Statement on the State Library of Victoria

MEAA is concerned to hear of the State Library of Victoria’s decision to cancel its “2024 Teen Writing Bootcamp” and its subsequent justifications for the cancellation.

While cultural and child safety should always be a fundamental consideration for public institutions such as SLV, this is concerning language considering the identities of the programs contributing writers and the references to a “time of heightened sensitivities.”

The program has run successfully for a number of years in a safe and culturally competent manner and this present cancellation, in combination with the CEO’s obfuscation as to the reasoning for the cancellation is of particular concern to MEAA.

As a public institution, SLV has an obligation to be extending children and young peoples access to the arts, not restricting it.

We call on the SLV to immediately provide an open and transparent accounting of the reasoning for its decision to cancel the program and to immediately take steps to reinstate the program, utilising the writers who had previously been engaged to deliver the program.