Art Smarts
A bi-monthly newsletter from the Australia Council research team
Art Smarts will keep you up to date with published research, commentary and issues relevant to the arts from sources across Australia and overseas. View the current issue below or browse the archive of previous editions using the left-hand menu.
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ART SMARTS APRIL 2013
Welcome to the April issue of Art Smarts
It has been an eventful time at the council - with the Australian Government's recent announcement of Creative Australia and response to the Australia Council Review.The ability of the Australia Council to provide research and analysis for the benefit of the sector was enhanced by the commitment of an additional $1 million per year for four years for data collection. Over the coming months we will work with the Office for the Arts and the sector to determine our data collection approach.
We are committed to providing a comprehensive resource through Art Facts- last week we launched Art Facts: Visual Arts. Art Facts aims to make it easier for people to learn about key trends in each sector and access the latest data from a range of council, ABS and industry sources. It now includes some punchy analysis of the latest data on visual arts creation, industry, global trade, participation, and private and public support. So far more than 2,250 people have visited the site and almost 60,000 are engaging through Facebook.
Please check out artfacts.australiacouncil.gov.au and share the best facts with your networks and while you are there, let us know what you think.
Bridget Jones
Director, Research and Strategic Analysis
Top reading
Creative Australia
Australia's National Cultural Policy (NCP) Creative Australia was launched in March. The council's chair Rupert Myer AM welcomed the policy, stating that it is "an opportunity to reposition artists and creativity at the centre of Australian life". The new policy, which also addressed the 2012 review of the Australia Council, announced $75.3 million in additional funding over the next four years for the council to further support artists and ensure the future of arts practice nationwide.
Radio National reflected on the result of the new policy just hours after its release with Ben Eltham, who, in an article for Crikey discussed the individual implications of Creative Australia with several prominent leaders in arts organisations. The newly appointed Minister for the Arts, Tony Burke MP, has voiced his determination to implement the policy in full after he was sworn in on 24 March.
Read the policy >
Funding & policy
Arts Philanthropy: Towards a Better Practice Model
Liz Gillies and Joanna Minkiwiecz, Asia Pacific Social Impact Leadership Centre, February 2013
This report provides an overview of philanthropy in the arts across Australia and offers suggestions on improving the scope of grants and funding, such as developing more strategic 'catalytic' and collaborative grants as illustrated with seven American case studies. Key results find that trusts in Australia are still quite traditional, preferring shorter or unique funding opportunities and focusing on program support as opposed to the support of new works or the longer term strategic partnerships favoured by arts organisations.
Read the report >
Historic Australia Council Anniversary
Canberra, 15 February 2013
Forty years on from the first historic meeting of the Australia Council on 16 February 1973, council chair Rupert Myer AM reflected on the achievements and effect the council has had on the arts in Australia; with more than 20,000 artists and organisations that have been supported across every state and territory, as well as developing a highly successful framework of artistic vibrancy.
Read the speech transcript >
Hidden Innovation: Policy, Industry and the Creative Sector
Stuart Cunningham, University of Queensland Press, 2013
This new title in the Creative Economies series looks at how the creative sector is no longer in the background when it comes to advances in innovation and culture, an area previously dominated by the sciences. Cunningham puts forward the idea that these innovations and a future framework for innovation show great cause for the role of the humanities to be reassessed. In a recent article in the The Australian, Cunningham also discusses the link between the new Creative Australia policy and what this means for the future support of innovation in the creative industries.
Read about the series >
Arts and Kindness: The Theory*
Jo Broadwood, People United Publishing, 2012
This report examines some of the key theoretical reasons that the arts may inspire kindness and social change in people. Art forms can influence the development of factors such as emotions (particularly empathy) connection, learning and values in an audience, particularly through long term exposure. Policy makers, researchers and arts practitioners are well placed to create a framework for developing these attributes, with a study in 2012 by the University of Illinois in Chicago finding a strong link between the arts and altruism.
*Access to this paper is via free online registration
Access the report >
Slipping through the cracks: museums and social inclusion in Australian cultural policy development 2007-2010*
Kylie Message, International Journal of Cultural Policy, Volume 19, Issue 2, 2013
This article, written before the release of Creative Australia, looks at how the museum sector attempted to illustrate the relationship between museums and social change, during and leading up to the consultation phase of the National Cultural Policy. It highlights relevant policies at international, state and federal levels that attempted to articulate this connection between museums and social change.
*Access to this article requires a subscription to the journal or via individual article purchase online
Read the article abstract >
Driving growth through local government investment in the arts
Local Government Association, 7 March 2013
The UK's Local Government Association (LGA) in conjunction with the Arts Council of England are working together to support the growth of arts and cultural events, which in turn create a knock-on effort in terms of employment, business and tourism opportunities. The three areas of performing arts, visual arts and music events alone contribute a total of 4 billion pounds towards the UK economy every year. This report looks at recent case studies involving councils in the key role of supporting arts and cultural events and the positive economic effects on the communities.
Read the report >
Management & marketing
Art Works - Arts Employment for people with disability
DADAA Inc and Arts Access Australia, 2012
Employment in the arts sector is still a challenge for people with disability. Almost 60 percent of arts and cultural organisations in Australia do not currently employ a person with a disability, despite almost 55 percent actively encouraging those with disability to apply for positions. Although there is strong interest amongst those with disability in working in the arts, paid opportunities are much fewer, with almost 29 percent currently in volunteering positions. Less than 40 percent of cultural organisations have a Disability Action Plan, with discrimination and access still being cited as the leading barriers to disability employment.
Branding the Public Art Museum Sector: A New Competitive Model
Jody Evans and Kerrie Bridson, Asia Pacific Social Impact Leadership Centre, 2013
This report looks at the idea of art museums in Victoria becoming more than just educational and cultural centres and enhancing their long term public engagement by developing and applying strong commercial branding principles. Institutional and public stakeholders expressed wide ranging attitudes towards museums ranging from 'dynamic' and exciting, to 'stuffy' and 'elitist'. Accessibility (in particular, inflexible opening hours) and attitudes of museum staff were two main issues negatively affecting the experience of museum goers.
Read the report >
Australia Council for the Arts - Marketing Summit 2013
Canberra, 29 -30 May 2013
The Australia Council's Marketing Summit brings together arts and cultural marketers for two days of creative exchange and insights on contemporary arts marketing. Focusing on issues around audience engagement, this year's program opens with a keynote presentation from Rachel Botsman, a global thought leader on how the power of collaboration through digital technologies is transforming the way we live, work and consume.
Strategic Management in the Arts
Lidia Varbanova, Routledge, January 2013
Strategic Management has moved beyond its origins in the business world. This new title presents practical applications and step by step methodologies for arts organisations of all sizes, based on over twenty years of experience in the field by the author. Intended as a unique and detailed training tool, the focus is on a flexible framework of "strategy-innovations-entrepreneurship" adapted explicitly for the arts.
Flexible working: why the arts and culture sector doesn't get it yet
Claire Hodgson, The Guardian, 15 March 2013
The author proposes that the arts and creative industries would benefit from more flexible working arrangements similar to freelancing agreements, rather than the traditional business model of full time or part time hours. She notes that a similar approach of 'high trust high freedom' has been adopted by Silicon Valley companies with positive results, and suggests that working long hours does not necessarily promote creativity or a creative business culture.
Research & evaluation
Artfacts : Visual Arts
Australia Council for the Arts, April 2013
Artfacts: Visual arts was launched earlier in April and is the second in the Artfacts series, which is a statistical information resource for the arts sector. The website brings together key statistics about Australian visual arts and craft practitioners, such as who they are and what they earn. It examines the visual arts and craft industry in Australia and provides a snapshot of where Australia sits in the global art market. The statistics highlight the value of visual arts and craft in Australia, with art exhibitions drawing bigger crowds than Aussie Rules football. Artfacts: Music was released in late 2012, with more artforms to be added in 2013.
Guess Who's Going to the Gallery? Queensland Report
Museum & Galleries Services Queensland, 12 March 2013
Eighteen galleries across Queensland were surveyed over 6 months to form a picture of their visitors.
Key findings show that 40 percent of visitors are tourists (either from interstate or international), most visitors find out about exhibitions through word of mouth rather than internet sources and around two-thirds are female. Intended as a benchmark for the Queensland museums and galleries sector, this report is the counterpart to 2011's NSW state report , both projects were supported by the Australia Council.
Circus Oz - Living Archive
Circus Oz, 2013
Circus Oz have launched their new website, a 'living archive' that creates a dynamic collection of performance and participation from the company's inception through to now. The site is a result of a two year ARC Linkage project in partnership with the Australia Council, RMIT, La Trobe University, and the Performing Arts Collection - Victorian Arts Centre Trust; and will combine content including the recording of performances and rehearsals and work with emerging technologies in order to engage, support and grow with the innovations of the company as Australia's leading circus act.
Browse the new site >
Conference Report - Making Culture Count: Rethinking measures of cultural vitality, wellbeing and citizenship
Kim Dunphy and Emma Blomkamp, Cultural Development Network, 2012
The Cultural Development Network held a conference in Melbourne with over two hundred delegates in May 2012. This new report brings together the key themes of democratisation, values, risks and collaboration and highlights the presentations around the topics of cultural data and community indicators. The keynote presentation from this conference by Dr Eleonora Belfiore titled "Thriving on measurement? Articulating 'cultural value' in a policy context" is also available online to download and audio stream.
Read the conference report >
Putting a price on the value of art
Jane O'Brien, BBC News-Washington, 18 February 2013
The connection between the arts and the economy is a complex one. Research undertaken by Americans for the Arts is looking to clarify the "economic impact of the nonprofit arts and culture industry" which contributes US $22.3 billion to state, federal and local governments per year and supports 4.13 million full time workers.
Solving the Underpants Gnomes Problem: Towards an Evidence-Based Arts Policy
Ian David Moss, createquity.com, 25 February 2013
This is a summary of a filmed presentation given at the University of Chicago's Cultural Policy centre in November 2012. The author emphasises the need for a stronger research framework strategy in the arts, particularly in the form of arts-specific research networks such as those discussed in the NEA's research paper 'How Art Works' in order to strengthen connections between fields and ensure successful dissemination and application of new research. This need for greater connection between researchers would also address the issue of fragmentation, with the author noting that the level of replication, often unintentional, is resulting in the same kinds of research being undertaken in slightly different ways but ultimately with very similar results.
Read the summary >
Australian Bureau of Statistics
March 2013
The ABS has released the Essential Statistical Assets for Australia 2013 . This list establishes the priority for increased investment and focus in statistical research amongst these categories. Importantly for the arts, the category of Culture and Leisure (including the two subset categories of Attendance at Selected Cultural/Leisure Venues and Activities and Participation in Cultural Activities) has been included in the Society pillar after consultation with the Statistics Working Group of the Meeting of Cultural Ministers.
The latest
Culture and Recreation news has been released by the National Centre for Culture and Recreation Statistics (NCCRS). This half yearly newsletter consolidates the recent releases, developments and upcoming updates from the ABS across the Culture and Recreation categories including Employment in Culture, Children's Participation in Cultural and Leisure Activities and Arts and Culture in Australia -a statistical overview..
Read the newsletter >
Call for Papers : 6th World Summit on Arts and Culture
The International Federation of Arts Councils and Cultural Agencies
(IFACCA) and the National Council for Culture and the Arts, Chile (CNCA) are inviting proposals for papers and presentations for the next World Summit which has the theme of Creative Times: new models for cultural development along with two sub-themes of Critical Times and Creative Spaces. The closing date for submissions is 30 April 2013.
Visit the Summit website >