from the sale, contributing most of a $40 million consolidated surplus for 2021.Despite now having a net asset position of $79 million compared to $39 million in 2020, Allan said it was still too early to begin rebuilding the permanent headcount lost during the pandemic.
Fifty-six people were let go – a quarter of OA’s full-time workforce – including 16 positions from its orchestra, reducing its permanent strength to 42. They will continue to be covered by contractors, even as Ms Allan admitted that it was harder to achieve artistic excellence with a more transient workforce.
“But [hiring back staff] takes certainty, given more than half our income has traditionally been generated by ourselves, and that certainty is a way off yet,” she said.However, Ms Allan was encouraged by the strong numbers forwhich had flowed through to other productions this year, including a near-sellout season of the
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