By The Snuff Puppets
The inner west’s beloved 34-year-old puppet theatre company has lost its Creative Victoria operational funding and is calling on the community for support.
One of Melbourne’s most enduring cultural institutions is in crisis. Snuff Puppets, the giant puppet theatre company that has called Footscray home since its founding in 1992, has lost its state government operational funding after Creative Victoria defunded a dozen arts organisations as part of sweeping cuts to Victoria’s arts sector.
The loss of approximately $110,000 in annual support through Creative Victoria’s Creative Enterprises Program has left the company — which operates out of the Footscray Drill Hall on Barkly Street — facing an uncertain future.
Without this core funding, the company’s ability to tour internationally, run community workshops, and mentor emerging artists — and ultimately to survive as a working arts organisation — is under serious threat. The loss has placed Snuff Puppets in jeopardy.
Co-Artistic Director Nick Wilson says the company is determined to survive but acknowledges the road ahead is difficult. “We’re committed to finding a way to keep the company alive and still working out exactly what that will look like — our capacity is seriously minimised for the short to medium term,” he says.
For those in Melbourne’s inner west, Snuff Puppets is woven into the fabric of Footscray — a company that takes local stories and shares them on a global stage. Its monthly Snuff Salooon nights, a sellout mix of live music and puppet spectacle at the Drill Hall, are now on hold.
But the company’s reach extends far beyond the inner west. Snuff Puppets has toured to more than 30 countries, accumulated over 1.4 billion online video views, and represented Australia through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s cultural diplomacy programs.
The company has performed in some of the world’s poorest countries, worked with war refugees and orphans, and delivered workshops in remote Indigenous communities and regional Victoria. Its Snuff Labb program has created career pathways for a new generation of artists, with many participants going on to establish their own companies and collectives.
Founder and Co-Artistic Director Andy Freer puts it simply: “When you cut Snuff Puppets, you cut Victoria.”
Arts sector leaders have warned that the wave of cuts risks undermining Victoria’s standing as Australia’s cultural capital. A Parliament of Victoria inquiry has found that Australia already ranks in the bottom quarter of OECD countries for arts investment. Snuff Puppets’ leadership says this defunding is not only a blow to one organisation — it’s a signal about what kind of city Melbourne wants to be.
“For 34 years we’ve been reclaiming public spaces as sites of human connection, nourishing a shared artistic culture and cultivating the next generation of artists, leaders and change makers, from Footscray to the world,” the company wrote in an open letter published this week.
“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.”
Creative Victoria has provided emergency support until mid-2026, and the company is grateful for the continuing backing of Maribyrnong City Council and Crumpler. But beyond that, the path forward is unclear, and Snuff Puppets is urgently seeking new funding partners.
As a registered charity, the company is calling on the community for direct support. Those who want to help can donate at snuffpuppets.com/donate. The company is also urging people who care about Victoria’s cultural future to write to Victorian Minister for Creative Industries Colin Brooks at – colin.brooks@parliament.vic.gov.au.
