Arts Minister George Brandis has left himself open to High Court challenges from disgruntled artists by funding his new arts program through a law he previously warned could be unconstitutional, legal experts say.

The National Program for Excellence in the Arts will move decisions on $104 million worth of arts funding from the independent Australia Council to Senator Brandis' ministry. Key figures in the arts community fear this will allow his office to favour wealthy mainstream artists over emerging and alternative ones.

The new program will move decisions on $104 million worth of arts funding to Senator Brandis' ministry. Credit:Andrew Meares

The program is to be funded using the same controversial law the then Labor government rushed through to try to overcome a High Court challenge to its power to fund school chaplains in 2012.

The Coalition then supported the law, but Senator Brandis, then deputy opposition leader in the Senate, told Parliament he was "far from satisfied" that it gave the government proper legal power to spend public money on the programs.