ARTS groups in regional NSW and western Sydney are among the big winners in the NSW government's first round of arts funding.
The government has provided grants worth $55 million from $58.2 million allocated in last year's state budget but has yet to allocate the final $3 million.
Almost $8 million went to organisations outside Sydney, including Albury-Wodonga's Flying Fruit Fly Circus, the Tweed River Regional Art Gallery and Delungra's Opera in the Paddock.
A further $3 million was granted to western Sydney groups such as the Riverside Theatres in Parramatta and the Auburn Artists Studio.
Arguably the two biggest winners are Sculpture by the Sea, which received $1.2 million over four years, and the short-play festival Short & Sweet, which received $1.5 million over four years for its regional outreach program.
Sydney Festival received an extra $1.7 million, including $500,000 for a program for western Sydney that formed the basis of the inaugural Parramatta Festival, taking total government funding for the popular festival to $6.8 million.
The Arts Minister, George Souris, said $28 million was new funding for a range of arts initiatives, with a further $24 million allocated to existing multi-year funding agreements.
He said it was important to ensure NSW remained the creative capital of Australia by supporting a range of arts and cultural activities and capital projects in city and regional areas.
In November, small and medium-sized arts companies complained they were unable to program shows or engage artists because of the government's failure to announce arts funding for this year. NSW has had one of the worst reputations in Australia for handling arts funding.
Companies that applied for the 2012 round of funding, in some cases as long ago as May, had not been notified by Arts NSW, preventing some from launching seasons, hiring artists and performers, publishing programs or booking performance spaces.
At the time the minister defended the timetable of announcements, saying he wanted to examine closely all program briefs.