Community Partnerships committee
Community Partnerships aims to develop and sustain a wide range of partnerships to support culturally vibrant communities through engagement with, and participation in, the arts.
Community Partnerships builds on the significant contribution the Australia Council as a whole has made in engaging in, and supporting, community-based arts and culture. Community Partnerships will also enhance a whole-of-government approach across the Australia Council to achieve significant outcomes for the arts and community building.
Community Partnerships offers a range of programs to support community based arts and culture, including community cultural development.
The programs support artists, community arts and culture organisations, and communities to undertake a range of projects and initiatives. They include support for individual artists, arts workers and communities as well as producing and support organisations.
There will also be investments in key cross-sectoral partnerships, which aim to enhance a collaborative approach to arts and cultural development across government agencies and spheres of government (that is whole-of-government) and the community.
Community Partnerships investments will aim to:
- increase individual and community access to, and direct participation in, arts and cultural expression and activities
- support creative and artistic experimentation, innovation and excellence
- enhance recognition and understanding of the key role of the arts in cultural, social and economic development
- increase collaboration, cooperation and partnerships between artists, communities and other sectors to achieve shared goals
- enhance recognition of the diversity and distinctiveness of cultures and artistic practices
- support artistic and cultural activities as a means of developing individual and collective capacities to address broad social and community building issues either within a defined geographic area or among groups.
Community Partnerships will invest proactively in long-term sustainable outcomes for communities through the arts and will continue to build on the Australia Council’s leadership role in facilitating partnerships supporting arts and culture involving local, state, territory and federal agencies and the private sector.
Community Partnerships recognises that partnerships between the arts and non-arts sectors will advance positive outcomes for building culturally vibrant communities and provide working opportunities for artists.
Partnerships take time to develop and maintain, require a shared exchange of ideas, and can include a range of contributions from the partners such as financial commitment, in kind support, networks and other non-financial resources.
Partnerships require mutual respect, sustained commitment to relationship building, and shared understandings of desired outcomes.
Community Partnerships scoping study
Community Partnerships also has overall management responsibility for implementation of the recommendations of the Community Partnerships scoping study approved by the Australia Council in June 2006. The programs and initiatives offered by Community Partnerships have been structured to deliver on the recommendations and focus of the scoping study.
Community Partnership priority areas
The Community Partnerships Committee has defined a number of priority areas for its programs of support that cover a range of geographic, demographic and social contexts. These include:
- regional Australia
- disability
- young people
- cultural diversity
- emerging communities
- Indigenous people
- remote Indigenous communities
- specific critical social and cultural issues requiring focused attention.
These priority areas will serve to focus effective use of the resources of Community Partnerships.
Community Partnerships offers a range of innovative programs focusing on excellence in community arts and culture that are open to artists, groups and organisations.
Successful applications are those that best meet the selection criteria listed for each category in competition with other applications to that category.
The Community Partnerships Committee will also, from time to time, generate initiatives that aim to address strategic priorities and generate sustainable cross-sectoral partnerships.