Young, experimental arts practitioners are exploring new ways to think about cultural leadership. But if we see leadership as a form of action rather than a role, how should we teach it?
To bring arts policy into the 21st century, we need to update and correct the basic economic flaws that were baked into the mid-20th century model.
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Turnbull’s 21st century vision for government provides an opportunity to fundamentally rethink arts and cultural policy from the ground up and move beyond its 20th century legacy.
The new Arts Minister, Mitch Fifield, is in a fortunate position …
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If the new arts minister, Mitch Fifield, abolishes the National Program for Excellence in the Arts and diverts its funds back to the Australia Council, he will increase arts funding at no cost to the budget bottom line.
If we have learned anything thus far it is this: one man’s excellence is another man’s mediocrity.
AAP Image/Mick Tsikas
In live performance, when developing a new work and before getting to the final rehearsal period, previews and season, there is often a public showing. Enter the Senate Inquiry, stage left.
Artists must take the opportunity to sharpen their minds as well as their rhetoric.
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How can common standards apply to a sector with so much difference? Artists must take the opportunity to sharpen their minds as well as their rhetoric. The implications of the NPEA go beyond the polemical.
Front doors closed as indefinite strike continues.
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Political discussion about the arts and creative industries is famously woolly ybland, generic and interchangeable. But Corbyn cuts through this.
Senator Scott Ludlam said changes to arts funding will mean the minister will not need to publicly reveal funding recipients. True or false?
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The Greens’ Senator Scott Ludlam said changes to arts funding will mean arts minister George Brandis won’t need to publicly disclose who he’s funding. He said it’s unbelievable – but is it true?
We need to consider what balance we want to achieve between the heritage and contemporary arts.
AAP Image/Julian Smith. Artists of the Australian Ballet rehearse for the The Dream.
Given the pressure being applied to the majority of people working in the arts sector, we would be foolish not to consider the roles and inherited rights of Australia’s major performing companies.
Making a splash in letters may be harder under changes to Australian arts funding.
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It’s hard to work out how funding for literature – if at all – fits into the draft guidelines of the new National Program for Excellence in the Arts. So what are the politics, and problems, at play?
Escape From Woomera is renowned as one of the forebears of “serious games” – what chance would it stand under new government funding guidelines?
By Escape from Woomera development team, via Wikimedia Commons
This exclusion of games from artistic funding in this year’s budget follows the cancellation of the Interactive Media Fund in last year’s budget. Where to now for the Australian videogame industry?
Stage musicals, such as the Rocky Horror Show, don’t necessarily make sense. Nor do recent changes to arts funding.
AAP Image/Paul Miller
In cultural policy every good idea becomes a bad one if the context is confused. The fact there wasn’t initial clarity around the Program for Excellence indicates it will probably do more harm than good.
Arts organisations will be supported if they can contribute to a ‘confident, outward-focused arts sector’.
AAP Image/Paul Miller
The draft guidelines for the new National Program for Excellence in the Arts have been released – now begins the work decoding of what’s written in the text and implied in the subtext.
Once a world leader in craft, now is a good time to look at Australia’s dedication to the production of the handmade, and it’s importance to a thriving economy.
Projects funded by the Australia Council sustain a much larger network of arts organisations, including university arts museums.
Ted Snell/Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery
The transformation of arts funding in Australia won’t just affect grant recipients, it will disrupt the ecology of the arts – as the potential impact on university art museums demonstrates.
The capricious nature of this government’s approach to arts funding promises very rich pickings.
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A motion in favour of a Senate Inquiry into the establishment of a National Programme for Excellence in the Arts has been passed. What more can be done by those artists and arts organisations lobbying against unpopular changes to arts funding?
To write off towns outside of Sydney and Melbourne as being bereft of culture is an arrogant falsehood.
Briony Osei, Eve Beck and Jack Griffiths in The Bacchae. Photo taken by T J Lee
The term “regional arts” carries certain baggage that can create, and uphold, a divisive opposition between city and country. But there is plenty happening in regional Australia, and much to potentially lose.
The evidence of cultural consumption and production in Australia does not bear out the claims made by Senator Brandis.
AAP Image/Mick Tsikas
What is the premise of recently-announced cuts to Australia Council funding, and the establishment of a National Programme for Excellence in the Arts? There is actually a considerable evidence base from which to form policy decisions in Australian arts funding.
Should the offset for screen producers apply to all films made in Australia? Yes, even the ones that ruffle a few feathers.
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David Court, Australian Film, Television and Radio School
The producers of a creationist doc took advantage of Screen Australia’s tax offsets. Were they exploiting a loophole? Hardly – and there’s good reason why producers of all films should enjoy such benefits.
The overhaul of arts funding has left the sector in shock – with many looking for clues as to how George Brandis’ new arts funding body with work in practice.
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The arts sector has been shocked by cuts to the Australia Council – but details about the new National Program for Excellence in the Arts are in short supply. What do we know about George Brandis’s vision for the arts?
Honorary (Senior Fellow) School of Culture and Communication University of Melbourne. Editor in Chief, Design and Art of Australia Online, The University of Melbourne