Welcome to the December issue of Art Smarts

This month's top reading explores how people are seeking deeper levels of engagement beyond attendance at an event. A new framework developed by WolfBrown can be used to think about how we might explore and better harness the creativity in the communities in which we are located... Read more

We also profile new research and resources for funding and policy making, management and marketing and research and academia. I hope you find this useful.

Nick Herd

Director
Research and Strategic Analysis

Top reading

Creating opportunities for active audience participation in the performing arts
Research from the Irvine Foundation - October 2011
Researchers at WolfBrown investigated the trend towards active arts participation across the US, UK and Australian arts sectors.  They outline an 'audience involvement spectrum', a simple framework for understanding different levels of participation - from pure spectating on the one end, to co-creation and audience-as-artist at the other.

Vodcasts from the Australian Theatre Forum - September 2011
Four theatre leaders share their perspectives in this panel on 'audience activation'.  They provide some innovative examples of how artists and companies are experimenting with new modes of engagement that have the capacity to deepen relationships between artists and audiences.

Arts leaders discuss the relevance of opera and classical music to Australian communities today
Transcript of the Peggy-Glanville Hicks speech given by Lyndon Terracini
The Director of Opera Australia delivers a thought-provoking address about the failure of contemporary classical music and opera to 'find a true connection to a significant audience'.  He calls for the sector to join with Opera Australia in broadening their appeal and fulfilling their responsibilities as publicly funded organisations to be as inclusive as possible.

Opinion piece by Andrew Ford in Inside Story
This follow up to Lyndon Terracini's speech explores concepts of 'relevance' and 'Australianness' in the arts.  He argues that 'Australian stories' can include those set in other places, told by other people and set in other times, and that 'great art is always relevant – it makes itself relevant – whereas bad art will always be irrelevant'. 

Essay by Nicole Canham from Platform Papers - October 2011
In her essay 'Democracy versus Creativity in Australian Classical Music' Canham considers the legacy of ‘Creative Nation', the ongoing issues facing classical music and where the opportunities to better engage with broader audiences may be. She argues the 'way to a more vibrant future for classical music lies in collaborating to bring out the creativity of others'.

Skip to more top reading:

Funding and policy making - Management and marketing - Research and academia

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Funding and policy making

Measuring the impact of cultural policies
Analysis by Christopher Madden on Culture360
A comparison of funding for culture and cultural employment in Australia and New Zealand, demonstrating a relationship between cultural policy and the size of the cultural sector.  

Private sector support for key arts organisations funded by the Australia Council
Research from the Australia Council for the Arts - November 2011

The 132 key organisations regularly funded by the Australia Council received almost $25 million income from the private sector in 2010.  This income now equals 15% of total revenue, however some organisations are leveraging more than others.  

Government to consider the recommendations of a review of the book industry strategy group
Recommendations of the Book Industry Strategy Group - November 2011
The BISG has made 21 recommendations to Government, in a range of areas from the improving the supply chain to international competitiveness, artist rights and Australian culture. Minister Carr announced that the government will consider the recommendations in the context of whole-of-Government priorities and provide a preliminary response in early 2012.

Attitudes towards the local film and television industry
Research from Screen Australia - 3 November 2011
Screen Australia has released findings from a survey that show 91 per cent of Australians believe a local film and television industry that creates Australian stories is important.

Reflections on arts and culture in the UK
Strategic Plan launched by Arts Council England - November 2011
The Arts Council published the Arts Council Plan for 2011 - 2011, in which it details how it will invest £440 million of strategic funding between 2012 and 2015, including two new programmes for Capital and Touring.

Analysis from the Cultural Trends journal - 2 November 2011
Cultural Trends devotes an entire double issue to an assessment of the UK cultural policy under the Blair/Brown government based on papers given at the last Cultural Trends conference. It includes useful overviews by John Newbigin and Robert Hewison, as well as articles by Kate Oakley and Roberta Comunian on creative work.  

Research from Arts Quarter - 9 November 2011
Results were released of the fourth survey into the impacts of the global recession on the UK arts community.  The findings show that the current economic climate is having a significant and long-lasting affect on the sector as economic growth remains weak and cuts in public sector support take hold.

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Management and marketing

Jazz audiences initiative: National convening
Research by WolfBrown for the Jazz Arts Group (USA) - August 2011
An impressive program of research used as the basis for a Jazz sector forum (also including marketing professionals) which came up with some concrete ideas for audience development. Check out the prospect segmentation model on page 12 of the project summary report.

Results of a four-year study of young people's engagement with mainstage theatre
Research from the TheatreSpace project - November 2011
Preliminary results from this ARC linkage project show that young people are engaged by live theatre with dynamic performers, believable characters, proximity and intimacy, physical theatre, multi-media elements, sensory experiences, comedy and innovative stagecraft.  The research also shows the importance of family and education in 'scaffolding' theatre attendance. Watch their great promo video here.

Ways to support media arts and digital platforms in New Zealand
Discussion paper from Creative New Zealand - November 2011
Creative New Zealand is inviting feedback on a discussion paper in which they outline some options for supporting media arts and artists and the wider New Zealand arts sector’s use of digital platforms. Feedback is due by 19 December 2011.

Proticipation: The Australia Council and social media arts in virtual worlds
Article from Metaverse Creativity, August 2011
In 2007 the Australia Council for the Arts became the first national arts funding body in the world to fund an artist residency in the virtual domain of Second Life®. The successful project, Babelswarm, was a huge critical success, with a nationally profiled launch in regional Australia and Second Life®.

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Research and academia

Humanities, arts and social science research may form a new National Research Priority
Announcement from Minister Kim Carr - 3 November 2011
The Government announced it will adopt the four recommendations of the recent review Focusing Australia's Publicly Funded Research.  which included consulting on 'the addition of a national research priority to better reflect the priority of HASS in Australia's research'.

ARC funding to create a WA music archive
News from artsHub - November 2011
ECU researchers have been granted $220,000 to create an archive of contemporary Western Australian music, and assist in the preservation of WA's musical heritage.  The project involves the discovery, collection, collation, digitisation storage and dissemination of music recordings, video documentation, scores and other evidence surrounding Western Australian new music.

How cultural organizations' size and funding influence innovation and performance
Journal article from the Journal of Cultural Economics, Volume 35, Number 4 / November 2011
This research reveals how organizational and technological innovations as well as innovation in value creation in museums enhance economic, market and social performance.

An Exploration of Arts Education Policy in Australian Primary Schools
Journal article from Arts Education Policy Review - 23 August 2011
The article challenges  arts educators and other stakeholders to develop and implement a long-term approach to policy and practice to ensure that the arts serve as an “Ode to Joy” rather than dissolving into “Sounds of Silence.”

Links between creativity and health
Podcast from ABC Canberra - November 2011
When we think about health and well-being, should we also think about the relationship between creativity, arts, culture and health? Clive Parkinson, Director of the Arts for Health at Manchester Metropolitan University discusses art and its link to health issues.  

Issues in turning academic research into useful information for policy making
Interview of Peter Shergold in The Conversation - 8 November 2011
This interview explores the reasons why publicly funded academic research is not informing public policy to the extent that it could.  Peter Shergold suggests that changes are required to better incentivise academics to take their work into the public policy domain.  

EU media policy and/as cultural policy
International Journal of Cultural Policy - October 2011
An interesting exploration of how the priorities of cultural policy and media policy interact and conflict in the context of the European Union MEDIA program.

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From the Director of Research

Welcome to this month’s issue of Art Smarts.   

We named our 2010 study of Australian participation in the arts More than Bums on Seats because of the significant creative engagement. Nine out of 10 Australians had attended an arts event, read a book or done something creatively themselves. Four out of ten had creatively participated in at least one art form, such as playing music, painting, or creative writing.

We are now living in what Henry Jenkins has termed a ‘participatory culture’, with ‘relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement, [and] strong support for creating and sharing one’s creations’.

This month, a new study by WolfBrown for the Irvine Foundation examines how different kinds of participatory arts practice are being used by arts organisations.

The link to this research is in this issue. The study is useful not just for the case studies it presents, but because they advance a useful model for thinking about how audiences are involved in the arts from passive spectatorship to very active audience as artist, where the emphasis shifts to the process of creation.

The model helps us think about the ways in which people are seeking deeper levels of engagement beyond attendance at an event. As well it can be used to think about how we might explore and better harness the creativity in the communities in which we are located.

Nick Herd
Director
Research and Strategic Analysis

We welcome your feedback, so please contact us at researchcentre@australiacouncil.gov.au