Welcome to Unfunded Empathy, a producing service for contemporary artists grappling with the nation-wide dumpster fire we find ourselves in // running from // stranded by.

A side-hustle for producer and marketer Thom Smyth, Unfunded Empathy is offering creative producing, grant writing and marketing services to artists working in Sydney.

Unfunded Empathy is also my response to, and coping mechanism for, the current political, economic and artistic climate that has been cultivated by a decade of conservative and populist rule. We are an increasingly mean, diminished, fearful and insular nation because of them.

The so-called ‘Quiet Australians’ need to consider what they are a part of building; the knowledge and expertise of scientists, artists, public servants, young people and especially those from marginalised communities that has been wilfully ignored in the name of comfort and convenience.

Unfunded Empathy strives to make a contribution to those larger, urgent fights.