WHEN YOU CUT SNUFF PUPPETS, YOU CUT VICTORIA
Creative Victoria has ended its operational support for Snuff Puppets as part of significant arts funding cuts that have defunded a dozen local arts organisations.
Since 1992, Snuff Puppets has been part of Melbourne’s identity. This is not simply a loss for one theatre company – this is a loss for Naarm, Victoria, Australia, and for the global audiences who have made our work their own.
A company like ours isn’t just here to sell tickets and pay the bills. For 34 years we’ve been reclaiming public spaces as sites of human connection, empowering communities to see the best in themselves and each other, nourishing a shared artistic culture and cultivating the next generation of artists, leaders and changemakers, from Footscray to the World.
In our time on Creative Victoria’s CEP program we’ve represented Australia on the world stage, building cultural ties in our region as part of DFAT’s cultural diplomacy programs; we’ve created countless career pathways for artists and birthed many new collectives and organisations into existence; we’ve created a globally recognized visual language, and shared the joy and power of giant puppets with communities who are rarely granted access to the social and health benefits of the arts – from regional Vic to remote Indigenous communities. We’ve shared our craft with war refugees and orphans in some of the world’s poorest countries – the work of placemaking and trust-building, of interrupting the status quo and expressing new shared narratives through joyful street-level interactions.
We’ve toured to over 30 countries and reached 1.4 Billion people with work reflecting the full breadth of human experience. Even when tackling the heaviest topics there’s a cheeky irreverence that invites people to come along with us. We feel like we’ve chanced upon some unknowable secret sauce that activates communities and audiences with a universality that few other artforms enjoy.
Snuff Puppets helped define what Australian culture looks like on the world stage, yet have managed to stay relevant to new generations – our online reach is off the charts, and our inbox overflows with messages of love and wonder from around the world. Our recent monthly Snuff Salooons have been knockouts, pouring decades of built-up creative momentum back into our Footscray home, and drawing in sellout crowds thirsty for our special mix of visual weirdness and palpable human connection.
We deeply appreciate the years of support from Creative Victoria that have made all this possible, and are shattered that this funding decision threatens to dismantle it all – this company is a completely unique cultural asset, built up slowly over decades by hundreds of amazing people, and it’s hanging in the balance.
Like others have said, we worry not just for our own future but for the sector more broadly – that Victoria risks falling from Australia’s cultural capital to its least-funded city. When a treasured institution like Snuff Puppets loses state support, something essential about Victoria disappears too.
Creative Victoria has provided emergency funding until mid 2026, and Snuff Puppets is hugely appreciative of Maribyrnong City Council’s continuing support. We’re committed to finding a way to keep the company alive and still working out exactly what that will look like – for now the only certainty is that our capacity will be seriously minimised for at least the short to medium term.
If you believe Victoria should be a place that makes daring art and shares it with the world, we need you with us!
If you are in a position to support us financially please go to snuffpuppets.com/donate
If you share our concerns about the cultural future of this state, please write to the Victorian Minister for Creative Industries Colin Brooks and let them know 
parliament.vic.gov.au/members/colin-brooks