tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/arts-policy-7664/articlesArts policy – The Conversation2024-01-08T19:16:01Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2158832024-01-08T19:16:01Z2024-01-08T19:16:01Z‘Caring as much as you do was killing you’. We need to talk about burnout in the arts<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563836/original/file-20231206-29-l4wsxc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=21%2C21%2C4866%2C3232&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Verne Ho/Unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Burnout is an <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4911781/">occupational hazard</a> in many people-focused jobs. People in these roles routinely go “above and beyond” for the benefit of others – often in the face of funding cuts and policies that make their work harder than it needs to be. </p>
<p>Since COVID-19, concern has grown about <a href="https://www.artshub.com.au/news/career-advice/artist-burnout-is-not-a-mental-health-issue-it-is-a-labour-issue-2650825/">burnout in the arts and culture sector</a>. However, burnout isn’t a new problem for artists. As one arts worker told me in a 2019 interview: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>the level of burnout in this industry is pretty shocking […] the idea that [burnout] even exists is a running joke […] we’re all overworked and constantly tired.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Burnout rates are <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332063591_Human_Resource_Development_and_Executive_Leadership_Succession_Planning_in_Nonprofits">higher in not-for-profit</a> than in for-profit organisations, due to insufficient resources, job insecurity, low pay and disillusionment involved in meeting funders’ rising demands. </p>
<p>Yet it is ironic that cultural organisations whose success is <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-57583-4_6">based around people</a> should treat those same people poorly.</p>
<h2>What is burnout?</h2>
<p>According to both the <a href="https://www.who.int/news/item/28-05-2019-burn-out-an-occupational-phenomenon-international-classification-of-diseases">World Health Organization</a> and the <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1997-09146-011">Maslach Burnout Inventory</a> (widely regarded as the “<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6194874/">gold standard</a>” measure), burnout has three dimensions: </p>
<ul>
<li> feelings of exhaustion or energy depletion</li>
<li> negativity, cynicism or mental distancing towards work, colleagues, and/or those benefiting from our work (known as “depersonalisation”)</li>
<li> inefficacy or a reduced sense of personal accomplishment. </li>
</ul>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165178121003206">Recent research</a> identifies three further burnout symptoms: </p>
<ul>
<li>sleep disruption</li>
<li>memory and concentration problems</li>
<li>withdrawal from social relationships. </li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563837/original/file-20231206-17-djskol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563837/original/file-20231206-17-djskol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563837/original/file-20231206-17-djskol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563837/original/file-20231206-17-djskol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563837/original/file-20231206-17-djskol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563837/original/file-20231206-17-djskol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563837/original/file-20231206-17-djskol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563837/original/file-20231206-17-djskol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Feelings of exhaustion or energy depletion are a symptom of burnout.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Christian Erfurt/Unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Burnout is also associated with <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2167702620917447">negative outcomes</a>, such as alcohol abuse, declining health and <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.397">job withdrawal</a>, which could be presenteeism, absenteeism or quitting.</p>
<p>In a nutshell, burnout is a state of physical and/or emotional exhaustion caused by chronic stress on the job.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/if-companies-want-to-stop-quiet-quitting-they-need-to-take-burnout-seriously-207289">If companies want to stop quiet quitting they need to take burnout seriously</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What causes burnout in the arts?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.who.int/news/item/28-05-2019-burn-out-an-occupational-phenomenon-international-classification-of-diseases">Prolonged work-related stress</a> is the main cause of burnout. This type of stress <a href="https://www.gallup.com/workplace/237059/employee-burnout-part-main-causes.aspx">can stem from</a> a lack of role clarity, unmanageable workloads or time pressures, unfair treatment at work and a lack of support or communication from managers. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.397">Additional risk factors</a> include incongruities in workload and control (where expectations aren’t matched by experience), a lack of fairness and appropriate rewards, the loss of positive relationships at work, and conflict between personal and organisational values.</p>
<p>Artists and arts workers often experience these stressors due to the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13691180110117640">boom-bust careers</a> necessitated by the <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/ER-05-2018-0128/full/html">project-based work</a> that characterises this sector. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563838/original/file-20231206-22-2c5mdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A dancer" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563838/original/file-20231206-22-2c5mdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563838/original/file-20231206-22-2c5mdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563838/original/file-20231206-22-2c5mdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563838/original/file-20231206-22-2c5mdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563838/original/file-20231206-22-2c5mdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563838/original/file-20231206-22-2c5mdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563838/original/file-20231206-22-2c5mdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The boom-bust cycle of art work can exacerbate stressors.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Hulki Okan Tabak/Unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Working across multiple projects and companies, often with competing deadlines, arts workers can quickly become overstretched. And the small-to-medium companies that form the “<a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/national-culturalpolicy-8february2023.pdf">small vertebrae in the institutional spine of the nation’s cultural sector</a>” often have limited understanding of their contingent workers’ work and emotional situations. Organisations also typically lack the human resource management expertise that might help to address those situations. </p>
<p>Other unique factors also contribute to <a href="https://abewatson.com.au/burnout-thesis">burnout in Australia’s arts and culture sector</a>. Burnout can arise from <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-where-to-now-for-australian-culture-62439">a longstanding public policy context</a> in which artists have continually had to <a href="https://theconversation.com/artists-shouldnt-have-to-endlessly-demonstrate-their-value-coalition-leaders-used-to-know-it-136608">justify the value of their work</a>, coupled with <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-problem-with-arts-funding-in-australia-goes-right-back-to-its-inception-138834">a chronic lack of resources</a> and widespread <a href="https://australiacouncil.gov.au/research/do-you-really-expect-to-get-paid/">precarious employment</a>. </p>
<p>Interestingly, <a href="https://ascopubs.org/doi/full/10.1200/OP.20.00990">hope can buffer burnout</a> so more recent policy developments <a href="https://theconversation.com/tony-burkes-double-ministry-of-arts-and-industrial-relations-could-be-just-what-the-arts-sector-needs-183623">may bring some relief</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://abewatson.com.au/burnout-thesis">24/7 nature of the industry</a> and widespread commitments that “the show must go on” can also contribute to burn out. </p>
<p>As one submission to the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Legal_and_Constitutional_Affairs/Arts_Funding">2014–15 Senate Inquiry into arts funding</a> explained:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>When you are working the equivalent of two full time jobs on below average pay, burnout, fatigue, acute anxiety, and severe depression are not simply likely, but common. It is even more difficult for women, particularly parents, and particularly those who live alone, whether by choice or circumstance.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/3969/">Performance anxiety</a> and “<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14561128/">obsessive passion</a>” can also <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11031-013-9384-z">cause burnout</a> for some artists – particularly in the event of <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.1177/0305735618797180">failure</a>. </p>
<h2>Individual-centred solutions are not enough</h2>
<p>Between 2020 and 2022, I facilitated more than 80 <a href="https://creatingoutloud.business.uq.edu.au/">peer coaching circles</a> with arts workers around Australia, many who were seeking help to cope with burnout. </p>
<p>Reflecting on the wisdom shared in their circle, one participant said that discussions about the stress of arts work: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>kept coming back to the idea of caring less. Not that you don’t care, but that you need to be able to care less, because caring as much as you do was killing you.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563839/original/file-20231206-29-t51mt7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A computer and notebook." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563839/original/file-20231206-29-t51mt7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563839/original/file-20231206-29-t51mt7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563839/original/file-20231206-29-t51mt7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563839/original/file-20231206-29-t51mt7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563839/original/file-20231206-29-t51mt7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563839/original/file-20231206-29-t51mt7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563839/original/file-20231206-29-t51mt7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Applying for grants – and justifying your value – can lead to burnout.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Nick Morrison/Unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.artshub.com.au/news/career-advice/why-we-are-burning-out-in-the-arts-249582-2350136/">Prioritising self-care</a> is often touted as the solution to burnout, both <a href="https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-artists-share-advice-preventing-burnout">by</a> and <a href="https://www.artshub.com.au/news/features/50-ways-to-take-care-of-yourself-in-the-arts-249726-2350300/">for artists</a>. Indeed, “<a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2017-23694-007?doi=1">fixing the person</a>” approaches dominate both academic and industry responses.</p>
<p>But as workplace expert Jennifer Moss wrote for the <a href="https://egn.com/dk/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/08/Burnout-is-about-your-workplace-not-your-people-1.pdf">Harvard Business Review</a>, “burnout is about workplaces, not workers”. </p>
<h2>What can arts organisations do?</h2>
<p>The key to preventing burnout is supporting engagement and wellbeing at work by creating <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2017-23694-007?doi=1">six “positive ‘fits’”</a> between arts workers and their workplaces:</p>
<ul>
<li>a sustainable workload</li>
<li>choice and control</li>
<li>recognition and reward</li>
<li>a supportive work community</li>
<li>fairness, respect and social justice</li>
<li>clear values and meaningful work.</li>
</ul>
<p>This involves more than just individual job-tweaking. A holistic approach is needed to build <a href="https://www.gallup.com/workplace/313160/preventing-and-dealing-with-employee-burnout.aspx#ite-313229">workplace cultures</a> that prioritise wellbeing from recruitment to leaving the organisation.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.gallup.com/workplace/237185/employee-burnout-part-organizations-stop-burnout.aspx">Specific steps</a> arts organisations should take straight away are: </p>
<ul>
<li>managers and staff (including contractors) jointly identifying burnout factors in their organisations</li>
<li>giving staff as much control as possible over what, where, when and how work gets done</li>
<li>recognising and rewarding staff strengths</li>
<li>encouraging and enabling arts workers to support one another (such as through peer coaching networks).</li>
</ul>
<p>Preventing burnout among arts workers will require <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2017-23694-007?doi=1">long-term, organisation-</a> and <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/ER-05-2018-0128/full/html">sector-wide</a> commitments. And, to maximise success, arts leaders – including those in politics and government – should <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2017-23694-007?doi=1">ask themselves</a> how can the arts and culture sector (and individual arts organisations) become a great place to work, and a workplace of choice? </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-great-resignation-didnt-happen-in-australia-but-the-great-burnout-did-201173">The 'great resignation' didn't happen in Australia, but the 'great burnout' did</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215883/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kate Power has received funding from the Queensland Government, under the Advance Queensland Industry Research Fellowship program.</span></em></p>Unique factors contribute to burnout in Australia’s arts and culture sector. Preventing burnout will require long-term, sector-wide commitments.Katherine (Kate) Power, Lecturer in Management, School of Business, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2154452023-10-12T19:02:26Z2023-10-12T19:02:26ZArts organisations say they want to be ‘cultural leaders’ – but are they living up to their goals?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553382/original/file-20231011-19-drz9ru.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=27%2C0%2C5979%2C4007&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/image-large-orchestra-2277995565">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When the date of the referendum was announced, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra (TSO) <a href="https://limelightmagazine.com.au/event/last-night-of-the-proms-2/">quietly cancelled</a> its Last Night of the Proms concert scheduled for the night before. </p>
<p>The reason, given by the orchestra to the media some weeks after the decision to cancel, <a href="https://www.themercury.com.au/news/tasmania/tasmanian-symphony-orchestra-scraps-last-night-of-the-proms-concert-due-to-voice-referendum/news-story/0cddf92cc236cfb5dcc0f9926365d8f8">was that</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>to press ahead with a musical celebration of British pageantry on this night felt insensitive given its proximity to the Voice referendum the following day.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yet, at the time of the decision there was no public statement. The orchestra informed ticket buyers individually. The fact that the cancellation was effected quietly raises questions about why the orchestra did not make any meaningful statement with the cancellation.</p>
<p>The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra states it <a href="https://www.tso.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/TSO2030_StrategyDocument_WEB.pdf">aspires to</a> “serve our sector as cultural leaders”.</p>
<p>Indeed, many Australian arts organisations say they want to be “cultural leaders” – but they must be careful to match their words and actions.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-voice-to-parliament-explained-212100">The Voice to Parliament explained</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A case of cultural leadership</h2>
<p>The expectation of cultural institutions to go beyond their primary function of creating art, and take an active role in important social conversations has become <a href="https://newapproach.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ANA-Priorities-Paper_FA_Acc.pdf">widespread</a>. </p>
<p>The upcoming Voice referendum has prompted many arts organisations to <a href="https://www.artshub.com.au/news/features/arts-organisations-statements-on-the-voice-part-1-2667905/">publicly declare</a> their support for a “yes” vote. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CxwZuOsSTvx/?hl=en\u0026img_index=3","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>But engaging in social discourse and understanding and enacting a leadership role can be challenging.</p>
<p>The term “cultural leadership” has been <a href="https://culturehive.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Demos-Leadership-and-cultural-value1.pdf">used</a> frequently by arts organisations and their funding bodies since the 1990s, linked to an increased expectation that subsidised organisations should contribute to society by creating <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Cultural-Leadership-Handbook-How-to-Run-a-Creative-Organization/Hewison-Holden/p/book/9780566091766">public value</a>. </p>
<p>When outlining goals and articulating purpose, arts organisations today regularly commit to contributing to their communities by providing cultural leadership. This commitment is usually <a href="https://www.wallacefoundation.org/knowledge-center/Documents/Creating-Public-Value-Through-State-Arts-Agencies.pdf">linked</a> to activities such as outreach, education and collaboration. </p>
<p>The notion of cultural leadership has been subjected to scrutiny. In 2014 theatre maker and festival director Wesley Enoch <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/6538552">questioned</a> whether true cultural leadership existed in our major institutions. </p>
<p>He highlighted a lack of willingness for both individuals and their organisations to stand for something – to be bold and courageous, particularly when it came to challenging or divisive issues of social change. </p>
<p>Enoch called on cultural organisations to engage with burning social issues, embrace diversity of thought and contribute to the national conversation through their art-making and public engagement. </p>
<p>The TSO’s cancellation of a problematic program without including its stakeholders in discussion, context or explanation does not represent the vision of cultural leadership Enoch evokes.</p>
<h2>Post-colonial reckoning</h2>
<p>There is another important conversation in classical music around <a href="https://schoolofmusic.ucla.edu/george-e-lewis-on-the-decolonizing-of-classical-music/">decolonisation and the canon</a>. </p>
<p>The core <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/culture/music/dead-white-european-males-dominate-orchestra-music-survey-finds-20200623-p5559e.html">programs</a> of Australia’s orchestras are drawn from works by deceased European composers. These works can seem culturally remote and irrelevant in our relatively young country. </p>
<p>It is the role of orchestras to reinforce not just the transformational enrichment classical music can bring, but its relevance in our lives. </p>
<p>Today’s audiences are demanding examination of the origins and contemporary meaning of the works regularly performed in our concert halls. At the same time, questions of diversity, privilege and access are <a href="https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/sites/default/files/download-file/Executive_Summary.pdf">reshaping</a> the organisations that make and present classical music.</p>
<p>In Australia, debates around cultural appropriation and representation have arisen around events like Opera Australia’s accusations of “<a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/opera/i-felt-sick-opera-australia-under-fire-for-using-yellowface-20220221-p59yet.html">yellowface</a>” in its production of Turandot, and a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2021/mar/23/we-made-a-mistake-dark-mofo-pulls-the-plug-on-deeply-harmful-indigenous-blood-work">cancelled event</a> at Dark Mofo where a British flag would have been soaked in Aboriginal blood.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dark-mofo-doesnt-deserve-our-blood-australia-must-invest-in-first-nations-curators-and-artists-157677">Dark Mofo doesn't deserve our blood. Australia must invest in First Nations curators and artists</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>How institutions engage with these discussions is at the heart of their cultural leadership role. </p>
<p>Orchestras are the custodians of the canon, responsible for pushing their art forms forward and vibrant hubs of collective talent, knowledge and experience. </p>
<p>They can choose to harness these resources, positioning themselves at the forefront of difficult conversations – rather than backing away from them without properly developing or communicating their rationales. </p>
<h2>Cultural paternalism</h2>
<p>The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra made a decision based on the moral judgement it would be insensitive to perform the Last Night of the Proms the night before the referendum, given the <a href="https://academic.oup.com/histres/article-abstract/81/212/315/5609831">overtly British patriotism</a> associated with the program.</p>
<p>This may be a worthy contention. But by just cancelling the concert, the orchestra took away the opportunity for important conversations. </p>
<p>This is reflected in the <a href="https://www.themercury.com.au/news/tasmania/tasmanian-symphony-orchestra-scraps-last-night-of-the-proms-concert-due-to-voice-referendum/news-story/0cddf92cc236cfb5dcc0f9926365d8f8">ambiguous statement</a> by the orchestra:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The TSO believes strongly that art and music should transcend political debate, but we also strive to be sensitive and mindful of community expectations.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As an alternative to the cancellation, the orchestra could have managed this series of events. They could have hosted a discussion about the history of the proms, exploring the tension between the themes of the concert and current conversations. </p>
<p>The program could have been reshaped, reflecting a dialogue with the orchestra’s community.</p>
<p>Instead, the cancellation raises questions. Will the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra ever perform the Last Night of the Proms program again? Were the themes considered when it was originally scheduled? What decision-making processes guided the call to cancel, and who was involved?</p>
<p>State orchestras were divested from the ABC in the late 1990s and left to redefine their purpose and place in society. The tension between artistic and non-artistic endeavours remains a source of <a href="https://repository.uantwerpen.be/docman/irua/932d44/173036.pdf">friction</a>. </p>
<p>In evolving a leadership role, orchestras and other cultural institutions could recognise that discourse brings us together as a society, and engage with difficult conversations – rather than backing away.</p>
<p>This could be the key to espousing a type of cultural leadership that adds real value to society, on and off stage.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/behind-the-scenes-of-the-voice-referendum-australias-museums-are-already-collecting-the-history-of-tomorrow-214265">Behind the scenes of the Voice referendum, Australia's museums are already collecting the history of tomorrow</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215445/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samuel Cairnduff worked for the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra from 2017 to 2022.</span></em></p>The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra quietly cancelled its Last Night of the Proms concert scheduled for the eve of the Voice. Do their words match their actions?Samuel Cairnduff, PhD candidate in cultural leadership, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2080212023-08-31T20:00:11Z2023-08-31T20:00:11ZUnder-counting, a gendered industry, and precarious work: the challenges facing Creative Australia in supporting visual artists<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540941/original/file-20230803-21-ypizoo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C14%2C4909%2C4843&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Earl Wilcox/Unsplash</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When Arts Minister Tony Burke launched the bill introducing Creative Australia, the new organisation at the heart of the Revive Cultural Policy, he did so with <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22chamber%2Fhansardr%2F26698%2F0005%22">a bold statement</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Creative Australia recognises that artists and creatives throughout our great landscape, from metropolitan cities to the red desert, are workers. In exchange for what they give us, they should have safe workplaces and be remunerated fairly.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In 2022, we surveyed 702 visual and craft artists and arts workers, making this the largest single scholarly survey of this cohort in Australia to date. We were interested to find out the ways artists combined income from various sources, within and beyond their art practice. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.visualartswork.net.au/">Our new research</a> identifies three key areas that need to be addressed to ensure fair remuneration for all visual and craft artists. We need to acknowledge the likely under-counting of the number of artists in Australia, the gendered nature of this population, and the complex ways artists earn an income.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/arts-are-meant-to-be-at-the-heart-of-our-life-what-the-new-national-cultural-policy-could-mean-for-australia-if-it-all-comes-together-198786">'Arts are meant to be at the heart of our life': what the new national cultural policy could mean for Australia – if it all comes together</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Counting the artists</h2>
<p>It is impossible to provide a single estimate of the number of visual and craft artists in Australia as different surveys use different definitions of “artist”.</p>
<p>According to the 2021 ABS census, there are 6,793 <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/censushome.nsf/home/tablebuilder?opendocument&navpos=240.">visual art and craft professionals in Australia</a>, 64% of whom identified as female. </p>
<p>But the criteria used to count being an artist as a profession in the census require art to be the “<a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/earnings-and-working-conditions/income-and-work-census/2021#key-questions-in-2021-census">main job</a>” of the respondent in the week before the census. This leads to an under-counting of artists, as most visual art and craft artists support themselves through other work – either related to their artwork, such as in academia or in arts management, or in an entirely different field. As such, they would not be identified in the census as visual or craft artists.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540942/original/file-20230803-25-d2dnt3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman weaving." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540942/original/file-20230803-25-d2dnt3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540942/original/file-20230803-25-d2dnt3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540942/original/file-20230803-25-d2dnt3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540942/original/file-20230803-25-d2dnt3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540942/original/file-20230803-25-d2dnt3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540942/original/file-20230803-25-d2dnt3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540942/original/file-20230803-25-d2dnt3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many artists are excluded from the census, because art making is not their ‘main work’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ALAN DE LA CRUZ/Unsplash</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A more accurate estimate is likely provided by the ABS Survey of Cultural Participation. In this survey, <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/people-and-communities/cultural-and-creative-activities/latest-release">106,000 Australians</a> reported earning some income from a visual art activity, and 94,800 from a craft activity, in the 2021–22 financial year. These figures cannot be totalled as those engaged in both activities were counted separately. Nonetheless, at a minimum the survey identifies an additional 100,000 visual and craft artists not captured within the census definition. </p>
<p>If all artists are to be remunerated fairly, it is critical Creative Australia ensures support mechanisms extend to the around 100,000 visual and craft artists for whom art making is not their primary occupation. </p>
<h2>The gendered nature of the industry</h2>
<p>In our survey, we did not impose any requirements that respondents devote a certain amount of time to their art making, nor earn a particular level of income. Instead, we left it open to respondents to self-identify as an artist. </p>
<p>This inclusive definition produced a much higher proportion of female artists than the census, with 73% identifying as female. This aligns with <a href="https://sheila.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/2019_COUNTESS_REPORT_FINAL.pdf">other estimates</a> of the gender breakdown of the industry. The ABS Cultural Participation Survey estimated 67% of people who earned income from visual art activity and 79% who derived income from craft activity were female.</p>
<p>In our survey, 3.1% of respondents identified as non-binary, and so we were not able to collect enough data for further analysis of this cohort.</p>
<p>We found a distinctive experience of female artists compared to their male counterparts, suggesting policy responses need to recognise the gendered nature of art making. </p>
<p>Female artists in our survey reported an average annual income of A$8,507 from their arts practice, compared to the annual income reported by male artists of $22,906. </p>
<p>While earning 37% of male artists’ earnings, women spent 76% of the time male artists spend on their practice (29 hours compared with 38 hours per week). </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540944/original/file-20230803-29-ypizoo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man paints." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540944/original/file-20230803-29-ypizoo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540944/original/file-20230803-29-ypizoo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540944/original/file-20230803-29-ypizoo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540944/original/file-20230803-29-ypizoo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540944/original/file-20230803-29-ypizoo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540944/original/file-20230803-29-ypizoo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540944/original/file-20230803-29-ypizoo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">On average, male artists earn more than female artists.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Antonio Francisco/Unsplash</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So, male artists earn more from their art practice than female artists, and proportionately even more when accounting for the hours spent on their practice. </p>
<p>Our research suggests the shadow cohort of visual and craft artists who do not show up in census results are predominantly female. The gendered nature of the visual arts and craft sector must be front of mind in the design of remuneration policies for artists undertaken by Creative Australia.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-gender-pay-gap-is-wider-in-the-arts-than-in-other-industries-87080">The gender pay gap is wider in the arts than in other industries</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>How artists earn a living</h2>
<p>For many artists, the practice of visual art and craft making does not readily align with traditional concepts of an employee and is not attached to a single workplace. </p>
<p>In our survey, only 30% of respondents spent 100% of their working time as an artist, with 60% receiving at least some income from non-artistic work within and outside the arts sector.</p>
<p>The life of an artist is more likely to look like a combination of multiple part-time, casual and contract jobs, with occasional grant income and artwork sales. </p>
<p>Many visual art and craft artists conduct their practice from their home and operate as a sole trader. For many, outside work is the only way they can support their art practice. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540943/original/file-20230803-29-nsdn8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Three people in an office" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540943/original/file-20230803-29-nsdn8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540943/original/file-20230803-29-nsdn8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540943/original/file-20230803-29-nsdn8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540943/original/file-20230803-29-nsdn8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540943/original/file-20230803-29-nsdn8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540943/original/file-20230803-29-nsdn8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540943/original/file-20230803-29-nsdn8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Most artists support themselves with a job other than art making.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Arlington Research/Unsplash</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Achieving the goal of remunerating artists fairly is not just about payment for art making. It is also about the other work these artists must undertake to make a living, much of which consists of part-time employment elsewhere in the arts and cultural sector. </p>
<p>Any policy interventions from Creative Australia to support visual and craft artists’ incomes will need to take a sector-wide approach.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/male-artists-dominate-galleries-our-research-explored-if-its-because-women-dont-paint-very-well-or-just-discrimination-189221">Male artists dominate galleries. Our research explored if it’s because ‘women don’t paint very well’ – or just discrimination</a>
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</p>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208021/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Grace McQuilten receives funding from the Australian Research Council for the Linkage Project 'Ambitious & Fair: Strategies for a Sustainable Visual Arts Sector.'</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chloë Powell receives funding from the Australian Research Council for the Linkage Project 'Ambitious & Fair: Strategies for a Sustainable Visual Arts Sector.'</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jenny Lye receives funding from the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council for the Linkage Project Ambitious and Fair: strategies for a sustainable arts sector (LP200100054)"</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kate MacNeill receives funding from the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council for the Linkage Project Ambitious and Fair: strategies for a sustainable arts sector (LP200100054)</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marnie Badham receives funding from the Australian Research Council for the Linkage Project 'Ambitious & Fair: Strategies for a Sustainable Visual Arts Sector.' She is affiliated with Res Artis. </span></em></p>Any policy interventions from Creative Australia to support visual and craft artists’ incomes will need to take a sector-wide approach.Grace McQuilten, Associate professor, RMIT UniversityChloë Powell, Research Assistant, RMIT UniversityJenny Lye, Associate Professor/Reader in Economics, The University of MelbourneKate MacNeill, Associate Dean, Faculty of Arts, The University of MelbourneMarnie Badham, Associate Professor, School of Art, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2112702023-08-16T23:36:49Z2023-08-16T23:36:49Z95% male conductors, 70% ageing classics and zero appetite for risk: what’s wrong with elite Australian opera<p>The stories told on the operatic stage have received <a href="https://theconversation.com/opera-is-stuck-in-a-racist-sexist-past-while-many-in-the-audience-have-moved-on-120073">critical attention</a> for their representation of gender, particularly the often violent fate of their heroines.</p>
<p>But little attention has been paid to women’s representation behind the scenes in Australia. In part, this is due to a lack of readily available data about women’s actual status within opera companies. </p>
<p>We have now created a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10286632.2023.2239266">unique dataset</a> to address this gap. </p>
<p>We looked at the production credits for staged operas presented by Opera Australia, Opera Queensland, the State Opera of South Australia, Victorian Opera and West Australian Opera from 2005 to 2020. </p>
<p>For each production, we tracked the gender profile of the practitioners credited as conductors, directors and designers. We looked at who was credited when, and on which kinds of operas. </p>
<p>We found evidence of pervasive gender inequality.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/opera-is-stuck-in-a-racist-sexist-past-while-many-in-the-audience-have-moved-on-120073">Opera is stuck in a racist, sexist past, while many in the audience have moved on</a>
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<h2>Gender inequality at top opera companies</h2>
<p>Across the five companies, women were hugely underrepresented in the core creative leadership roles of conductor and director. </p>
<p>Women held just 5% of conductor credits over the 16 seasons, and less than a quarter of director credits. Not only were women less likely to see initial credits compared to men, they were also less likely to have opportunities to work on more than one production.</p>
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<p>At individual companies, women’s representation was lowest at Opera Australia and the State Opera of South Australia.</p>
<p>Less than 3% of conductors and 19% of directors credited at Opera Australia were women. The State Opera of South Australia did not credit a single woman conductor between 2005 and 2020 and just 17% of its credited directors were women. </p>
<p>In comparison, two of the smallest companies – Opera Queensland and Victorian Opera – had by far the highest representation for women in both roles.</p>
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<p>Women also saw low representation as designers, comprising 21% of set designers and 9% of lighting designers. Women were much more likely to be credited in the feminised role of <a href="https://variety.com/2018/artisans/news/the-handmaids-tale-1202911250-1202911250/">costume designer</a>.</p>
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<h2>Inequality is greatest in productions of the canon</h2>
<p>The kinds of operas programmed also affected women’s representation as conductors, directors and designers. </p>
<p>Canonical works like Puccini’s La bohème (1895) and Bizet’s Carmen (1875) are seen as <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/opera/audiences-dont-want-to-see-new-works-opera-australias-lyndon-terracini-says-20150115-12qo1m.html">low-risk</a> because they are recognised as masterpieces of the genre and are popular with existing opera audiences. </p>
<p>Canonical operas dominated programming at four of the five companies, followed by slightly less popular works from the 19th century and earlier, such as Rossini’s La Cenerentola (1817) and Bizet’s Les pêcheurs de perles (1863). </p>
<p>The combination of canonical and slightly less canonical works comprised 84% of programming at West Australian Opera, 79% at Opera Australia, 73% at Opera Queensland and 64% at the State Opera of South Australia. (The outlier, Victorian Opera, explicitly focuses on modern operas.)</p>
<p>However, women practitioners were notably absent from the production teams for these popular works. On canonical operas, women’s representation as conductors dropped to less than 1%. Women directors and designers saw almost universal drops in representation across both categories of repertoire. </p>
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<p>Instead, women were more likely to be credited on high-risk modern operas. These works are thought to be <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/opera/audiences-dont-want-to-see-new-works-opera-australias-lyndon-terracini-says-20150115-12qo1m.html">less popular</a> with audiences and are programmed less frequently and for fewer performances than canonical works. </p>
<p>Women also had higher levels of representation in musical theatre works, popular with audiences but traditionally holding <a href="https://www.nats.org/_Library/JOS_On_Point/JOS-078-02-2021-171.pdf">little prestige</a> in the sector. </p>
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<h2>Risk perception and gender inequality</h2>
<p>Beyond the risk associated with different operas and their ability to attract audiences, a contributing factor for gender inequality in opera is how “risky” certain practitioners are thought to be. </p>
<p><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gwao.12701">Studies</a> from the creative industries have shown perceptions of risk in the arts are deeply gendered, particularly when it comes to hiring for key artistic or governance roles. While men practitioners are seen as reliable, women are seen as inherently risky.</p>
<p>These biases are exacerbated in fields like opera where work opportunities are driven by personal networks and professional visibility, both of which <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/03128962231179379">favour men</a>. </p>
<p>Risk perceptions also have compounding effects. Because modern operas are already seen as “risky”, it appears these productions can take the “risk” of employing women – whereas canonical operas, programmed because they are “safe”, also make the “safe” choice in hiring men.</p>
<h2>Risk aversion in funding enables gender inequality</h2>
<p>Entrenched gender bias is difficult to shift in any field. But with Australia’s opera companies, government funding policies are exacerbating the field’s existing inequality. </p>
<p>Here again, it comes down to questions of risk. </p>
<p>Australia’s peak arts funding body, now named Creative Australia, has a particular focus on mitigating risk – both financial and artistic – through its operatic policies. </p>
<p>In exchange for <a href="https://theconversation.com/does-opera-deserve-its-privileged-status-within-arts-funding-84761">multi-year funding support</a>, companies are expected to <a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/national_opera_review_government_response_for_tabling_at_mcm.pdf">maintain financial targets</a> and prioritise programming operas that are low-risk financially. Companies are also encouraged to rent existing productions from Opera Australia or <a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/national_opera_review_final_report_0.pdf">co-commission</a> new productions with other companies.</p>
<p>These policies are laudable for their attention to efficient public spending and co-operation. But policies can have unintended impacts. </p>
<p>By encouraging companies to program low-risk popular operas, Creative Australia is trying to mitigate financial risk. But such policies don’t take into account the fact that women practitioners are largely absent from these works. </p>
<p>In the same way, policies that promote co-operation don’t consider how this leads to companies reproducing gender imbalances. Opera Australia is framed as a key source of rental productions for other companies but also has some of the lowest rates of representation for women directors and conductors. </p>
<p>It is critical that arts funding bodies and policymakers consider the practical impacts of their policies. At the same time, opera companies need to acknowledge the extent to which their own organisational practices are driving inequality within the sector. </p>
<p>The scale of gender inequality at work in Australian opera production won’t be easily remedied. But shining a light on the extent of the problem is a start towards making the sector accountable for its performance, both on and off the stage. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/does-opera-deserve-its-privileged-status-within-arts-funding-84761">Does opera deserve its privileged status within arts funding?</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211270/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Our new research has tracked the gender of artists working at Australian opera companies and found evidence of pervasive gender inequality.Caitlin Vincent, Lecturer in Creative Industries, The University of MelbourneBronwyn Coate, Senior Lecturer in Economics, RMIT UniversityKatya Johanson, Professor of Audience Research, Edith Cowan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2076122023-06-16T05:09:39Z2023-06-16T05:09:39ZCuts in the state budget, a gallery on hold and millions on sports: the decline of arts support in South Australia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532308/original/file-20230616-27-intfya.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3600%2C2392&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Adelaide Festival Centre <a href="https://www.aussietheatre.com.au/news/hip-hip-hooray-the-iconic-adelaide-festival-centre-celebrates-turning-50-today">is celebrating</a> its 50th anniversary this month. Opened in 1973, the building was completed before the Sydney Opera House, Arts Centre Melbourne and the Queensland Performing Arts Centre. </p>
<p>South Australia was regarded as a leader of the arts in Australia for around three decades from 1970 to the 1990s and <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/adelaide/athens-of-the-south/1BCD191CDED2F4A7E9AB04952E85B8AC">dubbed internationally</a> the “Athens of the South”. </p>
<p>Since the early 21st century, other states have woken up to the benefits of the arts and are now supporting lively creative industries within their midst. South Australia though has done the opposite. </p>
<p>The arts are no longer seen as a priority. </p>
<h2>Arts in the budget</h2>
<p>In 2018, under the previous Liberal state government, the arts and cultural portfolio Arts South Australia was <a href="https://theconversation.com/cuts-and-restructures-send-alarm-through-south-australias-arts-sector-103441">broken up</a> and sent to different government departments. </p>
<p>Youth arts were put into the Education Department. The SA Film Corporation, the Adelaide Film Festival and the Jam Factory were relocated to the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science. The North Terrace cultural institutions such as the state art gallery, museum and library – while administered by the Premier’s department – are now overseen by a generic arm of the department who are not arts or cultural specialists. </p>
<p>The few remaining staff left from Arts South Australia were placed within a sector of the Department of Premier and Cabinet called “Communities and Corporate”, one of <a href="https://www.dpc.sa.gov.au/about-the-department/strategic-direction/DPC-organisational-chart.pdf">ten portfolios</a> within the department. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cuts-and-restructures-send-alarm-through-south-australias-arts-sector-103441">Cuts and restructures send alarm through South Australia's arts sector</a>
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<p>The South Australian state budget was handed down this week. The only mention of the arts in the budget was within the major events fund where there is a commitment of <a href="https://www.statebudget.sa.gov.au/our-budget/Major_events,_sports_and_arts">$2 million over four years</a> to the Adelaide Film Festival’s investment fund.</p>
<p>Within the Department of Premier and Cabinet, “Arts and Cultural Policy and Support” receives a <a href="https://www.statebudget.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/914179/2023-24-Agency-Statements-Volume-4.pdf">reduction of $1.2 million</a> from the amount actually spent on the arts in 2022–23.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/cultural-funding-by-government-2020-21-south-australia.pdf">There was</a> a 6% drop in cultural spending in South Australia in 2019, and a further 3% drop in 2020. </p>
<p>The continued reductions in arts funding seem counter intuitive given the negative impact of COVID on the arts and cultural sector.</p>
<h2>Adelaide’s stalled new gallery</h2>
<p>In 2016, the Labor government and the Art Gallery of South Australia commissioned a report and undertook a <a href="https://competitions.malcolmreading.com/adelaidecontemporary/overview.html">design competition</a> for the development of a new contemporary art space at the old location of Royal Adelaide Hospital on North Terrace, known as Lot Fourteen.</p>
<p>The new gallery became an <a href="https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/sa-election-2018/sa-liberals-propose-national-aboriginal-art-and-culture-gallery-highend-hotel-for-old-rah-site/news-story/4dffcba14fe283514351fbda43121bdb">election issue</a> in 2018, with the Liberal party running on a platform of developing a national Indigenous arts centre. </p>
<p>After the Liberal party won the election, the gallery was named Tarrkarri (“future” in Kaurna language) and was <a href="https://architectureau.com/articles/sa-govt-pushes-ahead-with-adelaide-contemporary-alternative/">due to be completed</a> in 2023.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532309/original/file-20230616-17-8wlqgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532309/original/file-20230616-17-8wlqgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532309/original/file-20230616-17-8wlqgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532309/original/file-20230616-17-8wlqgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532309/original/file-20230616-17-8wlqgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532309/original/file-20230616-17-8wlqgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532309/original/file-20230616-17-8wlqgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532309/original/file-20230616-17-8wlqgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The proposed design for Tarrkarri. Design credit: Diller Scofidio no+ Renfro and Woods Bagot.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image courtesy Lot Fourteen.</span></span>
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<p>After Labor got back into government in early 2022, the development of Tarrkarri was put on hold while the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-31/sa-government-review-into-indigenous-art-gallery-tarrkari/101596090">project was reviewed</a> by a committee appointed by the government. </p>
<p>As of June 2023, the site remains <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-16/tarrakarri-project-on-hold-in-adelaide/102347962">a hole in the ground</a> with a potential cost blow out of $400 million while the government reviews the committee’s recommendations. </p>
<p>Significantly, there is no additional money promised for the project in the 2023–24 state budget, although there is a forecast completion date of 2027.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/perth-already-has-a-museum-of-indigenous-art-and-culture-with-proper-funding-it-could-be-our-national-centre-144280">Perth already has a museum of Indigenous art and culture. With proper funding, it could be our national centre</a>
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<h2>A critical lack of infrastructure</h2>
<p>There has been a critical lack of cultural infrastructure in South Australia for many years across all artform areas. </p>
<p>There has been a call for a <a href="https://www.adelaidereview.com.au/arts/performing-arts/2016/03/04/the-case-for-a-new-concert-hall-in-adelaide/">dedicated concert hall</a> in Adelaide for many years. Despite a <a href="https://indaily.com.au/news/2021/11/04/city-concert-hall-report-finished-but-kept-under-wraps/">scoping study</a> completed in 2021, nothing has happened so far, and the state’s music audience continues to miss out on many music groups and individuals touring the country. </p>
<p>In May 2023, the Malinauskas Government shelved plans to build a new storage centre for the state collections housed at the state museum, library and art gallery, citing <a href="https://indaily.com.au/news/2023/05/05/completely-insufficient-money-troubles-stall-sa-cultural-collection-hub/">insufficient funds</a>. </p>
<p>Given the monetary and cultural value of these collections, it might be argued that not storing them appropriately is, to misquote Oscar Wilde, rather careless. </p>
<h2>Sports are the big winners</h2>
<p>Arts funding in South Australia has not seen any noticeable increase for several years and many agencies and arts organisations are struggling to survive. </p>
<p>While most other states have acquired new concert halls, new art galleries and theatre spaces over the past two decades, South Australia has remained culturally static. The only updated space is the refurbished <a href="https://indaily.com.au/arts-culture/2020/06/12/inside-the-new-look-her-majestys-theatre/">Her Majesty’s Theatre</a>. </p>
<p>South Australia is now a long way behind all the other mainland states in terms of <a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/publications/cultural-funding-government-2020-21-states-and-territories">actual expenditure</a> on arts and culture – although it sits fourth on per capita support.</p>
<p>When Labor was elected in 2022 there <a href="https://musictrust.com.au/loudmouth/the-arts-policy-of-the-new-south-australian-labor-government/">was hope</a> there would be an immediate revival of a government entity focusing on the arts. It was also hoped Labor would <a href="https://indaily.com.au/arts-culture/2022/08/19/is-adelaides-arts-infrastructure-keeping-up-with-our-ambitions/">be proactive</a> about increasing arts support and build much needed new cultural infrastructure.</p>
<p>Since its election in early 2022, the state Labor government has spent <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-16/adelaide-500-budget-blown-out-in-2022/101779892">$35 million</a> on reviving a car race, <a href="https://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/afl-makes-huge-announcement-on-future-of-gather-round/news-story/6e000cd44c97b82af6f7418d8d77dfa3">around $14 million</a> on the AFL Gather Round, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-14/south-australia-to-host-controversial-liv-golf-series/101650096">unknown millions</a> on LIV Golf and committed <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-10/adelaide-aquatic-centre-cost-blow-out/102465896">$135 million</a> towards the development of a new swimming centre. </p>
<p>Sports events are a winner under the Malinauskas Labor government. The arts do not get a mention. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/liv-golf-sportwashing-vs-the-commercial-value-of-public-attention-185478">LIV Golf: Sportwashing vs. the commercial value of public attention</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207612/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jo Caust has previously received funding from the Australia Council. She is a member of the Arts Industry Council (SA) and NAVA. </span></em></p>The continued reductions in arts funding seem counter intuitive given the negative impact of COVID on the arts and cultural sector.Jo Caust, Associate Professor and Principal Fellow (Hon), School of Culture and Communication, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2027272023-03-29T03:00:01Z2023-03-29T03:00:01ZAustralia’s cultural institutions are especially vulnerable to efficiency dividends: looking back at 35 years of cuts<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518059/original/file-20230328-29-56c55m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=35%2C0%2C5919%2C3937&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In January the Albanese government launched a new arts policy, <a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/publications/national-cultural-policy-revive-place-every-story-story-every-place">Revive</a>. Among its measures was a commitment to exempt Australia’s seven national performing arts training organisations from the efficiency dividend.</p>
<p>The directors of Australia’s national cultural organisations in the galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAM) sector might well have looked on in envy, but also in hope. Revive did not deal with their problems, but Arts Minister Tony Burke does recognise they are in <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/genpdf/chamber/hansardr/26433/0175/hansard_frag.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf">deep trouble</a>. </p>
<p>Staff at the National Gallery of Australia, for example, are working in mouldy rooms and using towels and buckets to mitigate a “<a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/art-and-design/a-national-disgrace-gallery-uses-buckets-as-building-falls-into-disrepair-20230327-p5cvjo.html">national disgrace</a>”. This week, Burke gave assurances the cultural institutions will receive <a href="https://www.watoday.com.au/politics/federal/budget-will-contain-some-relief-for-national-gallery-cultural-institutions-but-government-won-t-say-how-much-20230327-p5cvmx.html">increased funding</a> in the May budget, but it is not yet clear how much, or for how long.</p>
<p>And for many of the sector’s ills, the efficiency dividend is to blame.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/arts-are-meant-to-be-at-the-heart-of-our-life-what-the-new-national-cultural-policy-could-mean-for-australia-if-it-all-comes-together-198786">'Arts are meant to be at the heart of our life': what the new national cultural policy could mean for Australia – if it all comes together</a>
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<h2>Making cultural institutions ‘efficient’</h2>
<p>The Hawke Government introduced the efficiency dividend – an annual decrease in government organisations’ funding – in 1987, levied at 1.25% annually. </p>
<p>While there was much window-dressing about greater efficiency and value for taxpayers, the overriding aim was budget savings. State governments have also levied efficiency dividends for the same reason.</p>
<p>The efficiency dividend has undermined the cultural institutions ever since. Senior public servants considered if big government departments were taking a hit, GLAM should not be treated differently. </p>
<p>But these institutions are not like other government agencies. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518062/original/file-20230328-16-25v4zp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The war memorial" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518062/original/file-20230328-16-25v4zp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518062/original/file-20230328-16-25v4zp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518062/original/file-20230328-16-25v4zp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518062/original/file-20230328-16-25v4zp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518062/original/file-20230328-16-25v4zp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518062/original/file-20230328-16-25v4zp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518062/original/file-20230328-16-25v4zp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Entry charges were briefly levied at the Australian War Memorial.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>While small and specialised – and therefore poorly placed to absorb continuing cuts – they are legally mandated to grow. But these institutions, required by law to “develop their collections”, can barely afford to preserve their existing materials. </p>
<p>The only place where economies could reasonably be made was in employment. As staff numbers and organisational capacity declined, successive governments told the agencies to find new funding sources, such as philanthropy or user charges. </p>
<p>Entry charges were previously levied at the <a href="https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=31405793">National Gallery</a>, and even briefly at the <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/122334513">Australian War Memorial</a>. </p>
<p>Both generated animosity among visitors, who rightly felt that, as taxpayers, they should not have to pay to see the collections maintained on their behalf.</p>
<h2>Not neglecting, strangling</h2>
<p>In the end, institutions were in the invidious position of maintaining some core functions while neglecting or abandoning others. </p>
<p>When the efficiency dividend took effect in the late 1980s, the newly established National Film and Sound Archive was forced to suspend acquisition to <a href="https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=32176885">save deteriorating records</a>. </p>
<p>By 2008 similar effects were evident across the board. Required to produce efficiencies each year, the Australian National Maritime Museum found itself cancelling some exhibitions while deferring or scaling back others. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518060/original/file-20230328-28-ggo9cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A glass museum on Darling Harbour." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518060/original/file-20230328-28-ggo9cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518060/original/file-20230328-28-ggo9cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=332&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518060/original/file-20230328-28-ggo9cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=332&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518060/original/file-20230328-28-ggo9cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=332&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518060/original/file-20230328-28-ggo9cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518060/original/file-20230328-28-ggo9cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518060/original/file-20230328-28-ggo9cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The Australian National Maritime Museum was forced to cancel exhibitions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies told a <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/parliamentary_business/committees/house_of_representatives_committees?url=jcpaa/efficdiv/report.htm">parliamentary inquiry</a> staff were “racing against time” to preserve materials that would be “lost forever” in the face of staffing cuts. </p>
<p>The institute even reported the likelihood of having to “compromise” its repatriation program to adhere to the efficiency dividend in 2008, the year of the Apology. The hypocrisies involved here were boundless.</p>
<p>The agencies have often been told to do additional work, even as funding disappeared. </p>
<p>The Rudd government <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/rudd-govt-reveals-plans-for-foi-reform-20090324-983d.html">reduced the closed period</a> of most Commonwealth records from 30 years to 20 in 2010. The National Archives would have to release two years of cabinet records annually for ten years. Meanwhile, the archives was failing to meet <a href="https://www.ag.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-03/functional-efficiency-review-national-archives-of-australia.PDF">basic statutory obligations</a> for ensuring timely public access to open period records. </p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.ag.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-03/functional-efficiency-review-national-archives-of-australia.PDF">2020 review</a>, David Tune reported the timeframe for examining and clearing records was “unachievable because of resource constraints”.</p>
<p>Governments have nonetheless continued to cut funding to these institutions. The Rudd government <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/parliamentary_business/committees/house_of_representatives_committees?url=jcpaa/efficdiv/report.htm">increased the efficiency dividend</a> by 2% to a total of 3.25% for one year. In December 2015 the Turnbull government <a href="https://archive.budget.gov.au/2015-16/myefo/MYEFO_2015-16_Final.pdf">imposed another 3% hike</a> with a view to saving A$36.8 million.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-20/national-library-of-australia-gets-funding-for-trove-in-myefo/8136738">Emergency funding</a> was soon required to keep Trove, the National Library’s popular database, operational. That was a more sensitive issue for nervous politicians: there are Trove users in every electorate around the country and they love it passionately. But a leaky roof in the building that houses Trove, the National Library, is harder to see – even from Capital Hill.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/troves-funding-runs-out-in-july-2023-and-the-national-library-is-threatening-to-pull-the-plug-its-time-for-a-radical-overhaul-197025">Trove's funding runs out in July 2023 – and the National Library is threatening to pull the plug. It's time for a radical overhaul</a>
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<h2>Where to?</h2>
<p>In 2018 the Coalition government, supported by Labor, was able to find $500 million for <a href="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6000852/500m-australian-war-memorial-expansion-to-honour-recent-conflicts/">massive renovations</a> at the Australian War Memorial. But it took concerted national action by <a href="https://honesthistory.net.au/wp/wp-content/uploads/SavingtheNationsMemoryBank.pdf">150 writers</a>, an intense media campaign and the treasurer’s personal intervention to secure <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-01/national-archives-of-australia-receives-urgent-federal-funding/100257692">$67 million in 2021</a> to save vital records at the National Archives from disintegrating before they could be digitised. </p>
<p>If the Albanese government really cares about the future of Australia’s national cultural institutions, the government will exempt them from the efficiency dividend. Revive sets a precedent in relation to performing arts institutions. The National Cultural Policy Advisory Group Burke established has <a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/national-cultural-policy-advisory-group-independent-advice.pdf">advised dropping the efficiency dividend</a> for cultural institutions.</p>
<p>The unpalatable alternative is continuing the cycle of fiscal suffocation and emergency funding we have seen for decades. A government that creates emergencies for itself to solve can never be called efficient. And for citizens, there is no dividend.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/getting-more-bang-for-public-bucks-is-the-efficiency-dividend-efficient-24803">Getting more bang for public bucks: is the 'efficiency dividend' efficient?</a>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frank Bongiorno is President of the Australian Historical Association.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joshua Black is Administrative Officer of the Australian Historical Association. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Arrow receives funding from The Australian Research Council. She is Vice-President of the Australian Historical Association. </span></em></p>Years of cost-cutting measures have left Australia’s national galleries, libraries, archives and museums in dire straits.Frank Bongiorno, Professor of History, ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National UniversityJoshua Black, PhD Candidate, School of History, National Centre of Biography, Australian National UniversityMichelle Arrow, Professor of History, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1997722023-02-21T18:11:53Z2023-02-21T18:11:53ZWe need to break the cycle of crisis in Aotearoa New Zealand’s arts and culture. It starts with proper funding<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511245/original/file-20230220-22-tj99ua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C11%2C3982%2C2215&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/robinzblog/51822798492">Robin Capper/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In times of crisis, arts, culture and creative experiences play an essential role. Whether through a music gig, a performing arts festival, a visual art exhibit or a well-thumbed book – these bring joy, comfort and relief in troubled times. </p>
<p>Taking part in creative activities and events <a href="https://mch.govt.nz/valuing-arts-research-report">boosts individual and collective wellbeing</a>, brings communities together, and keeps our social bonds in tune. </p>
<p>But the full potential of arts, culture and creativity to create positive social change has been held back by cycles of crisis in Aotearoa New Zealand’s creative sector. </p>
<p>The government’s recent announcement of a <a href="https://creativenz.govt.nz/News-and-blog/2023/02/06/23/26/43/Creative-New-Zealand-welcomes-additional-22-million-from-Government">NZ$22 million top-up</a> to arts funding body Creative New Zealand Toi Aotearoa offers temporary relief to a financially strained sector, but this short-term measure exposes the absence of a wider strategy from Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage. </p>
<p>It is time for a long-term <a href="https://www.tetaumatatoiaiwi.org.nz/nga-toi-in-aotearoa/">national Ngā Toi Arts and Culture strategy</a> to provide a much-needed circuit breaker.</p>
<h2>Compounding events</h2>
<p>Aotearoa’s arts and cultural sector remains on an emergency footing following the past three years of pandemic disruption. </p>
<p>Auckland’s Silo Theatre made the <a href="https://silotheatre.co.nz/article/2023-cancelled-2023-artistic-message">audacious call to “cancel” 2023</a> and its usual programming, saying:</p>
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<p>The impacts of the pandemic on our sector are serious and long lasting […] funding for the arts is shrinking, audience attendance is down the world over […] practitioners are burning out and leaving the sector for better pay and greater security. The time for transformation is now.</p>
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<p>Arts companies going ahead with live work face the prospects of COVID and climate crisis cancellations. </p>
<p>The Royal New Zealand Ballet was <a href="https://www.facebook.com/nzballet/videos/455197303452816/">forced to cancel</a> the entire Auckland season of Venus Rising (a production that had already been postponed four times) during the recent summer COVID wave in December 2022. </p>
<p>This month’s flooding in Auckland and the devastation wrought by Cyclone Gabrielle present yet more setbacks for our arts and culture recovery. Numerous events in Auckland Pride were <a href="https://aucklandpride.org.nz/articles/weather-update-auckland-pride-2023/">disrupted</a> and the Napier Art Deco Festival was <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/cyclone-gabrielle-napier-art-deco-festival-2023-cancelled/EPNGJ7YGTZHLTBUZUYSLWULJZE/">cancelled entirely</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/junior-staff-are-finding-better-contracts-senior-staff-are-burning-out-the-arts-are-losing-the-war-for-talent-194174">Junior staff are finding better contracts, senior staff are burning out: the arts are losing the war for talent</a>
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<h2>A lack of money</h2>
<p>Low wages are a longstanding structural issue in the creative sector. In 2019 <a href="https://creativenz.govt.nz/News-and-blog/2022/06/15/02/26/15/Research-reflects-significant-challenges-of-making-a-living-as-a-creative-professional-in-Aotearoa">creative professionals earned</a> an average NZ$36,000 per year, NZ$8,000 below living wage. </p>
<p>The cost of living is presently biting both creatives and audiences, with <a href="https://www.stats.govt.nz/news/annual-inflation-at-7-2-percent/">inflation rising above 7%</a>. </p>
<p>Creative sector workers had a <a href="https://creativenz.govt.nz/News-and-blog/2022/07/08/03/41/40/Arts-Sector-Remuneration-Report-released">0% median base salary increase over 2021</a>, with no salary increase forecast for artists in 2022 – effectively a pay cut.</p>
<p>There’s more demand than ever before for funding. Success rates for grants from Creative New Zealand have <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/arts/130821901/creative-new-zealand-to-undertake-widespread-review-into-services-funding">dropped</a> from one in three to one in five. The funding body’s latest arts funding round opened and closed in 24 hours with the 250 application limit reached in <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/arts/131220073/creative-new-zealand-closes-arts-grants-round-in-record-24hour-period">record time</a>, a highly stressful funding system which undermines practitioner wellbeing. </p>
<p>(Creative New Zealand <a href="https://creativenz.govt.nz/News-and-blog/2022/06/15/02/26/15/Research-reflects-significant-challenges-of-making-a-living-as-a-creative-professional-in-Aotearoa">has committed</a> to “co-designing a better approach to funding” with the arts community.)</p>
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<p>During the pandemic, rather than expanding the funding body’s existing funding capability, the Ministry for Culture and Heritage was rapidly upscaled to <a href="https://mch.govt.nz/covid-recovery">administer new funding schemes</a>. </p>
<p>But while the ministry has been enabled to fund new blue-sky initiatives, core arts and culture activities have gone unfunded or underfunded. </p>
<p>With COVID recovery funding winding up this year, the absence of any long-term government strategy is alarming. </p>
<h2>Breaking the cycle</h2>
<p>Comparing the approaches of the current New Zealand and Australian governments is revealing. </p>
<p>In 2017, Jacinda Ardern’s Labour government took over after nine years of arts austerity. The former National Party Minister for Arts, Culture, and Heritage, Chris Finlayson <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/arts/300674472/chris-finlaysons-time-as-arts-minister-spent-keeping-the-luvvies-at-bay">described his role</a> as being to “keep the luvvies at bay and stop them complaining”.</p>
<p>In contrast, Ardern wanted to “see a country where the arts are available to us all”. But there was a gulf between rhetoric and action. </p>
<p>Despite positive schemes such as <a href="https://www.education.govt.nz/our-work/publications/budget-2019/creatives-in-schools/">Creatives in Schools</a>, Labour continued to underinvest in Creative New Zealand. </p>
<p>A 2017 manifesto promise to reestablish the <a href="https://pantograph-punch.com/posts/difficult-history-of-pace">Pathways to Arts and Cultural Employment scheme</a>, which enabled artists on a benefit to record arts as their chosen career and receive financial support and professional development <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/arts/300132726/auckland-art-gallery-calls-for-revival-of-helen-clarkera-artists-wage">remains incomplete</a>. </p>
<p>In Australia, Anthony Albanese’s Labor government has made arts and culture a centrepiece policy of its first term, <a href="https://www.artshub.com.au/news/news/revive-286-million-national-cultural-policy-revealed-2608426/">promising</a> to “put the arts back […] at the heart of our national life” via the Revive National Cultural policy budgeted for A$286 million (NZ$315 million) over four years. </p>
<p>While some features play catch-up with New Zealand (such as the establishment of a poet laureate, which New Zealand has had since 1997), Revive’s five policy pillars provide a useful starting point for a conversation on what a national culture policy could look like in New Zealand: First Nations first; a place for every story; the centrality of the artist; strong institutions; reaching the audience. </p>
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<p>A national strategy for Aotearoa could direct resources towards where they could have the most impact and harness the wellbeing benefits of ngā toi, or art and creative expression.</p>
<p>Ngā toi derives from te toi-o-ngā-rangi, the uppermost heaven representing “<a href="https://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2018/06/20/mastering-the-art-of-interpretation-what-exactly-does-toi-mean/">the highest form of knowledge and expertise</a>”. Ngā toi is regarded as intrinsic to being human, fundamental for mental and spiritual healing and balance. </p>
<p>Arts and culture are not a nice to have: they are essential to who we are as individuals and as a community. </p>
<p>Government investment in arts and culture is also an investment in education, health and employment.</p>
<p>We need to make breaking the cycle of crisis in Aotearoa’s arts and culture ecology an election issue. Our political parties should follow Australia’s lead and commit to the development of a national Ngā Toi Arts and Culture policy to boost access and participation in arts, culture and creativity for the benefit of all New Zealanders.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/arts-are-meant-to-be-at-the-heart-of-our-life-what-the-new-national-cultural-policy-could-mean-for-australia-if-it-all-comes-together-198786">'Arts are meant to be at the heart of our life': what the new national cultural policy could mean for Australia – if it all comes together</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199772/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Wenley has worked as an external peer assessor for Creative New Zealand. </span></em></p>Aotearoa’s arts and cultural sector remains on an emergency footing following the last three years of pandemic disruption.James Wenley, Lecturer, Theatre Programme, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of WellingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1988712023-02-08T02:07:22Z2023-02-08T02:07:22ZA story for every place, not jobs and growth: Revive reflects global trends in policy – cultural and otherwise<p>Federal Labor is engaged in urgent reform, making up for the “lost decade” under the Coalition. The Voice, industrial relations, climate change, universities, health, Asian-Pacific diplomacy, research and development are all undergoing significant policy review. We can now add the new National Cultural Policy, <a href="https://www.hawkerbritton.com/blog/2023/01/30/national-cultural-policy-revive/">dubbed Revive</a>. </p>
<p>The reference points since the launch of the policy have been Whitlam and Keating, both for their reforming energies and their love of the arts. But it is worth putting this into an international context. </p>
<p>Australia’s lack of a cultural policy was often seen as a throwback to some philistine past, provoking a toe-curling culture cringe at the thought of how this might look overseas. But the Coalition was in fact adopting a right-wing politics that began with the <a href="https://www.griffithreview.com/articles/blue-wedge/">mid-1990s US Republican Party</a>, then picked up in the United Kingdom, across the European Union and beyond.</p>
<p>If party lines in culture were string quartets versus some pop-modernism combo, the new conservative dispensation was happy to reject art. </p>
<p>In doing this they could pose as populists, setting the huddled masses of the suburbs against the metropolitan elites. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/arts-are-meant-to-be-at-the-heart-of-our-life-what-the-new-national-cultural-policy-could-mean-for-australia-if-it-all-comes-together-198786">'Arts are meant to be at the heart of our life': what the new national cultural policy could mean for Australia – if it all comes together</a>
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<h2>A creative nation</h2>
<p>Labor’s new cultural policy harks back to the ill-fated 2013 <a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/documents/creative-australia-national-cultural-policy-2013">Creative Australia</a> and to 1994’s fondly remembered <a href="https://theconversation.com/paul-keatings-creative-nation-a-policy-document-that-changed-us-33537">Creative Nation</a>.</p>
<p>Creative Nation set an international benchmark for a new kind of cultural policy thinking, embracing commercial popular culture alongside the arts. This combination was seized upon by UK New Labour for its creative industries <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/sda/1175/audioclip-transcript-ccut.pdf">rebranding in 1998</a>.</p>
<p>Flagging by the time Conservatives got back into power in 2010, the whole idea was briefly revived after Brexit. </p>
<p>The head of the UK Arts Council, Peter Bazalgette, got creative industries inserted into Theresa May’s 2017 industrial policy, and the British Council actively courted China as a growth non-EU market. “Getting Brexit done” and the pandemic <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/jan/19/muddled-policies-putting-uks-lead-in-creative-industries-at-risk-peers-warn">put an end to all this</a>.</p>
<p>In 2013, still in the post-financial crisis doldrums, Creative Australia was a policy wonk document with little to set the blood racing. </p>
<p>Revive addresses a cultural sector that feels battered and unloved with grace and aplomb. The arts are essential to a democratic society, and they are for everyone. </p>
<p>First Nations First is the most significant new addition, marking where we have moved even in a decade. </p>
<p>There is money, not <a href="https://theconversation.com/arts-are-meant-to-be-at-the-heart-of-our-life-what-the-new-national-cultural-policy-could-mean-for-australia-if-it-all-comes-together-198786">transformative</a> but <a href="https://www.crikey.com.au/2023/01/31/albanese-government-arts-culture-policy/">significant</a>, and a set of new agencies. The absence of economic justification stands out, as does the way creative industries has dropped out of the big picture rhetoric. </p>
<p>A story for every place, not jobs and growth. </p>
<p>This too reflects a global trend. Jim Chalmers’ essay in <a href="https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2023/february/jim-chalmers/capitalism-after-crises">The Monthly</a> placed the nation squarely at the heart of a post-neoliberal world. </p>
<p>Investment in health, education and social services, along with the green transition, will require a more active, even entrepreneurial state. </p>
<p>This is of a piece with the post-pandemic centre-left, from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/nov/06/inflation-reduction-act-climate-crisis-congress">US President Joe Biden</a> and his <a href="https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/french-foreign-policy/economic-diplomacy-foreign-trade/promoting-france-s-attractiveness/france-relance-recovery-plan-building-the-france-of-2030/">French counterpart Emmanuel Macron</a>, to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/feb/18/keir-starmer-post-covid-plan-for-britain-key-points">UK Labour leader Keir Starmer</a> and the <a href="https://www.tatsachen-ueber-deutschland.de/en/germany-and-europe/europes-green-deal">German Greens</a>. </p>
<p>In Europe these “green new deals” have come with promises of greater funding for culture, other than in those with a strong right-wing contingent such as Italy, Sweden and many former Eastern bloc countries. In the austerity-headed UK <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/nov/22/arts-council-england-cuts-are-cultural-vandalism-says-juliet-stevenson">cultural funding</a> is set to be cut, while the US is <a href="https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2023/01/11/us-considers-rejoining-unesco-despite-616m-membership-debt-and-israel-palestine-controversies">talking about rejoining UNESCO</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/humanising-capitalism-chalmers-new-version-of-an-old-labor-project-198763">Humanising capitalism: Chalmers new version of an old Labor project</a>
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<h2>Facing inequalities</h2>
<p>In September 2022 UNESCO, the UN’s lead body on culture, held a <a href="https://www.unesco.org/en/mondiacult2022">cultural policy conference</a> in Mexico City. They saw a world marked by:</p>
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<p>climate change and biodiversity loss, armed conflicts, natural hazards, uncontrolled urbanisation, unsustainable development patterns, as well as the erosion of democratic societies – [leading] to an increase in poverty, inequalities in the exercise of rights and a growing divide in access to digital technologies.</p>
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<p>This is no longer the exciting, globalised marketplace in which a dynamic creative economy was going to float all boats. The new vision was “culture as a global public good” and for the UN to pursue a cultural goal in addition to the 17 <a href="https://sdgs.un.org/goals">Sustainable Development Goals</a> adopted in 2015. </p>
<p>The next steps for UNESCO are not clear. “Global public goods” can mean a commitment to a revived and robust public culture, or to the kind of state-led investment in skills, infrastructure and accessible finance that has underpinned the global creative industries policy script for two decades.</p>
<p>Revive’s visionary talk is about art and storytelling, connection to country and culture, but the rebranded Australia Council, Creative Australia, is straight out of the neoliberal playbook. </p>
<p>Creative Australia has an expanded remit to engage with the commercial and philanthropic sector, just as Chalmers sees an expanded social services delivered by ethically motivated “impact investors”. The grounds on which this enlargement will take place are not addressed, although chief executive Adrian Collette was very enthusiastic about creative industries in the post-launch Australia Council seminar. </p>
<h2>The first step</h2>
<p>The cultural sector long abandoned the utopian promise of creative hubs and Macbook-driven start-ups. </p>
<p>Rather than creative entrepreneurship, workers in the sector are now talking about <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10286632.2022.2064459">co-operatives</a>, unionisation, <a href="https://www.smart.coop">gig worker platforms</a> and other forms of collective organising. The pandemic radically shifted debates on the social function of culture and the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10286632.2021.1938561">welfare of artists in East Asia</a>. </p>
<p>The new <a href="https://theconversation.com/pay-safety-and-welfare-how-the-new-centre-for-arts-and-entertainment-workplaces-can-strengthen-the-arts-sector-198859">Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces</a> looks set to be a site of contest, as the reality of exploitation in both the subsidised and commercial sector is given a new visibility.</p>
<p>The curtain has been drawn on neoliberalism but, as economist <a href="https://www.blackincbooks.com.au/books/zombie-economics">John Quiggin</a> made us all aware, its zombie form still lives on. </p>
<p>Revive is the first step into a new global landscape for which we barely have a language. This has to come not from government but from those working in the cultural sector itself. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pay-safety-and-welfare-how-the-new-centre-for-arts-and-entertainment-workplaces-can-strengthen-the-arts-sector-198859">Pay, safety and welfare: how the new Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces can strengthen the arts sector</a>
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<p><em>Correction: an earlier version of this story misnamed the CEO of the Australia Council. It is Adrian Collette.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198871/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Justin O'Connor receives funding from the Australia Research Council</span></em></p>Revive is the first step into a new global landscape for which we barely have a language.Justin O'Connor, Professor of Cultural Economy, University of South AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1959342023-02-07T19:04:47Z2023-02-07T19:04:47ZDark Emu has sold over 250,000 copies – but its value can’t be measured in money alone<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508553/original/file-20230207-13-pqykou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C16%2C3723%2C2942&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Bruce Pascoe</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Linsey Rendell</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Bruce Pascoe’s <a href="https://www.magabala.com/products/dark-emu?_pos=27&_sid=160b08e95&_ss=r">Dark Emu</a>, first published in 2014, represents that rare bird in small press and independent publishing in Australia: a long-term sales success. </p>
<p>Dark Emu attempts to debunk the idea that pre-European Aboriginal people were purely “hunter-gatherers”. </p>
<p>Indeed, it suited settler-colonists, Pascoe argues, to fail to recognise Indigenous agricultural practices as organised, intelligent land management. In the original publisher’s press release, Pascoe described it as a book “about food production, housing construction and clothing”. </p>
<p>By mid-2021, seven years later, it <a href="https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2021/july/1625061600/james-boyce/transforming-national-imagination-dark-emu-debate#mtr">had sold</a> an impressive 250,000 copies.</p>
<p>But sales are just one way to demonstrate the success, or value, of a book. </p>
<h2>Measuring value beyond sales figures</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14443058.2022.2147573">We tracked</a> the impact of the original edition of Dark Emu over five years, from 2014 to 2019, to look at how it contributed to (or otherwise altered) six categories of value, or “capital”. They were: financial (the primary way our culture measures a book’s success), but also social, human, intellectual, manufactured and natural. </p>
<p>We borrowed these six categories from a value-reporting mechanism used in the corporate sustainability sector, <a href="https://www.integratedreporting.org/resource/international-ir-framework/">The Integrated Reporting Framework</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505566/original/file-20230120-22-cs6mv4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505566/original/file-20230120-22-cs6mv4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505566/original/file-20230120-22-cs6mv4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505566/original/file-20230120-22-cs6mv4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505566/original/file-20230120-22-cs6mv4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=956&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505566/original/file-20230120-22-cs6mv4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1202&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505566/original/file-20230120-22-cs6mv4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1202&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505566/original/file-20230120-22-cs6mv4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1202&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>Dark Emu was one of around 20,000 books published in Australia in 2014. Most of these works would have been aimed at <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-read-the-australian-book-industry-in-a-time-of-change-49044">a modest market</a>, with print runs of between 2,000 and 4,000. </p>
<p>By 2016, Dark Emu was reported to have sold more than 100,000 copies. Many local releases all but disappear from bookshop shelves within a few months of their release. But instead, Dark Emu gathered slow momentum. </p>
<p>Five years later, in 2019, it <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/books/i-m-hoping-it-s-a-blip-sales-down-in-difficult-year-for-publishing-industry-20200109-p53q43.html">reportedly sold</a> 115,300 copies in Australia and New Zealand in a single year.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-how-our-new-archaeological-research-investigates-dark-emus-idea-of-aboriginal-agriculture-and-villages-146754">Friday essay: how our new archaeological research investigates Dark Emu's idea of Aboriginal 'agriculture' and villages</a>
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<h2>Impact on manufacturing</h2>
<p>Manufactured capital looks at the physical object that’s been created. In this case, that’s the first-edition physical book of Dark Emu, as well as subsequent physical objects generated by or through it (including reprints).</p>
<p>Between 2014 and 2019, Dark Emu was <a href="https://www.screenhub.com.au/newsarticle/%20news/writing-and-publishing/performing-arts-editor/dark-emu-to-be-adapted-as-tv-documentary-259030">reprinted 28 times</a>. It was also produced as an e-book and an audio book. </p>
<p>By 2017, world rights were sold to Scribe, which published North American and UK editions in 2018. An <a href="https://www.magabala.com/products/young-dark-emu?_pos=1&_sid=160b08e95&_ss=r">edition for younger readers</a> was released by its original publisher, <a href="https://www.magabala.com/">Magabala</a>, in 2019. Magabala also published at least one secondary text: a resource for secondary school teachers, <a href="https://www.magabala.com/products/dark-emu-in-the-classroom?_pos=11&_sid=160b08e95&_ss=r">Dark Emu in the Classroom</a>. </p>
<p>We tracked the significant impact on manufacturing from this single book title as it was reproduced in various forms, showing evidence of its impact across a range of allied book industry sectors – especially the print industry – both in Australia and internationally. </p>
<h2>Supporting Indigenous creators</h2>
<p>In the five years immediately following the release of the original edition of Dark Emu, it accumulated considerable intellectual capital. </p>
<p>Numerous arts and literary sector awards recognised the book’s outstanding public, literary and cultural value between 2014 and 2019. This recognition culminated in Bruce Pascoe being awarded the Australia Council for the Arts Lifetime Achievement Award for Literature in 2018.</p>
<p>The publication of Dark Emu had a significant impact on its small not-for-profit publisher, <a href="https://www.magabala.com/pages/about-us">Magabala Books</a>. Founded in 1984, Magabala is Aboriginal owned and led, and focuses on celebrating and nurturing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices.</p>
<p>After Dark Emu was published, Magabala expanded its publishing program.</p>
<p>Magabala was shortlisted for Small Publisher of the Year at the Australian Book Industry Awards in 2017 and 2019. That second year, it was also the fastest-growing independent small publisher in Australia.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505546/original/file-20230120-20-ct6ye3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505546/original/file-20230120-20-ct6ye3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505546/original/file-20230120-20-ct6ye3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505546/original/file-20230120-20-ct6ye3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505546/original/file-20230120-20-ct6ye3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505546/original/file-20230120-20-ct6ye3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505546/original/file-20230120-20-ct6ye3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505546/original/file-20230120-20-ct6ye3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Peter Bibby, Merrilee Lands and June Oscar heading to a Magabala book launch in 1990.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Magabala Books</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Magabala also invested in philanthropy. Its <a href="https://www.magabala.com/pages/scholarships">Creative Development Scholarship</a> to “support professional development relating to writing, illustration and storytelling” for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander storytellers, writers, illustrators and artists supported 27 scholars between 2014 and 2019. </p>
<p>Dark Emu created jobs in the performing arts, too. </p>
<p>A dance adaptation by <a href="https://theconversation.com/bangarras-dark-emu-is-beautiful-but-lacks-the-punch-of-its-source-material-98628">Bangarra Dance Theatre</a> premiered at the Sydney Opera House in 2018, involving more than 30 arts workers. Program notes for the national tour list three choreographers, 17 dancers and a production team of six, as well as 11 musicians and a composer employed to work on the production. </p>
<p>In 2019, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/tv-and-radio/bruce-pascoe-s-dark-emu-series-for-abc-tv-likely-to-still-go-ahead-20210701-p585za.html">Screen Australia</a> announced a documentary series would be developed based on the book. While delayed by COVID-19, the series is still in production. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505549/original/file-20230120-24-rmmstq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505549/original/file-20230120-24-rmmstq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505549/original/file-20230120-24-rmmstq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505549/original/file-20230120-24-rmmstq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505549/original/file-20230120-24-rmmstq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505549/original/file-20230120-24-rmmstq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505549/original/file-20230120-24-rmmstq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505549/original/file-20230120-24-rmmstq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bangarra Dance Theatre’s production of Dark Emu was just one way the book led to arts jobs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bangarra/Daniel Boud</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>New understandings of Australian history</h2>
<p>To measure the book’s social impact, we focused on how it contributed to the human rights, health and wellbeing of Indigenous peoples in Australia, as well as how it contributed to broad public understanding of Australian history. </p>
<p>Then we looked at how the book increased public debate. (We should note, we didn’t include Peter Sutton and Kerry Walsh’s 2021 book rebutting Dark Emu, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-dark-emu-debate-limits-representation-of-aboriginal-people-in-australia-163006">Farmers or Hunter-gatherers?</a>, as it was beyond the scope of our study: our research spanned 2015-2019.)</p>
<p>Digital forums provide short, sharp narratives that bring qualitative value into focus. (<a href="https://bridges.monash.edu/articles/monograph/What_Matters_Talking_Value_in_Australian_Culture/12821456">So-called</a> “parables of value”.)</p>
<p>On <a href="https://www.booktopia.com.au/dark-emu-bruce-pascoe/book/9781921248016.html">Booktopia</a>, many hundreds of readers reviewed Dark Emu; 86% of them gave the book five stars, reflecting its broad popularity. This selection of Booktopia reviews speaks to the way Dark Emu contributed to new understandings of Australian history: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>A marvellous book, full of information and insights which were new and fascinating to me. Well researched and well written. It should be compulsory reading for all Australian schoolchildren.</p>
<p>Super interesting and I wish I’d been taught more of this earlier in life.</p>
<p>I have only just started using this resource for my Year 9 class […] It has thus far provoked conversation and questions. It is particularly interesting as we live in an area that Major Mitchell explored, and there are numerous tracks etc named after him. Always interesting [to be] given the other side of history.</p>
<p>I couldn’t stop thinking about this book […] after reading it and going through any bush in Australia you see the landscape very differently.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Our analysis identified an extraordinary degree of public debate generated by the book – in part because it soon provoked another chapter in the “<a href="https://www.themonthly.com.au/blog/russell-marks/2020/05/2020/1580868886/taking-sides-over-dark-emu">Australian History Wars</a>”. </p>
<p>Social commentator Andrew Bolt, for example, published several columns on Dark Emu in the Herald Sun during 2018-19. He drew heavily on an anonymous website, Dark Emu Exposed, which purports to “expose” and “debunk” what it asserts are the book’s many myths, exaggerations and “fabrications”. </p>
<p>Interestingly, <a href="https://www.themonthly.com.au/blog/russell-marks/2020/05/2020/1580868886/taking-sides-over-dark-emu">Russell Marks</a> links the extraordinary sales success of Dark Emu in 2019 directly to the increase in public debate fuelled by Bolt.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-dark-emu-debate-limits-representation-of-aboriginal-people-in-australia-163006">How the Dark Emu debate limits representation of Aboriginal people in Australia</a>
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</p>
<hr>
<h2>Environmental impacts</h2>
<p>It is not possible to precisely measure the air, water, land, minerals and forests required to produce and distribute Dark Emu. But we were able to make some informed estimates. </p>
<p>Figures from <a href="https://www.isonomia.co.uk/balancing-the-books-the-environmental-impacts-of-digital-reading/">an overseas study</a> found that the paper required to produce 100 books requires about one tree. On this basis, copies of the original Dark Emu title sold in Australia in 2019 consumed the equivalent of 1,153 trees. </p>
<p><a href="https://climateinemergency.wordpress.com/2016/04/12/the-carbon-footprint-of-a-book/">Other sources</a> estimate the carbon footprint of a single book is 2.71 kilograms carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂ equivalent). On this basis, Dark Emu’s sales in Australia in 2019 could be said to have produced 312,467kg of CO₂ emissions. That’s the equivalent of emissions produced from 5,002kg of beef – or, the amount of beef consumed by 200 Australians <a href="https://www.agriculture.gov.au/abares/research-topics/agricultural-outlook">in an average year</a>. </p>
<p>But unlike many other Australian books, Dark Emu has not just consumed natural capital: it has also contributed to it. </p>
<p>With earnings from his royalties, Pascoe purchased <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/may/13/its-time-to-embrace-the-history-of-the-country-first-harvest-of-dancing-grass-in-200-years#img-1">farmland in regional Victoria</a>. There, he is applying knowledge gained through research for the book to regenerate the local ecology, using Indigenous agricultural practices. He says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The farm I’m working on, I got rid of the cattle and within a season the grass was knee-high again. And areas that had been cut, that should never have been cleared at all, where they were showing their bones through the soil, they’ve come good again.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Pascoe’s appointment as <a href="https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/profile/185335-bruce-pascoe">Enterprise Professor in Indigenous Agriculture</a> at the University of Melbourne makes likely further positive contributions to natural capital: via teaching and research in Indigenous land management. All traceable to a single book title. </p>
<h2>Why do we measure value beyond money?</h2>
<p>In a capitalist world, it sometimes seems like the almighty dollar is the only marker of value. So many conversations about value stem from that single category – but there’s far more to it than that. </p>
<p>Our interest in value in relation to Australian books is informed by multiple disciplines that together enable a more holistic conceptualisation of value. From cultural economics, a sub-discipline of economics concerned with the economic analysis of the arts and culture, researchers like <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/economics-and-culture/14439A4E891452AA74D15EFAF3C69EC4">David Throsby</a> distinguish economic value from cultural value. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.klamer.nl/book/the-value-culture/">Arjo Klamer</a> is a Dutch cultural economist whose valued-based approach has been described as advocating “humanonics” (economics with humans and meaning left in). His work helps us consider the impact of the environment around us on how and why things become valued as social and cultural practices. </p>
<p>He cautions that attempting to measure the value of culture in purely quantitative terms invokes the “<a href="https://ideas.repec.org/p/wpa/wuwpgt/9904004.html">Heisenberg principle of economics</a>”: what is measured impacts how value is perceived. (So, for instance, measuring the value of Dark Emu in terms of its sales alone ignores other “value dimensions” that are generated.)</p>
<p>In the discipline of sociology, Pierre Bourdieu describes how cultural fields are shaped by <a href="https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/fr/bourdieu-forms-capital.htm">symbolic capital</a>. To use the field of book production as an example, writers or publishers accrue symbolic capital through markers of prestige, such as when their books receive favourable reviews or win prizes. </p>
<p>John Frow further <a href="https://uwap.uwa.edu.au/products/the-practice-of-value-essays-on-literature-in-cultural-studies">explains</a> that the value of cultural objects is derived from their use in different contexts (or “regimes of value”). </p>
<p>For example, within the Australian tertiary education sector, a cultural object like an Arts degree has value it would not have in another industry. And a book might be chosen for the <a href="https://theconversation.com/nostalgic-classics-or-edgy-contemporary-texts-what-books-are-kids-reading-in-australian-schools-and-does-it-matter-198234">Australian school curriculum</a> based on aesthetic principles (like the quality of its prose), but also on criteria such as its depiction of a particular idea of Australia, or its relationship to other parts of the curriculum. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/two-thirds-of-australian-authors-are-women-new-research-finds-they-earn-just-18-200-a-year-from-their-writing-195426">Two thirds of Australian authors are women – new research finds they earn just $18,200 a year from their writing</a>
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<h2>The national value of Australian books</h2>
<p>What do locally written and produced books contribute to Australian life? </p>
<p>At a time of national cultural policy renewal – and as so many Australian authors <a href="https://theconversation.com/two-thirds-of-australian-authors-are-women-new-research-finds-they-earn-just-18-200-a-year-from-their-writing-195426">struggle to survive financially</a> – our preliminary work with Dark Emu shines light on this question. </p>
<p>Our research shows how Australian books circulate in our culture and what they bring – not just in dollar terms, but across a range of other important dimensions. </p>
<p>It’s the kind of work – collecting data relevant to our local book industry – that many contributors to last year’s <a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/have-your-say/new-national-cultural-policy">national consultation</a> on a new Australian cultural policy have called for. </p>
<p>This investment is urgent, with the <a href="https://theconversation.com/after-years-of-austerity-revive-writes-the-next-chapter-in-australian-literary-culture-198758">new cultural policy, Revive</a>, sending a strong message that Australian authors and literature have a vital role to play in “telling Australian stories”. The evidence for gauging policy success over time will need to be broad – beyond measures of economic impact alone.</p>
<p>We need data that will complement and help contextualise the economic indicators of a book’s success, through an expanded frame of reference. </p>
<p>These additional indicators might include health and wellbeing, social inclusion and educational value, and the contributions a book makes to place-making and truth-telling. </p>
<p>Dark Emu is an extraordinary book. In many ways, it’s one of a kind. </p>
<p>But our work in measuring Dark Emu’s impact over a five-year period offers interesting future possibilities. Possibilities for how we might measure and articulate a broader set of value dimensions in relation to Australian books. The question of what a book might really be worth can – and should – be answered across multiple dimensions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195934/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julienne van Loon has been a recipient of funding from Creative Victoria, ArtsWA and the Australia Council for the Arts. She is a member of the Australian Society of Authors.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bronwyn Coate has been a recipient of funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) and the Australia Council for the Arts. She is currently the Executive Secretary/Treasurer for the Association for Cultural Economics International (ACEI). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Millicent Weber does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Our research team tracked the impact of Dark Emu, Bruce Pascoe’s bestseller, over five years. We measured its value across a range of criteria, from financial to environmental.Julienne van Loon, Associate Professor, Writing and Publishing, School of Media & Communication, RMIT UniversityBronwyn Coate, Senior Lecturer in Economics, RMIT UniversityMillicent Weber, Senior lecturer, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1988812023-02-01T02:55:20Z2023-02-01T02:55:20ZClimate change is transforming Australia’s cultural life – so why isn’t it mentioned in the new national cultural policy?<p>In its <a href="https://theconversation.com/arts-are-meant-to-be-at-the-heart-of-our-life-what-the-new-national-cultural-policy-could-mean-for-australia-if-it-all-comes-together-198786">new national cultural policy</a>, the Australian government grapples with issues extending well beyond the creative arts. </p>
<p>The policy document places issues like First Nations representation, work and wages, technological upheaval, discrimination and sexual harassment front and centre. </p>
<p>This holistic approach has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/pay-safety-and-welfare-how-the-new-centre-for-arts-and-entertainment-workplaces-can-strengthen-the-arts-sector-198859">welcomed</a> and takes important forward steps in many areas.</p>
<p>But it is silent on one key issue.</p>
<p>After winning the <a href="https://theconversation.com/after-many-false-dawns-australians-finally-voted-for-stronger-climate-action-heres-why-this-election-was-different-183645">climate election</a>, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese promised a “<a href="https://theconversation.com/albanese-just-laid-out-a-radical-new-vision-for-australia-in-the-region-clean-energy-exporter-and-green-manufacturer-186815">new era</a>” of Australian leadership on the issue. </p>
<p>So where is climate change in the new national cultural policy?</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/after-many-false-dawns-australians-finally-voted-for-stronger-climate-action-heres-why-this-election-was-different-183645">After many false dawns, Australians finally voted for stronger climate action. Here's why this election was different</a>
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<h2>Floods and fires</h2>
<p>Nowhere in the arts has the impact of climate change been more pronounced than music festivals.</p>
<p>Perhaps the most famous example is last year’s “Splendour in the Mud”. After two years lost to COVID-19, Splendour in the Grass 2022 symbolised the triumphant return of festivals to our cultural calendar. But the first day of the event <a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/splendour-in-the-grass-day-one-cancelled-over-extreme-weather/69286851-e65e-4b03-8f39-30c38443298e">was cancelled</a> as the site was inundated by an unusually heavy downpour that overwhelmed bad weather preparation on the site.</p>
<p>We have counted more than a dozen music festivals around the country postponed or cancelled due to last year’s record floods. These include <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/triplej/news/yours-and-owls-festival-cancelled-due-flooding-2022-wollongong/13817810">Yours and Owls</a> in Wollongong, <a href="https://tonedeaf.thebrag.com/strawberry-fields-2022-has-been-cancelled/">Strawberry Fields</a> in Tocumwal, and <a href="https://musicfeeds.com.au/news/the-grass-is-greener-festival-cancels-canberra-and-geelong-events/">The Grass is Greener</a> in Canberra and Geelong. </p>
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<p>This follows the summer festival season immediately before the pandemic, which coincided with the Black Summer fires. Festivals such as <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-07/a-day-on-the-green-at-rutherglen-cancelled-over-bushfire-smoke/11846656">Falls and Day on the Green</a> in Victoria and <a href="https://7news.com.au/entertainment/festivals/lost-paradise-festival-cancelled-over-intense-and-unpredictable-bushfire-fears-c-602177">Lost Paradise</a> in New South Wales were cancelled due to threats from fire or hazardous smoke. </p>
<p>Cancellations and postponements have knock-on effects. Festivals provide <a href="https://themusicnetwork.com/music-festivals-tourism-impact/">tourism and economic benefits</a> to the areas where they are held. Big festivals <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780429506697-13/allowed-deliver-biggest-show-national-tour-christina-ballico">boost</a> the Australian music ecosystem by providing jobs, opportunities for local acts to reach new audiences and opportunities for these audiences to see global touring acts that may otherwise be put off by the logistics of touring a large country with few significant population centres.</p>
<p>When festivals are cancelled, especially at short notice, organisers, artists, suppliers, production companies, local communities and punters all pay a price. When cancellations start to become common, the viability of festivals comes into question.</p>
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<p>Climate scientists tell us the events that led to recent festival cancellations – not just the fires and floods, but also <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Health/climate-change-make-pandemics-covid-19-common/story?id=89586958">the pandemic</a> – are likely to <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-has-already-hit-australia-unless-we-act-now-a-hotter-drier-and-more-dangerous-future-awaits-ipcc-warns-165396">become more frequent</a> and more extreme because of climate change. </p>
<p>In addition to this, increasing heat will make the summer festivals that are currently the norm more and more dangerous. </p>
<p>The music festival in the form we have become accustomed to in this country is undoubtedly at risk.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-has-already-hit-australia-unless-we-act-now-a-hotter-drier-and-more-dangerous-future-awaits-ipcc-warns-165396">Climate change has already hit Australia. Unless we act now, a hotter, drier and more dangerous future awaits, IPCC warns</a>
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<hr>
<h2>Mitigation and adaptation</h2>
<p>Arts organisations are reacting to the climate crisis. Responses to climate change can be divided into mitigation (trying to reduce impacts, mainly by cutting emissions) and adaptation (finding ways to cope with the changing circumstances).</p>
<p>Festivals such as <a href="https://www.womadelaide.com.au/about/green-global">Womadelaide</a> and <a href="https://woodfordfolkfestival.com/about/environmental-statement/">Woodford Folk Festival</a> have employed mitigation strategies like waste reduction, renewable energy and using local produce. Other artforms, such as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/23/arts/art-climate-change-environment.html">visual art</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2022/sep/02/what-if-we-stopped-how-australian-arts-tours-are-changing-to-save-the-planet">theatre</a>, are also looking at how they can mitigate the effects of climate change.</p>
<p>When it comes to adaptation, we are likely to see music festivals in the future changing their date and location to avoid risks such as the heat of midsummer or bushfire-prone areas. Significant work would need to be done to understand the flow-on effects of such decisions. </p>
<p>Other solutions may involve fundamentally rethinking what a festival looks like in Australia - including a turn from destination mega-events to something more local - an approach that would require a high level of risk by festival operators in an already risky area.</p>
<p>In the meantime, we are likely to see more festivals cancelled or disrupted due to climate change. Aware of this, submissions to the Cultural Policy Review that informed the new Revive policy called for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/dec/23/desperate-festivals-sector-pleads-for-weather-insurance-instead-of-redundant-22m-covid-fund">an interruption or insurance fund</a>, like that put in place for COVID-19 related cancellations in the film and television industries.</p>
<p>Any form of insurance failed to make an appearance in the final policy document. </p>
<h2>Taking on the challenge</h2>
<p>A document like Revive would ideally incorporate considerations of what mitigation and adaptation might look like for all areas in the arts, and provide resources to assist equipping the sector to take on the challenges of climate change.</p>
<p>Revive notes the importance of making creative careers sustainable. It places great emphasis on ensuring cultural ventures adhere to workplace and employment standards. Incorporating considerations of environmental standards to ensure the sustainability and health of the sector and the careers of those within it would be an important further step. </p>
<p>The climate crisis will necessitate change to business-as-usual approaches to the arts. </p>
<p>We will increasingly see the development of new ways of approaching events and creative work to mitigate their environmental impact and make events, arts organisations and artists more resilient in the face of climate impacts. </p>
<p>Revive, while breaking important new ground in many respects, has missed an opportunity to lead this crucial work.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/arts-are-meant-to-be-at-the-heart-of-our-life-what-the-new-national-cultural-policy-could-mean-for-australia-if-it-all-comes-together-198786">'Arts are meant to be at the heart of our life': what the new national cultural policy could mean for Australia – if it all comes together</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198881/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Catherine Strong is an activist with Extinction Rebellion and other climate groups.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ben Green does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The climate crisis will necessitate change to business-as-usual approaches to the arts.Catherine Strong, Associate professor, Music Industry, RMIT UniversityBen Green, Research fellow, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1988592023-01-31T04:22:52Z2023-01-31T04:22:52ZPay, safety and welfare: how the new Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces can strengthen the arts sector<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507262/original/file-20230131-16-ddual9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C7%2C5160%2C3437&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Terren Hurst on Unsplash</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In May, <a href="https://theconversation.com/tony-burkes-double-ministry-of-arts-and-industrial-relations-could-be-just-what-the-arts-sector-needs-183623">we predicted</a> Tony Burke’s joint portfolio of workplace relations and the arts was an opportunity to address some of the challenges facing the arts and cultural sector. </p>
<p>With the <a href="https://theconversation.com/arts-are-meant-to-be-at-the-heart-of-our-life-what-the-new-national-cultural-policy-could-mean-for-australia-if-it-all-comes-together-198786">launch of Revive</a>, the new national cultural policy, we’re seeing this potentially start to pay off. </p>
<p>One focal point of Revive is the establishment of the Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces, a new body within Creative Australia (a rebranded and expanded Australia Council). The role of the centre is,
<a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/publications/national-cultural-policy-revive-place-every-story-story-every-place">according to the policy</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>to provide advice on issues of pay, safety and welfare in the arts and entertainment sector, refer matters to the relevant authorities and develop codes of conduct and resources for the sector.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The policy frames artists as workers deserving of workplace protections and rights. As Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said at the launch: “Arts jobs are real jobs.” </p>
<p>It’s no secret the arts sector has a poor track record when it comes to working conditions. A <a href="https://futurework.org.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/07/Creativity_in_Crisis-_Rebooting_Australias_Arts___Entertainment_Sector_-_FINAL_-_26_July.pdf">report from 2021</a> noted 45% of Australia’s arts and cultural workers were in casual or insecure roles. The gender pay gap in the arts is <a href="https://australiacouncil.gov.au/advocacy-and-research/culture-and-the-gender-pay-gap-for-australian-artists/">9% wider</a> than other sectors of the economy. The music industry continues to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/sep/01/a-very-low-glass-ceiling-sexism-and-harassment-rife-in-australian-music-long-awaited-report-finds">make headlines</a> for widespread bullying and sexual harassment. Meanwhile, the sector is struggling to <a href="https://theconversation.com/junior-staff-are-finding-better-contracts-senior-staff-are-burning-out-the-arts-are-losing-the-war-for-talent-194174">attract and retain workforce talent</a>. </p>
<p>It’s clear things need to change. </p>
<p>What role could the Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces play in addressing these issues? </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1619869561024835584"}"></div></p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/tony-burkes-double-ministry-of-arts-and-industrial-relations-could-be-just-what-the-arts-sector-needs-183623">Tony Burke's double ministry of arts and industrial relations could be just what the arts sector needs</a>
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<h2>Benchmarking standards</h2>
<p>The centre’s role will be a mix of regulation, policy and provision of resources. </p>
<p>It will be able to set standards around minimum inclusions in grant processes – such as compliance with the <a href="https://theconversation.com/employers-will-have-positive-duty-to-prevent-sexual-harassment-in-workplaces-under-new-legislation-191350">Respect@Work</a> recommendations. The centre will also act as a referral agency to organisations such as Fair Work Australia and Comcare. Whether it will function as an investigative or policing body remains to be seen. </p>
<p>Its overarching responsibility will be to establish a connection between the arts and issues of pay, safety and welfare. </p>
<p>The development of safe workplaces relies, first and foremost, on the provision of fair and equitable wages. If artists can’t survive financially, they can’t thrive.</p>
<p>The Australia Council has <a href="https://australiacouncil.gov.au/investment-and-development/protocols-and-resources/payment-of-artists/">highlighted the importance</a> of fair pay. The council has a dedicated web page on artist payments and requires funding applicants to meet the minimum rates of pay under relevant industry standards. </p>
<p>The challenge has been a lack of consistent industrial benchmarks establishing these standards and the absence of consequences for organisations that choose to ignore them. Part of the difficulty also stems from the <a href="https://livemusicoffice.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/CIIC-Valuing-Australias-Creative-Industries-2013.pdf">size and structure of many arts organisations</a>, which often lack designated human resources specialists. This leaves independent contractors and casual workers with little formal recourse against unfair working conditions. </p>
<p>Efforts to promote artist safety and welfare also already exist in Australia cultural policy. <a href="https://www.dpc.sa.gov.au/responsibilities/arts-and-culture/grants/guidelines">Arts South Australia</a>, has incorporated “respectful behaviours” guidelines into their funding agreements. But, like fair pay, these kinds of policies can be vague and often little more than aspirational in practice. </p>
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<p>There is an opportunity for the Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces to establish strong standards set expectations within the sector and help to hold arts organisations to account. </p>
<p>Burke told <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/hack/14139276">Triple J’s Hack</a> the centre will develop codes of conduct, and if organisations aren’t “keeping up to date” with these codes around workplace bullying and harassment, they will not be able to “come knocking on the door for government funding”. </p>
<p>The centre will also importantly function as a point of contact and referral for arts workers who have nowhere else to go for support.</p>
<p>Other areas where the centre can offer substantive value are in the improvement of workplace standards and the communication of revised industrial frameworks and awards. However, the centre’s ability to build of new cultures across the <a href="https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/sites/default/files/characteristics-of-employment-and-business-activity-in-cultural-and-creative-sectors_0.pdf">dispersed workforce</a> of freelancers, sole traders and small to medium enterprises will remain a significant challenge. </p>
<p>Arts workers recognise the need for change, but they need access to specialist advice to achieve it. </p>
<h2>Signs of optimism</h2>
<p>There has been <a href="https://www.artshub.com.au/news/opinions-analysis/national-cultural-policy-revives-unfamiliar-hope-2608706/">some unease</a> about the increased role of arts bureaucracy within the new cultural policy. The decision to create three new administrative entities in addition to the Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces – all with significant budgets – highlights concerns institutions are once again being prioritised over individual artists. </p>
<p>In the case of the centre, the key will be whether the body can actually address the art sector’s unstable and inequitable workplace conditions through its policies and regulations. </p>
<p>As a sign of optimism, this model isn’t without precedent. The Swedish arts sector has seen significant success using a <a href="https://fr.unesco.org/creativity/policy-monitoring-platform/measures-gender-equality-area">similar top-down institutional approach</a> to address cultural workforce issues, particularly around gender inequality. </p>
<p>Since 2006, Sweden has implemented multiple policies leveraging access to funding and quotas to increase women’s representation in the arts. In 2011, the Swedish Arts Council even launched a <a href="https://musikverket.se/om-musikverket/?lang=en">dedicated agency</a> to help support projects promoting gender equality in music. </p>
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<p>Ultimately, what the centre achieves will be shaped by the decision-makers within it. The centre’s staff must represent Australia’s diverse creative community and clearly understand how and why things must change. As <a href="https://theconversation.com/arts-are-meant-to-be-at-the-heart-of-our-life-what-the-new-national-cultural-policy-could-mean-for-australia-if-it-all-comes-together-198786">Jo Caust notes</a>, detail and execution are critical. Cultural policy is more than words, it’s what happens after that makes the difference. </p>
<p>As columnist Sean Kelly <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/can-australia-become-a-nation-that-takes-art-seriously-20230127-p5cg1s.html">suggests</a>, Revive’s true measure of success will be the health of arts workplaces: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Burke will be judged on whether the arts again becomes a field that people want to work in – a field in which workers are respected and paid properly for their work.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces will play a crucial role in determining that success. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/arts-are-meant-to-be-at-the-heart-of-our-life-what-the-new-national-cultural-policy-could-mean-for-australia-if-it-all-comes-together-198786">'Arts are meant to be at the heart of our life': what the new national cultural policy could mean for Australia – if it all comes together</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198859/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The centre will importantly function as a point of contact and referral for arts workers who have nowhere else to go for support.Kim Goodwin, Lecturer, The University of MelbourneCaitlin Vincent, Lecturer in Creative Industries, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1987862023-01-30T06:41:47Z2023-01-30T06:41:47Z‘Arts are meant to be at the heart of our life’: what the new national cultural policy could mean for Australia – if it all comes together<p>It’s finally been launched. <a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/publications/national-cultural-policy-revive-place-every-story-story-every-place">A new cultural policy</a> for Australia. After years (actually decades) of neglect, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese today launched a new national cultural policy, Revive. In his speech he said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Arts are meant to be at the heart of our life</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It’s important that our prime minister says this and owns the centrality of culture in our lives. The last prime minister who acknowledged the importance of the arts in Australian life was Paul Keating 30 years ago.</p>
<p>It has been a long time since.</p>
<p>The arts have had a tough time in Australia for many years. While the population of Australia has increased, arts funding has remained stagnant. In some areas of funding, such as grants for individual artists, there has been at least a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/may/19/the-70-drop-australia-council-grants-artists-funding-cuts">70% drop</a> since 2013. </p>
<p>The Labor Party last launched a cultural policy, <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/FlagPost/2013/April/Creative_Australia__National_Cultural_Policy_2013">Creative Australia</a>, in March 2013. Soon after, Labor lost government and Creative Australia never came to fruition. Under the Coalition government, Australia did not have a national cultural policy.</p>
<p>So what does this new document mean for Australia’s artists – and audiences – going forward?</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/albanese-promises-national-aboriginal-art-gallery-in-alice-springs-and-pivots-towards-the-modern-and-mainstream-in-new-cultural-policy-198741">Albanese promises National Aboriginal Art Gallery in Alice Springs and pivots towards the modern and mainstream in new cultural policy</a>
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<h2>‘Modernising’ the Australia Council</h2>
<p>Revive is framed as being inclusive. Its subtitle is “a place for every story, a story for every place”. Throughout the document, First Nations people are given priority. The hefty policy document comes in at more than 100 pages, and the preface by Christos Tsiolkas and Clare Wright is a must-read, setting the tone for what is to follow.</p>
<p>The centrepiece of the new policy seems to be the rebranding, or “modernising”, of the Australia Council. While the name of the legal governing body will remain at the top, the name underneath will become Creative Australia. </p>
<p>What happens within will also seemingly change. </p>
<p>The government is restoring previous funding cuts ($44 million) to the Australia Council. There will also be new entities within the Creative Australia revised framework, each with a new budget. These are a new First Nations First Body ($35.5 million), Music Australia ($69.4 million), Writers Australia ($19.3 million) and the Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces ($8.1 million). </p>
<p>There will be a further investment in “works of scale” ($19 million), which seems to be aimed at helping work translate through different mediums or for different audiences.</p>
<p>In this new framework, there is an emphasis on First Nations programs being led by First Nations people. Alongside the First Nations First Body, $11 million will go towards establishing a First Nations Languages Policy Partnership, incorporating languages into Australian education, and $13.4 million will be directed to legislation to protect First Nations knowledge and cultural expressions, including ensuring the authenticity of First Nations art.</p>
<p>The changes beg the question: what will happen to existing structures within the Australia Council? The Australia Council <a href="https://mailchi.mp/australiacouncil/announcements-opportunities-more-6110209?e=276d6e8253">has announced</a> its own briefing in relation to the policy later in the week.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/tony-burkes-double-ministry-of-arts-and-industrial-relations-could-be-just-what-the-arts-sector-needs-183623">Tony Burke's double ministry of arts and industrial relations could be just what the arts sector needs</a>
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</p>
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<h2>Not just for the arts industry</h2>
<p>The remodelled agency will not just be responsible for the not-for-profit sector but also the commercial sector, particularly popular music and publishing, and philanthropy. </p>
<p>An important step forward in the policy is the emphasis on the centrality of the artist and acknowledging arts workers as legitimate workers. The creation of a Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces will <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/crackdown-on-sexual-harassment-abuse-and-bullying-in-the-arts-20230127-p5cfy3.html">aim to address</a> issues around professional payments and conditions for arts workers. </p>
<p>There is also reference to the crucial role of arts education. This is a positive step forward with a commitment of $2.6 million to support specialist in-school arts education programs.</p>
<p>Other areas that are acknowledged are the development of an Arts and Disability Plan ($5 million) and pilot funding of $4.2 million to support access to art and music therapy programs.</p>
<p>The introduction of <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/art-and-design/australian-authors-to-receive-compensation-for-e-book-loans-for-first-time-20230127-p5cfxk.html">lending rights fees</a> for the digital area is a long overdue reform and will be important for writers ($12.9 million). The <a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/funding-and-support/resale-royalty-scheme">resale royalties scheme</a> for visual arts practice ($1.8 million) will also be important, but may be impossible to enforce internationally.</p>
<p>There is also a commitment to better data collection around the sector and the publication of a comprehensive report every three years. This is a move forward, but it needs to include qualitative as well as quantitative data, and needs to be transparent.</p>
<p>There is limited reference in the document to how the <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/neglect-of-our-cultural-heritage-will-be-to-the-nation-s-peril-20221212-p5c5r0.html">heritage institutions</a> will be addressed. Present budget shortfalls are affecting their ability to do their role. The government has said previously it will be addressing this in the next budget. </p>
<p>There is a commitment, though, of $11.8 million towards loaning the collection of the National Gallery of Australia to suburban and regional art galleries, and the regional area arts fund will get a boost of $8.5 million.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-is-to-have-a-poet-laureate-how-will-the-first-appointment-define-us-as-a-nation-198769">Australia is to have a poet laureate – how will the first appointment define us as a nation?</a>
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<h2>A success still to be seen</h2>
<p>A promise in the document to ensure Australian stories are being told <a href="https://theconversation.com/streaming-platforms-will-soon-be-required-to-invest-more-in-australian-tv-and-films-which-could-be-good-news-for-our-screen-sector-198757">through streaming services</a> is going to be important. How this will be achieved is yet to be revealed.</p>
<p>There is limited reference to increasing Australia’s cultural presence abroad, but the details are vague and this again has been an area of significant neglect for several years.</p>
<p>The small to medium sector and individual artists have suffered the most over the 20 years of reduced funding. How will they fit into this ambitious plan? While there is emphasis on the adequate remuneration of artists, whether the actions recommended will be sufficient remains to be seen.</p>
<p>Overall, there are many positive actions in the new policy, but the devil will be in the details on how it is rolled out.</p>
<p>This new policy is definitely not a game changer, but it is going in a healthier direction.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/streaming-platforms-will-soon-be-required-to-invest-more-in-australian-tv-and-films-which-could-be-good-news-for-our-screen-sector-198757">Streaming platforms will soon be required to invest more in Australian TV and films, which could be good news for our screen sector</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198786/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jo Caust has previously received funding from the Australia Council. She is a member of NAVA and the Arts Industry Council (SA).</span></em></p>This is not quite a game changer, but it is going in a healthier direction.Jo Caust, Associate Professor and Principal Fellow (Hon), School of Culture and Communication, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1956462022-12-07T19:05:10Z2022-12-07T19:05:10ZFemale artists earn less than men. Coming from a diverse cultural background incurs even more of a penalty – but there is good news, too<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499131/original/file-20221206-18396-u0gxsz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C7%2C5168%2C3624&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kazuo ota/Unsplash</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Artists all over the world, regardless of their gender, earn <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/handbook/handbook-of-the-economics-of-art-and-culture">considerably less</a> than professionals in occupations requiring similar levels of education and qualifications. </p>
<p>But there’s an additional income penalty for artists who are female. </p>
<p>In an analysis of gender differences in the incomes of professional artists in Australia that <a href="https://australiacouncil.gov.au/advocacy-and-research/the-gender-pay-gap-among-australian-artists/">we undertook in 2020</a>, we found the creative incomes of women were 30% less than those of men. </p>
<p>This is true even after allowing for differences in such things as hours worked, education and training, time spent in childcare and so on. This income penalty on women artists was greater than the gender pay gap of 16% experienced in the overall Australian workforce at the time. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/screen-australia-celebrates-its-work-in-gender-equality-but-things-are-far-from-equal-122266">Some sectors</a> of the arts have tried to redress this problem. However, women continue to suffer serious and unexplained gender-based discrimination in the artistic workplace.</p>
<p>Cultural differences are <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w27725">also known</a> to influence pay gaps in many countries. </p>
<p>In new research <a href="https://australiacouncil.gov.au/advocacy-and-research/culture-and-the-gender-pay-gap-for-australian-artists">out today</a>, we considered whether cultural factors might also affect the gender pay gap of artists in Australia. In addition, we analysed the gender pay gap for remote Indigenous artists for the first time.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-the-gender-pay-gap-in-the-arts-so-large-widespread-discrimination-is-the-most-likely-cause-149626">Why is the gender pay gap in the arts so large? Widespread discrimination is the most likely cause</a>
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<h2>A larger gap for women from a non-English speaking background</h2>
<p>In our <a href="https://australiacouncil.gov.au/advocacy-and-research/making-art-work/">2016 survey of 826 professional artists</a> working in metropolitan, regional and rural Australia, we asked participants if they came from a non-English speaking background. </p>
<p>Only a relatively small proportion of artists – 10% – came from a non-English-speaking background, compared to 18% for the Australian labour force as a whole. </p>
<p>A non-English-speaking background appears to carry an income penalty only for women artists, not for men. </p>
<p>We found the annual creative earnings of female artists from a non-English-speaking background are about 71% of the creative incomes of female artists whose first language is English. But there is little difference between the corresponding incomes of male artists. </p>
<p><iframe id="Nur29" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/Nur29/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Within the group of artists from language backgrounds other than English, the annual creative earnings of female artists are about half (53%) those of their male counterparts. </p>
<p>By contrast, the ratio of female to male creative earnings among English-speaking background artists is 73%. </p>
<p>These results suggest that women artists from a non-English-speaking background suffer a triple earnings penalty – from being an artist (and hence as a group earning less than comparable professionals), from their gender, and from their cultural background.</p>
<p>Despite this earnings disadvantage, 63% of artists who identified as having a first language other than English thought their background had a positive impact on their artistic practice. Only 16% thought it had a negative impact. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499196/original/file-20221206-18-2xepib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two dancers in a studio" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499196/original/file-20221206-18-2xepib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499196/original/file-20221206-18-2xepib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499196/original/file-20221206-18-2xepib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499196/original/file-20221206-18-2xepib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499196/original/file-20221206-18-2xepib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499196/original/file-20221206-18-2xepib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499196/original/file-20221206-18-2xepib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Both male and female artists from non-English speaking backgrounds saw their heritage as important to their art.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Henrique Junior/Unsplash</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>When artists were asked whether being from a non-English speaking background was a restricting factor in their professional artistic development, 17% of women answered “yes”, compared to only 5% of men from a similar background. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, like their male colleagues, these women artists continue to celebrate their cultural background in their art. They contribute to the increasingly multicultural content of the arts in Australia, holding up a mirror to trends in Australian society at large. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/screen-australia-celebrates-its-work-in-gender-equality-but-things-are-far-from-equal-122266">Screen Australia celebrates its work in gender equality but things are far from equal</a>
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<h2>No gender gap in remote Indigenous communities</h2>
<p>For First Nations artists working in remote communities, a different picture emerges. </p>
<p>For this research, we used results for remote communities in three regions of northern Australia drawn from our <a href="https://apo.org.au/node/257301">National Survey of Remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Artists</a>.</p>
<p>The gender gap is not replicated among remotely practising First Nations artists. </p>
<p>There are some minor variations in this finding for subgroups in different regions, depending in part on differences in the mix of visual and performing artists in the population. But whatever other differentials may exist between female and male earnings, they do not appear to be attributable to the sorts of systemic gender-based discrimination that affects the residual gender gap for other Australian artists.</p>
<p>A possible reason relates to fundamental differences between the cultural norms, values and inherited traditions that apply in remote and very remote First Nations communities. </p>
<p>Gender roles in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities have been <a href="https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1525/can.1992.7.2.02a00020">described</a> by researchers as distinctively different, rather than superior or inferior. The importance of both women and men as bearers of culture has been clearly articulated. </p>
<p>The unique cultural content of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander music, dance, visual art and literature is an essential feature of the work of these artists. These characteristics pass through to the marketplace, and there does not appear to be any obvious gender gap in the way the art from these remote communities is received. </p>
<p>There is always differentiation between the art produced in different remote regions of Australia which varies depending on the complexities of different inherited cultural traditions. But there is no indication of any gender-based discrimination associated with these regional differences.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/bark-ladies-how-womens-yolnu-bark-paintings-break-with-convention-and-embrace-artists-strong-personalities-174340">Bark Ladies: how women's Yolŋu bark paintings break with convention and embrace artists' strong personalities</a>
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</p>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195646/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Throsby receives funding from the Australia Council for the Arts , Australian Research Council (ARC), and from the Commonwealth, WA, NT, SA and QLD governments.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katya Petetskaya receives funding from the Australia Council for the Arts, Australian Research Council (ARC), and from the Commonwealth, WA, NT and QLD governments. She is affiliated with NAVA. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sunny Y. Shin receives funding from the Australia Council for the Arts. </span></em></p>Women artists from a non-English-speaking background suffer a triple earnings penalty. But there is no gender pay gap among remote Indigenous artists.David Throsby, Distinguished Professor of Economics, Macquarie UniversityKatya Petetskaya, Research Project Director at the Department of Economics, Macquarie UniversitySunny Y. Shin, Lecturer, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1941742022-11-16T19:04:12Z2022-11-16T19:04:12ZJunior staff are finding better contracts, senior staff are burning out: the arts are losing the war for talent<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495223/original/file-20221115-22-huku2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C0%2C3514%2C1534&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Museum of Warsaw</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1997, consulting firm McKinsey & Company coined the term “<a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/34512/war-talent">the war for talent</a>” to define increasing labour shortages that had significant potential to impact organisational performance. </p>
<p>The war for talent significantly impacted corporations at the time, creating a scarcity mindset and encouraging a wave of employee-focussed initiatives designed to attract and retain staff. </p>
<p>For the most part, the arts and cultural sector have been sheltered from the war for talent over past decades. Global growth in creative oriented higher education coupled with the “<a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2016/04/26/book-review-be-creative-making-a-living-in-the-new-culture-industries-by-angela-mcrobbie/">romance of being creative</a>” has led to a steady stream of workers willing to enter the sector on low pay. </p>
<p>However, in 2022 things have changed.</p>
<p>Faced with labour shortages, arts and cultural organisations increasingly find it challenging to operate. In 2021, it was reported screen productions in Australia were <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-24/high-demand-creates-film-skill-shortage/100479392">being jeopardised</a> due to lack of technical skills. </p>
<p>Now, summer festivals are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/nov/07/will-australias-festivals-survive-a-wet-chaotic-expensive-summer">struggling to find</a> frontline workers, including security, stage crew, ticketing and transport. </p>
<p>It’s not just entry-level positions that remain empty. </p>
<p>After <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2021/may/11/australias-culture-of-ideas-suffers-when-we-starve-our-creative-institutions-of-funding">a decade</a> of funding cuts and policy neglect, followed by the stresses induced by COVID-19, I am observing arts leaders leaving to find secure, better paid and sustainable work elsewhere. </p>
<p>In Australia’s increasingly tight labour market, the arts are finally facing a war for talent. </p>
<h2>A culture of burnout</h2>
<p>If we consider the role of the “arts manager”, it becomes easy to recognise why arts leaders are abandoning the industry.</p>
<p>Arts leaders do not just support the creation of art. They are marketers, customer service specialists, supply chain and logistics experts, grant writers, human resources managers and – increasingly – risk managers. </p>
<p>They are trying to bring back audiences post-COVID while juggling a contentious funding landscape that balances the need for revenue with audience, staff and artist <a href="https://overland.org.au/2021/09/the-arts-in-australia-need-to-break-up-with-fossil-fuels/">expectations</a> arts organisations do not partner with corporations that fail to align with organisational values. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495217/original/file-20221114-18-huku2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C0%2C4884%2C3266&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An empty office" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495217/original/file-20221114-18-huku2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C0%2C4884%2C3266&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495217/original/file-20221114-18-huku2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495217/original/file-20221114-18-huku2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495217/original/file-20221114-18-huku2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495217/original/file-20221114-18-huku2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495217/original/file-20221114-18-huku2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495217/original/file-20221114-18-huku2p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Staff are increasingly burnt out.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Annie Spratt/Unsplash</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I am increasingly seeing young people leaving arts jobs for opportunities that recognise their skills and provide secure, better paid work. Art workers are highly valuable in today’s economy where creativity and innovation are seen as <a href="https://australiacouncil.gov.au/news/speeches-and-opinions/creative-skills-in-times-of-crisis-how-the-arts-can-help/">keys to success</a>.</p>
<p>This lack of younger workers increases the workloads of senior staff, causing them to be burnt out and leave the sector, too.</p>
<p>Staff shortages jeopardise the sector’s ability to get back on its feet after the brutal impact of COVID-19. Those that remain in our arts companies are exhausted, left trying to rebuild programs and audiences with fewer resources. </p>
<p>While “<a href="https://theconversation.com/quiet-quitting-why-doing-less-at-work-could-be-good-for-you-and-your-employer-188617">quiet quitting</a>” gets media airtime, others in the sector are asking arts workers to embrace the mantra of “<a href="https://larsenkeys.com.au/2022/09/26/post-covid-or-post-burnout-less-is-necessary/">less is necessary</a>”.</p>
<p>Individuals need to take action to address their wellbeing. Still, it is also necessary to consider the systems and structures that underpin our arts organisations and how they impact workers. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/quiet-quitting-why-doing-less-at-work-could-be-good-for-you-and-your-employer-188617">Quiet quitting: why doing less at work could be good for you – and your employer</a>
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<h2>Structural issues</h2>
<p>One way to address the war for talent is to increase the labour supply. </p>
<p>Higher education providers who develop creative talent are lobbying for more resources to expand programs and are pushing for changes to the Job Ready graduate scheme that <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-inequity-of-job-ready-graduates-for-students-must-be-brought-to-a-quick-end-heres-how-183808">imposes higher costs</a> on arts and humanities graduates. </p>
<p>The latest <a href="https://www.aare.edu.au/blog/?p=14754">Graduate Outcome Survey</a> shows that the employment outcomes of creative arts and arts and humanities graduates have increased over 20% since 2019. The high rates of graduate employability aligns with Australia’s historically low unemployment rate, but also demonstrates the value creative skills now hold in the broader economy. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-inequity-of-job-ready-graduates-for-students-must-be-brought-to-a-quick-end-heres-how-183808">The inequity of Job-ready Graduates for students must be brought to a quick end. Here's how</a>
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<p>What these positive statistics do not tell us, however, is the working conditions of those employed. </p>
<p>The arts are the original gig economy. Of the over 80% of arts and humanities graduates employed six months after graduation, how many earn a living wage? How many work in the arts? How many recent creative arts graduates are juggling multiple short-term contracts simultaneously to build skills, grow networks and cope with cost of living increases? </p>
<p>As Australia’s labour market tightens, arts workers are realising they can take their skills to better paid jobs with secure contracts, in fields such as health, technology and management consulting. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495220/original/file-20221114-19-3w8mbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A staff meeting" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495220/original/file-20221114-19-3w8mbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495220/original/file-20221114-19-3w8mbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495220/original/file-20221114-19-3w8mbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495220/original/file-20221114-19-3w8mbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495220/original/file-20221114-19-3w8mbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495220/original/file-20221114-19-3w8mbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495220/original/file-20221114-19-3w8mbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Arts workers are finding their skills are in demand in other industries.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jason Goodman/Unsplash</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Unless arts organisations respond by providing similar security and career paths, the departure of talented workers will only continue. </p>
<p>This loss of staff will not only impact the ability of organisations to operate today, but will also influence the make-up of arts organisations in the future. </p>
<p>When only those who can afford to work under precarious conditions remain, the ability of the sector to attract and retain leaders from diverse communities <a href="https://www.artshub.com.au/news/features/how-do-we-stop-losing-artists-from-the-sector-2578669/">decreases</a>. </p>
<h2>Decent work</h2>
<p>Arts leaders eagerly await the launch of a new <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-new-national-cultural-policy-is-an-opportunity-for-a-radical-rethinking-of-the-importance-of-culture-in-australia-188720">National Cultural Policy</a>, hoping for significant change in how the arts are valued. </p>
<p>Yet arts organisations need to also get their own house in order. </p>
<p>Sustainable arts careers mean <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-crisis-of-a-career-in-culture-why-sustaining-a-livelihood-in-the-arts-is-so-hard-171732">decent work</a>. This means structural changes in how arts workers are employed, a shift away from the reliance on volunteers and <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/art-and-design/why-is-a-major-sydney-arts-festival-working-with-google-to-offer-an-unpaid-internship-20220516-p5als1.html">incorrect appointment of unpaid interns</a>, low-wage casual or fixed-term roles to more secure and fairly paid employment. </p>
<p>Many in the sector are championing change. The National Association for the Visual Arts is campaigning to <a href="https://visualarts.net.au/news-opinion/2022/recognise-artists-workers/">recognise artists as workers</a>, highlighting the need for an award to support this group that often falls under the industrial relations radar. The music sector has made similar calls for minimum wages for artists, <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/paying-musicians-a-minimum-wage-would-kill-live-music-tote-owner-20220923-p5bkgw.html">yet face critics</a>. </p>
<p>The pandemic showed us how important the arts are to our lives. For the arts to continue to play a vital role in our national identity and represent our diverse communities, the sector must be funded appropriately. </p>
<p>It is also essential organisations create safe, secure and viable jobs for arts workers. </p>
<p>If the industry can only exist by systematically exploiting workers, then the war for talent will be lost. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/tony-burkes-double-ministry-of-arts-and-industrial-relations-could-be-just-what-the-arts-sector-needs-183623">Tony Burke's double ministry of arts and industrial relations could be just what the arts sector needs</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194174/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kim Goodwin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>For a long time, arts organisations retained staff attracted to the ‘romance of being creative’. That’s no longer enough.Kim Goodwin, Lecturer, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1933042022-10-26T04:16:14Z2022-10-26T04:16:14ZThis was supposed to be a ‘wellbeing budget’ – so why does it feel like the arts have been overlooked?<p>The first Labor federal budget has come down, but the arts are almost nowhere to be seen. </p>
<p>According to Arts Minister Tony Burke, the government is waiting for its <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-25/australia-new-national-cultural-policy-arts-minister-tony-burke/101363244">new cultural policy</a>, to be delivered later this year. </p>
<p>Only then will we know if the government is going to take any real action to address the disastrous issues in the arts sector.</p>
<p>Given the emphasis in the budget on addressing issues around “<a href="https://theconversation.com/wellbeing-its-why-labors-first-budget-will-have-more-rigour-than-any-before-it-187160">wellbeing</a>”, it is worrisome we have longer to wait before issues in the arts are addressed by the Labor government. </p>
<p>It took the Coalition government more than seven months to announce <a href="https://theconversation.com/too-little-too-late-too-confusing-the-funding-criteria-for-the-arts-covid-package-is-a-mess-145397">any real relief</a> to the sector during COVID, by which time many individuals and organisations had given up. Timing is everything when people are desperate.</p>
<p>What are the issues in the arts? Where do we start?</p>
<p>There is the continued <a href="https://theconversation.com/federal-arts-funding-in-australia-is-falling-and-local-governments-are-picking-up-the-slack-124160">funding decline</a> and support of the arts over the past 15 years, the defunding of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2020/apr/06/we-are-witnessing-a-cultural-bloodbath-in-australia-that-has-been-years-in-the-making">respected arts organisations</a> by the Australia Council since 2016, the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/may/19/the-70-drop-australia-council-grants-artists-funding-cuts">dramatic decline</a> in funding support for individual artists, the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House/Communications/Arts/Report/section?id=committees%2freportrep%2f024535%2f78295">dire impact</a> of the pandemic, and the need to recognise that cultural value is not the same as economic value, and both are needed. </p>
<p>Individuals who work in the arts are highly skilled and talented. Acknowledging their labour as important and valuable is just the beginning. </p>
<p>Our artists are another aspect of our national wealth. Australia cannot afford to ignore them.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-labors-first-budget-in-6-charts-192851">Everything you need to know about Labor's first budget in 6 charts</a>
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<h2>The small budget measures</h2>
<p>Nevertheless, the government has taken action <a href="https://edm.arts.gov.au/link/id/zzzz6358681e8d16a669Pzzzz57fd70ef2def1829/page.html">in some areas</a>. </p>
<p>This budget sees:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>A$83.7 million in restorative funding to the ABC</p></li>
<li><p>$5 million to the <a href="https://edm.arts.gov.au/link/id/zzzz6358681e96d03256Pzzzz57fd70ef2def1829/page.html">National Aboriginal and Islander Skills Development Association Dance College</a></p></li>
<li><p>$2.4 million to <a href="https://edm.arts.gov.au/link/id/zzzz6358681e97fc8205Pzzzz57fd70ef2def1829/page.html">Bundanon</a>, an organisation providing artist residencies, an education centre, a gallery and other facilities in regional New South Wales</p></li>
<li><p>$5 million to the <a href="https://edm.arts.gov.au/link/id/zzzz6358681e991bc782Pzzzz57fd70ef2def1829/page.html">National Institute of Dramatic Art</a> (NIDA) to support ongoing delivery of its courses, and</p></li>
<li><p>$2.4 million over four years from 2022-23 to offset the impact of the efficiency dividend on <a href="https://edm.arts.gov.au/link/id/zzzz6358681e9a735443Pzzzz57fd70ef2def1829/page.html">national performing arts training organisations</a>.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>The budget also reflects the merging of Creative Partnerships Australia with the Australia Council.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/jim-chalmers-2022-23-budget-mantra-whatever-you-do-dont-fuel-inflation-192846">Jim Chalmers’ 2022-23 budget mantra: whatever you do, don’t fuel inflation</a>
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<h2>Creative Partnerships Australia</h2>
<p>Creative Partnerships Australia costs the government around $4-5 million a year, so this merging will bring around $15 million to the Council over the next three years. </p>
<p>Creative Partnerships Australia grew out of the Australian Business Arts Foundation (AbaF), an initiative of the Howard government. Its mandate was to promote and facilitate private sector support for the arts and initially it focused on encouraging businesses to engage with the arts. </p>
<p>From 1998 to 2012, AbaF was driven through a council of business representatives, who committed $10,000 each and actively advocated for business partnerships with arts organisations. This council provided a rich resource base of potential benefactors and in its early days <a href="https://www.businessnews.com.au/article/AbaF-support-passes-20m">was successful</a> at doing this. A separate arts philanthropy organisation, Artsupport Australia, sat under the Australia Council with AbaF support.</p>
<p>In 2012 Simon Crean, then arts minister, decided to excise Artsupport Australia from the Australia Council and re-orientate AbaF by <a href="https://www.danceaustralia.com.au/news/new-body-to-promote-private-arts-support">rebranding it</a> as Creative Partnerships Australia. Creative Partnerships Australia since then has had a primary focus on philanthropic support for the arts, and unlike AbaF, also distributes Commonwealth funds through grant programs.</p>
<p>Unlike the Australia Council, Creative Partnerships Australia is based in Melbourne (rather than Sydney), with staff also located in other cities. This means it has more immediate contact with its arts constituents outside Sydney. </p>
<p>The organisation has run many workshops over the years to develop fundraising skills for the arts, and has also been the home of the <a href="https://australianculturalfund.org.au/about/">Australian Cultural Fund</a>, which allows for donations to be given to individual artists and organisations that do not have tax deductibility status. </p>
<p>The loss of this stand-alone entity will likely be felt more by the smaller organisations and individuals than the larger ones. Larger organisations have no difficulty in claiming tax deductibility and greater likelihood of making connections with donors.</p>
<p>The Australia Council is a grant giving body, and has not historically facilitated philanthropy nor been a conduit for tax deductibility. It remains to be seen how these functions will be folded into the Australia Council.</p>
<p>The Labor government has a lot to do to restore confidence in the arts sector and help the sector recover from several terrible years. There is an urgency to this, but this urgency is nowhere to be seen in this budget.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/jim-chalmers-restraint-budget-the-first-stage-of-a-marathon-for-the-treasurer-192841">Jim Chalmers' 'restraint' budget the first stage of a marathon for the treasurer</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193304/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jo Caust has previously received from the Australia Council. She is a member of NAVA and the Arts Industry Council (SA).</span></em></p>Arts Minister Tony Burke says the government is waiting for its new cultural policy. But artists are struggling now.Jo Caust, Associate Professor and Principal Fellow (Hon), School of Culture and Communication, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1887202022-08-18T01:35:50Z2022-08-18T01:35:50ZA new national cultural policy is an opportunity for a radical rethinking of the importance of culture in Australia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479253/original/file-20220816-20306-ape9c6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C9517%2C6368&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Unsplash</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the cut-off for the government’s <a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/have-your-say/new-national-cultural-policy">consultation on a National Cultural Policy</a> (NCP) approaches, thousands in the sector are putting the finishing touches to their three-page submissions. These are directed around “five pillars” drawn from <a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/documents/creative-australia-national-cultural-policy">Creative Australia</a>, the national cultural policy announced in the last months of the Gillard regime, but ignored by the Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison governments thereafter. </p>
<p>Coalition arts ministers showed little interest in cultural policy. Over the last nine years, national cultural institutions lost funding, the Australia Council’s budget was diverted to programs under ministerial control, and key board appointments reflected a lack of sector expertise. </p>
<p>As Gideon Haigh wrote in <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/subscribe/news/1/?sourceCode=TAWEB_WRE170_a_GGL&dest=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theaustralian.com.au%2Finquirer%2Fnew-arts-policy-is-welcome-but-tough-questions-remain%2Fnews-story%2Fa3a89a9f356745e18de972f49f91c83d&memtype=anonymous&mode=premium&v21=dynamic-groupa-test-noscore&V21spcbehaviour=append">The Australian</a>, </p>
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<p>The pattern of the past 30 years in arts and culture is for Labor to initiate and the Coalition to dismantle.</p>
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<p>The new government’s consultation process has been a long time coming and it is welcome.</p>
<h2>Creative Nation to Creative Australia</h2>
<p>Creative Australia built on <a href="https://apo.org.au/node/29704">Creative Nation</a>, Paul Keating’s National Cultural Policy, which launched in 1994. It emerged from Kevin Rudd’s 2020 Summit, two major inquiries and a reference group of several dozen people from all parts of the sector. It was designed to enable systematic engagement with culture in all its manifestations.</p>
<p>But much has happened in the nation, the economy and society since 2013. And while the recently announced <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/subscribe/news/1/?sourceCode=TAWEB_WRE170_a_GGL&dest=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theaustralian.com.au%2Fnation%2Fpolitics%2Farts-minister-tony-burke-handpicks-panel-to-guide-on-cultural-policy%2Fnews-story%2F55a8c8b7b7220113eb118990d85ce462&memtype=anonymous&mode=premium&v21=dynamic-groupa-test-noscore&V21spcbehaviour=append">15-member NCP advisory panel</a> includes people with deep knowledge, there are some gaps. </p>
<p>Creative Australia drew together a range of competing perspectives and had a broad enough base to start giving culture the clout it needed to be taken seriously as an object of policy. After it was adopted, more money flowed to the Australia Council and other cultural agencies and institutions. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-should-have-a-universal-basic-income-for-artists-heres-what-that-could-look-like-182128">Australia should have a universal basic income for artists. Here's what that could look like</a>
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<p>In a fraught world a new national cultural policy needs an even wider framework. Culture touches every part of our public and private lives. </p>
<p>A cultural policy should include an arts policy, but also policies addressing national institutions, heritage, the commercial cultural industries, soft power diplomacy, education, community groups and charities, as well as areas of public administration like First Nations, health, welfare, and education where cultural activity is a valued tool.</p>
<p>It must be able to align with state and local governments as active partners in this domain.</p>
<p>A robust arts policy is a first step in developing an expansive, nationally-appropriate cultural policy. Art for its own sake, yes. But art that binds, stretches, and challenges contemporary society. </p>
<p>Above all, a new national cultural policy needs conceptual depth. Culture was once seen as a public good, but has been hollowed out. The Australia Council’s consultation <a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/sites/default/files/submissions/ncp2022-submission-001-aca-national-cultural-policy-framing-1july2022.pdf">framing document</a> defines its benefits largely in instrumental terms (mental health, social cohesion, education, tourism, the creative economy). Meanwhile, the substance of culture’s intrinsic value remains unaddressed. </p>
<h2>A ministry of culture?</h2>
<p>One of the key insights from the Creative Australia consultation process was the need for a federal ministry of culture.</p>
<p>Over the past two decades the arts has been tacked on to many other ministerial portfolios: communications, transport, environment, local government, the attorney general’s, and now employment. They should be at the heart of a culture portfolio that draws together elements scattered across the cabinet. </p>
<p>Currently, the arts are buried at the bottom of a <a href="https://www.infrastructure.gov.au">drop-down</a> menu, while media and communications (including public and commercial broadcasting) is the responsibility of another minister. </p>
<p>A culture ministry would allow effective aggregation of the significant expenditure made in culture across government. They exist in most comparable countries. A properly constituted ministry could assess the cultural impact of new policy proposals from any department. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/it-is-time-for-australia-to-establish-a-national-ministry-for-culture-180026">It is time for Australia to establish a national Ministry for Culture</a>
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<p>In the 1990s, Australia was ahead of the global curve in redefining art and culture for a new democratic, multicultural era. The 2020s present different problems: climate change, digitisation, globalisation, inequality and a growing distrust in democratic institutions. A dedicated cultural ministry is the best way of addressing them with a perspective that touches lives and builds strong institutions.</p>
<p>This is not just a challenge for Australia. As <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/research-and-innovation/en/events/upcoming-events/research-innovation-days/speakers/hans-mommaas">Professor Hans Mommaas</a>, Director of The Netherland’s Environmental Assessment Agency, put it to us recently:</p>
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<p>In the midst of our various problem agendas… there is no clear place… any longer for the role of culture in the sense of creating and celebrating collective forms of imagination (and) communication… We must have a rich cultural sphere… for culture to be instrumental to these other agendas… Why not start with redeveloping the story-line that in the midst of the crises we find ourselves in, we urgently need a revival of a cultural sphere and that the current lack of this… is producing (a) distrust in the future and (a) lack of collective imagination.</p>
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<p>Breathing new life into a decade-old national cultural policy is a useful beginning. But as Arts Minister Tony Burke has said of the current consultation process, “it is a trajectory, not a destination”. What is required now is an in-depth gestation period to position culture as a public good in the life of the nation. </p>
<p>The right of citizens to participate in, and contribute to, the cultural activities of the community is accepted in a number of the international agreements to which Australia is signatory. In an age of streaming platforms, public funding cuts and rising inequality, these cultural rights must be revisited and reasserted. </p>
<p>A new national cultural policy is an opportunity for a radical rethinking of the importance of culture to a troubled age. More than ever, we need creativity and an understanding of cultural heritage to imagine our collective future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188720/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julianne Schultz chaired the reference group for the 2013 NCP, Creative Australia. She is Chair of The Conversation Media Group. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Justin O'Connor receives funding from the Australian Research Council</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julian Meyrick does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Breathing new life into a decade-old national cultural policy is a useful beginning. What is required now is an in-depth gestation period to position culture as a public good for the nation.Julianne Schultz, Emeritus Professor of Media and Culture, Griffith University, Griffith UniversityJulian Meyrick, Professor of Creative Arts, Griffith UniversityJustin O'Connor, Professor of Cultural Economy, University of South AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1870802022-07-28T08:01:43Z2022-07-28T08:01:43ZPrecarious employment, hiring discrimination and a toxic workplace: what work looks like for Australian cinematographers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475810/original/file-20220725-11-1mwcwz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6192%2C4124&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It has been a fantastic year for Australian cinematographers in Hollywood. </p>
<p>Australian directors of photography represented two of the five nominees for best cinematography at the 2022 Oscars. <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/movies/australian-oscar-winner-greig-fraser-on-dune-star-wars-and-his-big-night-20220401-p5a9xm.html">Greig Fraser</a> won the Oscar for his work as cinematographer on Dune. Ari Wegner became the <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2022/01/awards-insider-female-cinematographers-oscar-nominations">second woman ever</a> to be nominated for best cinematography in the 94-year history of the Oscars, for her work on Power of the Dog. </p>
<p>Now, the work of Aussie director of photography Mandy Walker is being seen by audiences around the globe on Baz Luhrmann’s film Elvis, grossing more than <a href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt3704428/">US$210 million</a> (A$304 million) at the worldwide box office. </p>
<p>The director of photography or cinematographer is responsible for the overall look of a film. This key creative leadership role demands advanced artistic and technical expertise. Our new report, <a href="https://cinematographer.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/A-Wider-Lens-report-final.pdf">A Wider Lens: Australian camera workforce development and diversity</a>, looks behind the red carpet glitz to analyse the workforce, the work model and the work culture of Australian film and television camera departments. </p>
<p>We have found a workplace lacking in diversity and a toxic work culture rife with discrimination, stress and precarious employment.</p>
<p>Our findings suggest Australian cinematographers are succeeding on the international stage in spite of – rather than because of – labour markets and working conditions in the Australian film and television production industry. </p>
<h2>A serious lack of diversity</h2>
<p>Commissioned by the <a href="https://cinematographer.org.au/">Australian Cinematographers Society</a>, the report draws from Screen Australia production data and on 640 complete responses to a survey of Australian film and television camera professionals conducted in early 2021. </p>
<p>In line with a growing body of research in <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1329878X19892772">Australia</a> and <a href="https://rm.coe.int/female-professionals-in-european-film-production-december-2021/1680a4d30a#:%7E:text=Women%20accounted%20for%2023%25%20of,23%25%20of%20European%20feature%20films.">internationally</a> on diversity in the film and television production industry, our study finds that gender inequality is a defining feature of work and labour markets in the camera department. </p>
<p>The Australian film and television camera workforce is 80% men, 18% women and 2% trans/gender diverse. It is an ageing workforce, with nearly 70% of camera professionals over the age of 35. It is also largely white, with 63% identifying as Anglo-Celtic. Only 2% of the survey respondents identified as Indigenous, and only 13% as non-European. </p>
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<p>The workforce is 85% heterosexual, and 8% identify as a person with a disability. </p>
<p>This data snapshot must be understood in relation to the quantity and quality of work for film and television camera professionals – and indeed in the film and television production industry more generally.</p>
<h2>A stressful environment</h2>
<p>Work as a camera professional is high-performance, requiring a highly specialised, technical skill set and intense concentration for extended periods of time. </p>
<p>Job stress is compounded by the fact that film crews commonly work in unusual, and at times dangerous, locations. </p>
<p>The very real dangers that camera professionals face in doing their jobs is demonstrated by the tragic deaths of director of photography <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-30/alec-baldwin-halyna-hutchins-shooting-what-happened/100581016">Halyna Hutchins</a> on the set of Rust in 2021, and of camera assistant <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/midnight-rider-accident-sarah-jones-death-gregg-allman-685976/">Sarah Jones</a> on the set of Midnight Rider in 2014. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-are-filmmakers-who-work-with-firearms-this-is-what-is-important-in-on-set-safety-170455">We are filmmakers who work with firearms. This is what is important in on-set safety</a>
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<p>Work stress is compounded by an employment model that is the definition of precarity. </p>
<p>Employment and income insecurity are driven by short-term freelance contracts that can be for as little as one day. Employment is accessed through highly exclusionary, informal hiring networks. </p>
<p>Half our survey respondents report directly experiencing discrimination in the hiring process, with gender, age and racial discrimination being the most frequently encountered.</p>
<p>When work is secured, working patterns are highly erratic, with irregular, frequently excessive and antisocial hours. </p>
<p>This work model produces severe consequences for workforce development and wellbeing. From our survey respondents, 60% of all camera professionals – and 70% of women – reported the work model actively prevents work-life balance. </p>
<p>Precarity and health stressors are even further exacerbated by what can only be described as a toxic industry work culture. Discrimination and harassment at work is commonly experienced. </p>
<p>Half of all non-European and Indigenous respondents report experiencing racism at work. Sexism at work has been experienced by 75% of trans and gender diverse respondents, and 89% of women. Sexual harassment is routine for women.</p>
<p>Those in positions of power and influence are often the perpetrators of discrimination, harassment and bullying. Unsurprisingly, reporting is a key challenge facing the industry. </p>
<p>Freelancers work in a reputation economy. There is widespread fear that reporting incidents of bullying, discrimination and harassment will jeopardise both future job prospects and career longevity in the camera department.</p>
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<h2>A workforce-wide problem</h2>
<p>The timing is good for action. Many of the key policy and industrial issues fall across Tony Burke’s dual portfolios as Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, and Minister for the Arts. </p>
<p>These issues aren’t unique to film sets. Many of the issues raised by the report speak to key issues in <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/sex-discrimination/publications/respectwork-sexual-harassment-national-inquiry-report-2020">Australian work places</a> more generally. </p>
<p>The upcoming <a href="https://treasury.gov.au/employment-whitepaper/jobs-summit">Jobs + Skills Summit</a> offers an opportunity to advance the core issues raised here as emblematic of the types of workforce development and diversity issues cultivated by high-skill, <a href="https://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_696146/lang--en/index.htm">low-quality</a> and insecure work.</p>
<p>A lack of diversity in camera departments will not be solved by simply adding different people to the existing toxic system. </p>
<p>An industry-wide commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion must first focus not on the excluded, but those doing the excluding.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/tony-burkes-double-ministry-of-arts-and-industrial-relations-could-be-just-what-the-arts-sector-needs-183623">Tony Burke's double ministry of arts and industrial relations could be just what the arts sector needs</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187080/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The research project was funded by the Australian Cinematographers Society.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Justine Ferrer and Vejune Zemaityte do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Our new research casts a harsh light on the realities of working in film and television.Amanda Coles, Senior Lecturer, Employment Relations, Department of Management, Deakin University, Deakin UniversityJustine Ferrer, Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management, Deakin UniversityVejune Zemaityte, Senior Research Fellow in Cultural Data Analytics, Tallinn UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1836232022-05-26T00:25:38Z2022-05-26T00:25:38ZTony Burke’s double ministry of arts and industrial relations could be just what the arts sector needs<p>With the swearing in of a new arts minister, there is a unique opportunity to address some of the structural issues around pay and job precarity in the arts and build a more equitable and diverse sector. </p>
<p>After holding the shadow portfolios, it is expected Tony Burke will be sworn in as minister for the arts and minister for industrial relations: the first federal minister to hold the pairing of these two portfolios. </p>
<p>A member of parliament since 2004, Burke briefly held the arts portfolio in the Gillard/Rudd ministry before becoming opposition spokesperson in 2016. He became shadow minister for industrial relations in 2019.</p>
<p>Through his time in parliament, Burke has often showcased his passion for the arts on his social media accounts, and he even keeps a selection of guitars in his parliamentary office (where he is known to play with other politicians in a Labor caucus band). </p>
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<p>Burke has also long advocated for addressing issues of insecure work and unreliable pay, claiming Labor would launch <a href="https://www.tonyburke.com.au/media-releases/2020/12/14/labor-secures-inquiry-into-insecure-work">a senate inquiry</a> into insecure work if elected. </p>
<p>The arts and cultural sector has the dubious title of being an industry leader in insecure work. And it is at the intersection of cultural and industrial relations policy where our new arts minister could dramatically reshape the sector. </p>
<h2>A precarious sector</h2>
<p>In the final days of the election campaign, the Biennale of Sydney <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/art-and-design/why-is-a-major-sydney-arts-festival-working-with-google-to-offer-an-unpaid-internship-20220516-p5als1.html">faced criticism</a> after advertising an unpaid internship position. </p>
<p>Offered in partnership with Google Arts and Culture, the position involved cataloguing responsibilities and the creation of original content over the course of three months – all for no pay.</p>
<p>The arts and cultural sector is no stranger to unpaid internships. With limited full-time and salaried positions available, many arts workers use <a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/a-call-to-end-unpaid-internships-in-the-art-world-1603792">internships and other forms of unpaid labour</a> as a way of gaining a foothold in the industry. </p>
<p>Even once established, arts workers typically <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-crisis-of-a-career-in-culture-why-sustaining-a-livelihood-in-the-arts-is-so-hard-171732">rely on a combination</a> of short-term and gig-based work, often at extremely low rates of pay.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-crisis-of-a-career-in-culture-why-sustaining-a-livelihood-in-the-arts-is-so-hard-171732">The crisis of a career in culture: why sustaining a livelihood in the arts is so hard</a>
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<p>Arts organisations are often built on a foundation of <a href="https://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/news/exploitation-rife-unpaid-work-subsidises-arts">cheap or free labour</a>. Faced with budget shortfalls and a lack of government support, many organisations have few options but to perpetuate the precarity of work in the sector. </p>
<p>This means taking advantage of workers who are desperate to gain industry experience and build professional networks. </p>
<p>The sector’s reliance on unpaid work has far-reaching consequences for its diversity. With unpaid work a key feature of the industry, arts workers who can’t afford to work for free are essentially <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/21/pandemic-britain-arts-coronavirus-culture-bailout-unlikely-reach-diverse-working-class">forced out of the labour pool</a>. This creates a sector that largely excludes anyone from a working-class background. </p>
<p>Over the past two years, the situation facing arts workers has <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-05/covid-impact-on-australian-theatre-and-performing-arts-funding/100868278">reached a tipping point</a>. Many artists and arts workers were excluded <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-government-says-artists-should-be-able-to-access-jobkeeper-payments-its-not-that-simple-138530">from receiving JobKeeper</a> or other forms of pandemic support. This led to <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/music/why-the-arts-industry-is-in-dire-straits-no-matter-who-wins-the-election-20220516-p5alpd.html">greater numbers of arts workers abandoning the sector</a> in favour of more stable employment – and an increasingly narrow pool of workers who can afford to stay.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-government-says-artists-should-be-able-to-access-jobkeeper-payments-its-not-that-simple-138530">The government says artists should be able to access JobKeeper payments. It's not that simple</a>
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<h2>An industrial relations approach</h2>
<p>As part of their election commitments, the new Labor government said they will again implement a <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-do-the-major-parties-compare-on-arts-and-cultural-policy-we-asked-5-experts-183209">national cultural policy</a>. But it is within his other portfolio that Burke could have the greatest impact on the sector. </p>
<p>When launching Labor’s arts policy at Melbourne’s Esplanade Hotel on May 16, <a href="https://www.tonyburke.com.au/speechestranscripts/2022/5/17/speech-labors-arts-policy-launch-the-espy-melbourne-16-may-2022">Burke acknowledged</a> cultural policy isn’t just about the arts:</p>
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<p>Arts isn’t simply about entertainment, leisure and hobbies. At its best it affects our education policy, our health policy, our trade, our relations around the world, our industrial relations approach and is a driver of economic growth.</p>
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<p>The arts and cultural sector have loudly condemned the lack of economic support received over the past decade, as well as during the pandemic. </p>
<p>But arts organisations must also take responsibility for contributing to a labour market environment that exploits workers and creates barriers to workers from diverse socio-economic backgrounds, and Burke needs to hold these organisations to account. </p>
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<span class="caption">The Biennale of Sydney advertised for an unpaid internship, working with Google Arts & Culture.</span>
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<p>Considering the inclusion of labour standards within grant agreements could establish a stronger culture of fair pair for all arts workers. Similarly, Burke could institute stronger regulations on the use of internships versus paid work. </p>
<p>Arts work is work and should be compensated accordingly. </p>
<p>The Biennale of Sydney states in the advertisement for its unpaid intern that “art should be accessible to all.” Our incoming arts minister can help to make this a reality, not just for audiences but for workers as well. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/wages-and-women-top-albaneses-ir-agenda-the-big-question-is-how-labor-keeps-its-promises-183527">Wages and women top Albanese's IR agenda: the big question is how Labor keeps its promises</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183623/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>After holding the shadow portfolios, it is expected Tony Burke will be sworn in as minister for the arts and minister for industrial relations.Kim Goodwin, Teaching Specialist, The University of MelbourneCaitlin Vincent, Lecturer in Creative Industries, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1833582022-05-19T04:34:42Z2022-05-19T04:34:42ZArts and culture have been all but overlooked this election – but the Greens have a big-picture plan<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464185/original/file-20220519-18-lueffd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C6%2C4074%2C2701&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The past term of government has been tough for arts and culture in Australia. Culture was among the <a href="https://australiainstitute.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Creativity_in_Crisis-_Rebooting_Australias_Arts___Entertainment_Sector_-_FINAL_-_26_July.pdf">worst affected</a> by the pandemic of any aspect of society: the first to lock down; the last to have health restrictions lifted. </p>
<p>Culture is also recovering slowly. Shows at key festivals are still being <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/apr/22/covid-disrupts-melbourne-comedy-festival-as-calls-grow-for-arts-support">cancelled due to COVID-19</a>. The damage to the sector has been so deep that informed observes believe <a href="https://www.artshub.com.au/news/features/long-term-covid-impacts-beset-sector-2550423/">it will take years to fully recover</a>.</p>
<p>Despite this, the arts and culture have been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/may/08/missing-in-action-five-issues-the-major-parties-are-avoiding-in-the-2022-federal-election">disappointingly absent</a> from the 2022 election campaign. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-do-the-major-parties-compare-on-arts-and-cultural-policy-we-asked-5-experts-183209">How do the major parties compare on arts and cultural policy? We asked 5 experts</a>
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<p>Those looking for a genuine vision for Australian arts and culture won’t find it with the major parties.</p>
<p>The Coalition has not put out an arts or cultural policy, instead running on its record of pandemic stimulus and <a>a claim of record funding</a>) to the arts portfolio in the most recent budget. </p>
<p>That is cold comfort for a sector still struggling to recover from its biggest setback in a century. March’s federal budget <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-arts-and-culture-appear-to-be-the-big-losers-in-this-budget-180127">slated funding cuts</a> of roughly 19% for the federal arts portfolio that Paul Fletcher heads.</p>
<p>The Australian Labor Party released <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/may/16/labor-pledges-to-get-creative-industries-back-on-track-quickly-as-it-announces-arts-policy">its policy</a> on Monday evening at the Espy Hotel in Melbourne. Labor’s arts platform at this election is <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-do-the-major-parties-compare-on-arts-and-cultural-policy-we-asked-5-experts-183209">surprisingly modest</a>. </p>
<p>Labor’s arts spokesperson Tony Burke gave a wide-ranging address which touched on Labor’s history of cultural policy at the federal level. There were also some bite-sized policy commitments, such as $84 million for the ABC and $80 million for a First Nations art gallery in Alice Springs.</p>
<p>According to Burke, Labor will “relaunch” a cultural policy if elected, promising to consult widely. But there are few specific or concrete promises, and many decisions are deferred. </p>
<p>Notably, there was no promise of new money for the Australia Council, the nation’s primary federal cultural agency. Labor has also refused to make a specific promise on local content quotas for streaming platforms like Netflix. As of publication, Labor’s arts policy wasn’t even published on the party’s <a href="https://alp.org.au/policies">campaign website</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-relation-between-politics-and-culture-is-clear-and-real-how-gough-whitlam-centred-artists-in-his-1972-campaign-181243">'The relation between politics and culture is clear and real': how Gough Whitlam centred artists in his 1972 campaign</a>
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<h2>Big visions</h2>
<p>There are some genuinely big visions being advanced for the arts and culture in this election. They are coming from independents such as Allegra Spender <a href="https://www.allegraspender.com.au/more_policy_positions">in Wentworth</a> and Jo Dyer <a href="https://www.dyerforboothby.com/policy-positions">in Boothby</a>, and especially from the Greens. </p>
<p>In particular, the Greens’ Sarah Hanson-Young has put forward the kind of <a href="https://greens.org.au/sites/default/files/2022-05/Greens-2022-Policy-Platform--Creative-Australia.pdf">big-picture blueprint</a> for a renewed cultural policy that 30 years ago was <a href="https://theconversation.com/paul-keatings-creative-nation-a-policy-document-that-changed-us-33537">advanced by Paul Keating</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/paul-keatings-creative-nation-a-policy-document-that-changed-us-33537">Paul Keating’s Creative Nation: a policy document that changed us</a>
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<p>There are transformative funding promises, including a $1 billion content fund for Australian screen production and another $1 billion for the performing arts. The Greens want to double the Australia Council’s funding, ramp up funding for game production, and <a href="https://greens.org.au/sites/default/files/2022-05/Greens-2022-Policy-Platform--democracy--media-diversity.pdf">inject $30 million</a> into the Indigenous media sector. </p>
<p>You could argue such promises are cheap, because there is no political scenario in which the Greens will sit on the government benches or control the Treasury. But their policy is also strong on regulation, where a Greens cross-bench will likely <a href="https://theconversation.com/race-for-the-senate-could-labor-and-the-greens-gain-control-181350">wield significant legislative power</a> in the next Senate.</p>
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<p>The Greens are pushing for streaming platforms to invest <a href="https://greens.org.au/sites/default/files/2022-03/Greens-2022-Policy-Platform--Jobs--Arts.pdf">20% of their earnings</a> from Australian subscribers into Australian content (some of the teal independents are also backing this). If implemented, it will lock in meaningful levels of local content on Australian screens. </p>
<p>The most original proposal put forward by the Greens is their policy for a trial of a <a href="https://junkee.com/the-greens-living-wage/329640">basic income for artists</a>, paying up to 10,000 artists $772.60 a week for a year. The policy is modeled on a trial of <a href="https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employment/unemployment_and_redundancy/employment_support_schemes/basic_income_arts.html">basic incomes for artists in Ireland</a>, where it is specifically targeted at redressing the crippling precarity of cultural labour markets. </p>
<p>Hanson-Young spruiks her policy as supporting artists “to develop their craft, build their portfolios and <a href="https://www.artshub.com.au/news/opinions-analysis/opinion-why-the-arts-matter-to-the-greens-2550285/">support them to keep creating</a>.” By directly seeking to create income for artists, it is a potentially far-reaching policy intervention.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-should-have-a-universal-basic-income-for-artists-heres-what-that-could-look-like-182128">Australia should have a universal basic income for artists. Here's what that could look like</a>
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<h2>Moving the mainstream</h2>
<p>The artists’ wage proposal is clearly a long way off being legislated in Australia. But putting forward new ideas is a critical role for minor parties. As John Maynard Keynes recognised in the 20th century, policy ideas that seem far-fetched today can <a href="https://equitablegrowth.org/the-general-theory-of-employment-interest-and-money/#:%7E:text=Practical%20men%2C%20who%20believe%20themselves,of%20a%20few%20years%20back.">quickly move to the mainstream</a> when the winds of change blow in the right direction.</p>
<p>With the Coalition increasingly preoccupied with the prosecution of culture wars, and Labor huddled in a defensive crouch, it is now up to the minor parties and independents to advance a larger vision for Australian culture in the next term of government. </p>
<p>If the cards fall her way in the Senate, Hanson-Young may be in a position to drag Labor towards implementing some bold ideas.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183358/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ben Eltham has previously received funding from the Australia Council for the Arts. He is affiliated with the Centre for Future Work at The Australia Institute, where he has previously co-written a report about federal cultural policy. He is a member of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA), a union that represents workers in the cultural sector.</span></em></p>With plans to trial a universal basic income for artists and push streaming platforms to invest in local content, The Greens have a big-picture blueprint for cultural policy.Ben Eltham, Lecturer, School of Media, Film and Journalism, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1832092022-05-18T03:02:48Z2022-05-18T03:02:48ZHow do the major parties compare on arts and cultural policy? We asked 5 experts<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463470/original/file-20220516-20516-vjfht8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4732%2C3116&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Mentions of arts and cultural policy have been thin on the ground this election. The Coalition has not released any specific arts policies during the campaign, and Labor’s arts policies have only just been announced in the last week before everyone heads to the polls. </p>
<p>While arts isn’t one of the big talking points this election like <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-do-the-major-parties-rate-on-medicare-we-asked-5-experts-182230">health</a> or <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-do-the-major-parties-rate-on-climate-policies-we-asked-5-experts-181790">climate change</a>, it is still an important policy area for many. In response to The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-the-environment-and-the-cost-of-living-top-the-settheagenda-poll-181933">#SetTheAgenda poll</a>, readers told us they were interested in support for the ABC and Australian literature, arts and humanities.</p>
<p>One reader said they were hoping for “the recognition of the arts in relation to the well being of people”. Another said they wanted a cultural policy “catering to the smaller/gig economy not just the big players/organisations”.</p>
<p>So what do we know about the major parties’ commitment to the arts, and how do they stack up? We asked five experts to analyse and grade the major parties’ arts and cultural policies. No one gets an A, but there are a couple of Fs.</p>
<p><strong>Here are their detailed responses:</strong></p>
<h2>Coalition</h2>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-703" class="tc-infographic" height="400px" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/703/a313889490386952a8b550164a0800da09551fa6/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Labor</h2>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-702" class="tc-infographic" height="400px" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/702/31976f27fcd23239549476967a19d3f7c7e82c84/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183209/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ben Eltham has previously received funding from the Australia Council for the Arts. He is affiliated with the Centre for Future Work at The Australia Institute, where he has previously co-written a report about federal cultural policy. He is a member of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA), a union that represents workers in the cultural sector.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brendan Keogh has previously received funding from the Australian Research Council</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kirsten Stevens has received funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Tregear is Chair of IOpera, a chamber opera company which has received financial support from the Federal Government's RISE fund. He is also a founding member of Public Universities Australia, an alliance of organisations and individuals lobbying to promote the public value and function of Australian universities.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tully Barnett receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>We asked five experts to analyse and grade the Coalition and ALP arts and cultural policies.Ben Eltham, Lecturer, School of Media, Film and Journalism, Monash UniversityBrendan Keogh, Senior Lecturer, Queensland University of TechnologyKirsten Stevens, Lecturer in Arts and Cultural Management, The University of MelbournePeter Tregear, Principal Fellow and Professor of Music, The University of MelbourneTully Barnett, Senior lecturer, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1812432022-05-16T19:59:20Z2022-05-16T19:59:20Z‘The relation between politics and culture is clear and real’: how Gough Whitlam centred artists in his 1972 campaign<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463149/original/file-20220515-65341-j4u4kv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C0%2C891%2C1125&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Gough Whitlam delivering the 1972 election policy speech at the Blacktown Civic Centre in Sydney, 1972.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Archives of Australia via Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As we enter the final week of the election campaign with its scrappy debates and breathlessly seized “gotcha” moments, the impact of Gough Whitlam’s electoral reforms can be seen at every stage. </p>
<p>From votes for 18-year-olds, senate representation in the ACT and Northern Territory, equal electorates and “one vote one value”, Whitlam’s commitment to full franchise and electoral equity remain central to our electoral process.</p>
<p>No less significant is the innovative and dynamic election campaign built around the central theme “It’s Time” which propelled him into office. </p>
<p>“It’s Time” was the perfect two-word slogan, encapsulating the urge for long overdue change after 23 years of coalition government, and carrying that momentum into the election itself. </p>
<p>This was Australia’s first television-friendly, focus-group driven, thoroughly modern campaign. Its impact on political campaigning in this country <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-22/its-time-gough-whitlam-1972-campaign/5831996">was profound</a>. </p>
<p>Behind the glitz of the theme song and the over 200 policies enunciated in the policy speech, a raft of celebrities and leading figures from the arts – authors, artists, actors, musicians – played a major role. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/few-restrictions-no-spending-limit-and-almost-no-oversight-welcome-to-political-advertising-in-australia-181248">Few restrictions, no spending limit, and almost no oversight: welcome to political advertising in Australia</a>
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<h2>Not just political star power</h2>
<p>The presence of well-known identities at the launch in Blacktown Civic Centre lent an air of celebration – of celebrity and even glamour – to the dour set pieces that owed more to the old-fashioned stump speeches of decades earlier, still used by the outgoing Prime Minister Billy McMahon.</p>
<p>Led by soul singer Alison MacCallum, household names like singers and musicians Patricia Amphlett “Little Pattie”, Col Joye, Bobby Limb, Jimmy Hannan, actors Lynette Curran from the popular ABC series Bellbird, Terry Norris and Chuck Faulkner generated an immense reach for It’s Time both as a song and as a political moment. </p>
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<p>Patricia Amphlett <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/timely-campaign-signalled-start-of-whitlams-cultural-sea-change-20121111-296bi.html">recalls</a>: </p>
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<p>The ‘It’s Time’ commercial was far more effective than anyone could have imagined. Long before Live Aid, it came as a shock to some people that popular personalities would stand up publicly and be counted for a cause.</p>
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<p>They were not simply there for added political star power. They were there because the arts had been neglected and constrained by decades of unimaginative conservative government – and they shared a mood for change. </p>
<h2>‘Intellectual and creative vigour’</h2>
<p>Whitlam harnessed the deep sense of frustration of the arts community after years of “<a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/timely-campaign-signalled-start-of-whitlams-cultural-sea-change-20121111-296bi.html">stifling conservatism</a>” in arts policy settings. Direct political intervention in literary grants also had a stultifying effect on cultural production.</p>
<p>The author Frank Hardy’s successful application for a Commonwealth Literary Fund fellowship in 1968 <a href="https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-674387366/view?sectionId=nla.obj-691244162&partId=nla.obj-674555695#page/n14/mode/1up">had been vetoed</a> by the Gorton coalition government because Hardy was a member of the Communist Party. </p>
<p>Whitlam was a member of the committee that had awarded Hardy the fellowship and it drove his determination to ensure arts bodies operated as autonomous decision-makers.</p>
<p>He brought arts policy to the fore both in the development of his reform agenda and during the election campaign.</p>
<p>He drew <a href="https://west-sydney-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=ROSETTAIE3079&context=L&vid=UWS-WHITLAM&lang=en_US&search_scope=whitlam_scope&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=whitlam_tab&query=title,contains,labor%20and%20literature,AND&mode=advanced&offset=0">a direct link</a> between a healthy cultural sector, national identity and a flourishing political sphere:</p>
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<p>the relation between politics and culture is clear and real. Political vigour has invariably produced intellectual and creative vigour.</p>
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<h2>‘Refresh, reinvigorate and liberate’</h2>
<p>The rapid elevation of cultural policy as a major area for change soon after Whitlam came to office on December 5 1972 gave voice to his <a href="https://west-sydney-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=ROSETTAIE3079&context=L&vid=UWS-WHITLAM&lang=en_US&search_scope=whitlam_scope&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=whitlam_tab&query=title,contains,labor%20and%20literature,AND&mode=advanced&offset=0">pre-election commitment</a> to the arts community “to refresh, reinvigorate and liberate Australian intellectual and cultural life”.</p>
<p>Just six days later, in the ninth of the 40 decisions made by the first Whitlam <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Whitlam_ministry">“duumvirate” ministry</a>, the government announced major increases in grants for the arts in every state and the ACT and forecast a major restructure of existing arts organisations.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463221/original/file-20220516-12-9vwtpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Lance Barnard and Gough Whitlam" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463221/original/file-20220516-12-9vwtpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463221/original/file-20220516-12-9vwtpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463221/original/file-20220516-12-9vwtpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463221/original/file-20220516-12-9vwtpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463221/original/file-20220516-12-9vwtpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463221/original/file-20220516-12-9vwtpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463221/original/file-20220516-12-9vwtpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The first Whitlam Ministry was made up of just Lance Barnard and Gough Whitlam.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Archives of Australia via Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>On January 26 1973, Whitlam announced the establishment of the interim Australian Council of the Arts. A range of autonomous craft-specific boards would sit under it – Aboriginal arts, theatre, music, literary, visual and plastic arts, crafts, film and television – with the renowned arts administrator <a href="https://www.nfsa.gov.au/collection/curated/australian-biography-hc-nugget-coombs">H.C. Coombes</a> as its inaugural head. </p>
<p>After years of delay, a newly appointed interim council for the National Gallery began work in 1973 on the new gallery, with James Mollison as interim director.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/james-mollison-the-public-art-teacher-who-brought-the-blue-poles-to-australia-130285">James Mollison: the public art teacher who brought the Blue Poles to Australia</a>
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<p>This was just the beginning of “<a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/timely-campaign-signalled-start-of-whitlams-cultural-sea-change-20121111-296bi.html">a cultural sea change</a>” in the arts.</p>
<p>There would be reforms in radio with Double J, later Triple J, and the first “ethnic” broadcasting in Australia through 2EA and 3EA. </p>
<p>The film industry was rebooted through the establishment of the Australian Film Commission, the Australian Film & Television School and Film Australia, and an increase in the quota for Australian made television and films. </p>
<p>The Public Lending Rights scheme was introduced to compensate authors for the circulation of their works through libraries. </p>
<p>Kim Williams <a href="https://www.whitlam.org/publications/2019/11/13/whitlam-the-arts-and-democracy">describes</a> the “innovative thinking” behind the close involvement of arts practitioners in policy development and administration as: </p>
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<p>a new ground plane for empowered decision making by artists in a profoundly democratic action for the arts. </p>
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<h2>A new choice</h2>
<p>At a time of relentless funding reductions, cost-cutting and job losses, renewal and revival is desperately needed across our most important cultural institutions. </p>
<p>The dire effects of this decade of neglect can be seen most starkly in the 25% staff cuts and under-resourcing of the National Archives of Australia which, as the highly critical <a href="https://www.ag.gov.au/rights-and-protections/publications/tune-review">Tune review</a> made clear, has led to the disintegration of irreplaceable archival material including recordings of endangered Indigenous languages. The 2022 budget <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-arts-and-culture-appear-to-be-the-big-losers-in-this-budget-180127">only continued</a> those reductions.</p>
<p>We are again at a time when renewal and reinvigoration of the arts is urgently needed – yet it has scarcely featured thus far in this campaign. </p>
<p>The Liberal Party’s <a href="https://www.liberal.org.au/our-policies">policy statements</a> do not feature the arts. In contrast, <a href="https://themusic.com.au/news/labor-2022-election-arts-policy-announcement/YT15dXR3dnk/16-05-22">Labor’s Arts policy</a>, announced last night, promises a “landmark cultural policy” which would restore arms-length funding, explore a national insurance scheme for live events and ensure fixed <a href="https://www.alp.org.au/policies/better-funded-abc">five-year funding terms</a> for the ABC and SBS. </p>
<p>There is a choice for the arts on 21 May between stasis and renewal. I’ll take the renewal, and hope it becomes a renaissance.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-arts-and-culture-appear-to-be-the-big-losers-in-this-budget-180127">Why arts and culture appear to be the big losers in this budget</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181243/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jenny Hocking receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>Cultural policy has scarcely featured in the 2022 campaign – when Whitlam campaigned in 1972, the arts were centre stage.Jenny Hocking, Emeritus Professor, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1821282022-05-02T02:32:29Z2022-05-02T02:32:29ZAustralia should have a universal basic income for artists. Here’s what that could look like<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460678/original/file-20220502-18-ij3dwl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C8%2C5949%2C3963&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> Frankie Cordoba/Unsplash</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>While artists struggle to get noticed in the Australian political arena, particularly in the lead up to an election, other nations take their artists more seriously – even seeing them as critical to a successful and vibrant community.</p>
<p>When I talked to artists during the pandemic, it became evident they needed <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/24/13561">four conditions</a> in place to be able to practice successfully as artists: a regular income, a place to do their work, capacity to do their work and validation of their work. </p>
<p>Without these conditions, productivity and mental health suffer. </p>
<p>The Republic of Ireland has recently instituted <a href="https://mymodernmet.com/ireland-basic-income-program/">a new scheme</a> to provide three-year support for up to 2,000 individual artists, piloting a form of universal basic income. </p>
<p>Artists will be expected to meet at least two out of three qualifying terms to apply for the scheme: have earned an income from the arts, have an existing body of work and/or be members of a recognised arts body, such as a trade union. </p>
<p>Successful artists and creative workers will be given a weekly income of €325 (A$479), and be able to earn additional money without this basic income being affected.</p>
<p>The Irish Minister for the Arts Catherine Martin hopes this first model <a href="https://www.thesun.ie/news/8609980/basic-income-support-scheme-artists-ireland-catherine-martin/">can be broadened</a> to include all practising Irish artists in the future. </p>
<p>She sees it as a simple and economic method to protect artists from precarious existences while benefiting the community as whole.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/could-the-idea-of-a-universal-basic-income-work-in-australia-59811">Could the idea of a universal basic income work in Australia?</a>
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<h2>International support for artists</h2>
<p>The Irish scheme for a universal basic income for artists isn’t the only model.</p>
<p>In the US, several states and private foundations have developed schemes to provide direct support to artists as an outcome of the pandemic. </p>
<p>In May 2021, the City of New York paid <a href="https://www1.nyc.gov/site/dcla/cultural-funding/cityartistcorp.page">3,000 artists</a> no-strings-attached grants of US$5,000 (A$7,080). Additional grants were provided for public art works, exhibitions, workshops and showcase events.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460679/original/file-20220502-14-nnhrbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man paints" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460679/original/file-20220502-14-nnhrbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460679/original/file-20220502-14-nnhrbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=898&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460679/original/file-20220502-14-nnhrbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=898&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460679/original/file-20220502-14-nnhrbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=898&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460679/original/file-20220502-14-nnhrbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1128&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460679/original/file-20220502-14-nnhrbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1128&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460679/original/file-20220502-14-nnhrbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1128&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The City of New York gave artists no-strings-attached grants: giving them time to create work.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Flow Clark/Unsplash</span></span>
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<p>In June 2021, the philanthropic Mellon Foundation announced a new program called <a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/mellon-foundation-creatives-rebuild-new-york-1976068">Creatives Rebuild New York</a> to provide 2,400 New York artists with a guaranteed monthly income of US$1,000 (A$1,415) for 18 months.</p>
<p>The program employed another 300 artists and creative workers on an annual salary of US$65,000 (A$92,000) to work in collaboration with community organisations and local authorities for two years. They will <a href="https://www.creativesrebuildny.org/">also receive</a> other benefits and dedicated time to work on their artistic practice. Both these programs were designed by artists. </p>
<p>The city of San Francisco provided US$1,000 per month for 130 local artists for six months from mid-2021. Thanks to philanthropic support from Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, the <a href="https://sfist.com/2021/05/24/guaranteed-income-program-for-sf-artists-gets-expanded-thanks-to-3-5m-gift-from-twitter-square-ceo-jack-dorsey/">scheme expanded</a> to support 180 artists for 18 months.</p>
<p>The city of St Paul in Minnesota, with a population of just over 300,000, has <a href="https://www.twincities.com/2021/04/05/st-paul-springboard-for-the-arts-launches-program-to-grant-500-a-month-to-frogtown-and-rondo-artists/">initiated a program</a> to give 25 artists a guaranteed unrestricted income of US$500 (A$708) per month for a period of 18 months.</p>
<p>Closer to home, the House of the Arts (HOTA) on the Gold Coast recognised the economic dilemma of local artists during the pandemic.</p>
<p>In 2021, they <a href="https://www.artshub.com.au/news/news/artkeeper-program-puts-artists-on-payroll-2515622">employed four artists</a> to work three days a week for six months on their own creative projects at HOTA. They were given a regular salary, a studio to work in, and were invited to participate in the organisational planning of HOTA.</p>
<h2>Could we recreate this in Australia?</h2>
<p>In Australia, some artists were eligible for schemes like JobKeeper and JobSeeker during 2020 and into early 2021, which could provide a model for how to support artists with a basic income going forward. </p>
<p>But in 2020-21 the Australia Council only funded <a href="https://www.transparency.gov.au/annual-reports/australia-council/reporting-year/2020-21">584 individual artists</a>, a drop of nearly 50% <a href="https://australiacouncil.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/australia_council_annual_report_2012-13.pdf">since 2012-13</a>.</p>
<p>Ireland’s three-year pilot program for artists will cost the government around €25 million (A$37 million). With a population about a fifth of Australia’s, a similar scheme applied here using the same ratio could provide funding to 10,000 individual artists at a cost of A$185 million over three years. </p>
<p>This would be a drop in the ocean for the <a href="https://theconversation.com/budget-2022-frydenberg-has-spent-big-but-on-the-whole-responsibly-180122">Australian federal budget</a>, but it could be a game changer for the community, the arts and artists. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-arts-and-culture-appear-to-be-the-big-losers-in-this-budget-180127">Why arts and culture appear to be the big losers in this budget</a>
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<p>A universal basic income provides a regular amount of money that allows the individual to live above the breadline. It can transform an individual’s life while having a <a href="https://julkaisut.valtioneuvosto.fi/handle/10024/161361">positive impact</a> on the whole of society. </p>
<p>Schemes that provide an ongoing income to individual artists – such as royalty schemes, lending rights and long-term leasing of artwork by government bodies and corporations – are all important, but the amounts received from them for the majority of artists are usually quite limited. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460683/original/file-20220502-56362-jn73md.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman dancing" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460683/original/file-20220502-56362-jn73md.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460683/original/file-20220502-56362-jn73md.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460683/original/file-20220502-56362-jn73md.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460683/original/file-20220502-56362-jn73md.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460683/original/file-20220502-56362-jn73md.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460683/original/file-20220502-56362-jn73md.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460683/original/file-20220502-56362-jn73md.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">An Australian model could support 10,000 artists at a cost of $185 million over three years.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Carolin Thiergart/Unsplash</span></span>
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<p>Just imagine if every Australian arts centre, library, school, university, hospital, local council and government department employed an artist in residence. The artist gets an income while the institution gets an extraordinary input of ideas and imagination that can transform their environment. </p>
<p>We need to stop patronising our artists by giving them tiny grants and making them go through endless hoops and form filling to gratefully receive them. </p>
<p>Artists are essential to our community. It is time to demonstrate – like Ireland and New York – the success of our artists reflects our healthy and vibrant nation, and pay them accordingly.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/182128/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jo Caust has previously received from the Australia Council. She is a member of NAVA and the Arts Industry Council (SA).</span></em></p>A new scheme in the Republic of Ireland provides a compelling model for supporting Australian artists.Jo Caust, Associate Professor and Principal Fellow (Hon), School of Culture and Communication, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1801272022-03-31T02:56:08Z2022-03-31T02:56:08ZWhy arts and culture appear to be the big losers in this budget<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455164/original/file-20220330-13-1yp44l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5129%2C3453&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jean Wimmerlin on Unsplash</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>While one more <a href="https://minister.infrastructure.gov.au/fletcher/media-release/rise-comes-back-20-million-encore">A$20 million round</a> of the Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) Fund was announced as part of the 2022-23 budget to support reactivating the arts and entertainment sector post-Covid-19 lockdowns, this scheme is coming to an end. </p>
<p>With funding cuts forecast out to as far as 2025-26, the arts and culture appear to be big losers in this budget. </p>
<p>In addition to the $20.0 million in 2022-23 to phase down the RISE Fund, <a href="https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/2022-23_infra_pbs_00_itrdc.pdf">the budget includes</a>:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>$9.3 million over two years for the National Museum of Australia to support its services impacted by COVID 19</p></li>
<li><p>$9 million in 2021-22 for a second round of the Supporting Cinemas’ Retention Endurance and Enhancement of Neighbourhoods (SCREEN) Fund to support independent cinemas affected by COVID 19</p></li>
<li><p>an extension of the <a href="https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/funding-and-support/covid-19-support/temporary-interruption-fund">Temporary Interruption Fund</a>, which provides insurance to screen projects shut down due to COVID-related issues, for a further six months to 30 June 2022, and</p></li>
<li><p>$316.5 million over five years to build an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander <a href="https://www.niaa.gov.au/news-centre/indigenous-affairs/ngurra-national-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-cultural-precinct">cultural precinct, Ngurra</a>, on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin in the Parliamentary Triangle, on Ngunnawal country (Canberra).</p></li>
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<p>With the loss of COVID stimulus measures, the big losers under arts and culture in the budget are: </p>
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<li><p>the end of the RISE fund, represented in the cut to “arts and cultural development”, receiving $2.4 million in 2023-24, down from $159 million in 2021-22 </p></li>
<li><p>the loss of $6.4 million in contemporary music related COVID measures, and</p></li>
<li><p>Screen Australia: its funding will be reduced from a high of $39.5 million in 2021-22 to $11.6 million in 2023-24, reducing funding to <a href="https://twitter.com/ScreenAustralia/status/1509026946579337220">the pre-COVID baseline</a>. </p></li>
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<p>The decline in arts funding fits Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s big picture narrative that the time for “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/mar/17/josh-frydenberg-announces-targeted-cost-of-living-measures-ahead-of-federal-budget">crisis level</a>” spending is now over, and the budget forecasts such as those for arts and culture only “appear” to be bleak due to the tapering down from the crisis level funding. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455112/original/file-20220329-19-1hbib9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455112/original/file-20220329-19-1hbib9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455112/original/file-20220329-19-1hbib9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455112/original/file-20220329-19-1hbib9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455112/original/file-20220329-19-1hbib9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455112/original/file-20220329-19-1hbib9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455112/original/file-20220329-19-1hbib9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455112/original/file-20220329-19-1hbib9g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Portfolio Budget Statements 2022–23 Budget Related Paper No. 1.10</span></span>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-cost-of-living-budget-cuts-spends-and-everything-you-need-to-know-at-a-glance-180124">A cost-of-living budget: cuts, spends, and everything you need to know at a glance</a>
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<h2>The end of RISE funding</h2>
<p>The government’s biggest arts and culture investment during the pandemic was the RISE fund, which saw <a href="https://minister.infrastructure.gov.au/mckenzie/media-release/connecting-communities-stronger-future">$200 million</a> go towards 541 projects.</p>
<p>The RISE fund represented a move away from the “arms-length” independent funding decisions made by the Australia Council <a href="https://australiacouncil.gov.au/investment-and-development/peer-assessment/">peer assessors</a>. Instead, the arts minister had the ultimate authority regarding RISE. </p>
<p>This aspect of RISE was reminiscent of George Brandis’ 2015 <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-brandis-plans-to-insulate-the-arts-sector-from-the-artists-42305">shock annexation</a> of Australia Council funding to the then National Programme for Excellence in the Arts (which then became Catalyst). But the baseline Australia Council funding has remained steady in this year’s budget, rising only in line with inflation.</p>
<p>While RISE was a short-term crisis level funding initiative using the arts as an instrument to stimulate the economy, support for the Australia Council in the budget is for the support of “excellent art” for “audiences in Australia and abroad”. </p>
<p>The difference in these programs meant RISE funding went not only to not-for-profit arts organisations and individual artists, as the Australia Council primarily supports, but <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2020/nov/23/victorias-performing-arts-win-20m-funding-as-melbourne-readies-for-re-opening">also</a> to commercial creative activity.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/latest-arts-windfalls-show-money-isnt-enough-we-need-transparency-154725">Latest arts windfalls show money isn't enough. We need transparency</a>
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<h2>A loss of over-all funding</h2>
<p>According to the government, the expected decrease in overall cultural funding from 2021-22 to 2022-23 is predominantly driven by the loss of temporary arts funding for economic stimulus. </p>
<p>Expenses under the arts and cultural heritage are estimated to decrease by 10.6% in real terms from 2021-22 to 2022-23, and decrease by 13.1% in real terms from 2022-23 to 2025-26. </p>
<p>It is not clear why this scaling down of crisis level funding appears to be uneven. </p>
<p>In particular, many of Australia’s cultural institutions – who are already <a href="https://theconversation.com/historic-collections-could-be-lost-to-digital-dinosaurs-31524">under pressure</a> when it comes to preserving cultural heritage – are facing significant cuts.</p>
<p>The National Museum of Australia is projected to receive $51 million in 2023-24, losing its $9.3 million in COVID support. The National Gallery of Australia’s funding will drop from $49.6 million in 2021-22 to $45.7 million in 2022-23. Funding for the National Library Australia will fall from $61 million in 2022-23 to $47.1 million in the following year. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/staff-cuts-will-hurt-the-national-gallery-of-australia-but-its-not-spending-less-on-art-its-just-spending-it-differently-141314">Staff cuts will hurt the National Gallery of Australia, but it’s not spending less on art. It’s just spending it differently</a>
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<h2>A commercially driven future?</h2>
<p>Over the last two years, the arts were valued by the federal government to the extent that they were able to be used to stimulate the economy. </p>
<p>The assumption appears to be that, now that the creative and cultural industries have received a $200 million shot in the arm, they will now be able to stand back up and walk on their own two feet – and help those businesses around them do likewise. </p>
<p>It doesn’t appear the RISE Fund, and its ultimate decision making power by the minister, is a template for the future of arts funding in any literal sense because it is due to disappear. </p>
<p>But it may have changed the culture of arts funding in this country, explicitly focusing funding on cultural activities and initiatives informed by an overtly commercial mindset. </p>
<p>With many artists and organisations still struggling in this “COVID normal” landscape, this budgetary pendulum swing away from funding artistic projects and events paints a bleak picture.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180127/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Guy Morrow consults to Science Gallery International and the Association of Artist Managers in Australia. He receives funding from organisations for contract research projects. </span></em></p>With the tapering down of COVID stimulus measures, many of Australia’s cultural institutions are facing cuts – but Australia Council funding remains steady.Guy Morrow, Senior Lecturer in Arts & Cultural Management, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1800262022-03-27T23:20:46Z2022-03-27T23:20:46ZIt is time for Australia to establish a national Ministry for Culture<p>The pandemic has been a wake-up call. Now, more than ever, the arts are a part of our daily lives. They are not something only “the elite” enjoy; they are an expression of the human condition. </p>
<p>As part of an interconnected system of collective well-being, it is vital to ensure arts practices continue across our entire community, and that everyone has access to them. </p>
<p>The arts reflect our whole culture, and our cultures are what make us who we are. When our culture is at the heart of our collective life, appropriate funding and support will naturally follow.</p>
<p>To move away from reductive concepts we need to think about what we understand by “the arts” and what they mean to us. What do we understand by “culture” and how does it manifest in our lives? </p>
<p>If we start by asking these questions, we can make more sense of the debate and find a way forward that works in our own unique cultural, social and political context.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-year-everything-got-cancelled-how-the-arts-in-australia-suffered-but-survived-in-2020-152180">The year everything got cancelled: how the arts in Australia suffered (but survived) in 2020</a>
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<p>There is abundant evidence to show the government’s financial support for the arts and culture has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/federal-arts-funding-in-australia-is-falling-and-local-governments-are-picking-up-the-slack-124160">significantly reduced</a> over many years. Today the arts don’t even <a href="https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/departments-slashed-but-even-more-public-service-changes-coming-20191205-p53h7v">rate a mention</a> in the title of the government department responsible for them.</p>
<p>Even worse, grants have been <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-25/nsw-ministers-accused-of-favouritism-in-arts-spending/12271392">routinely awarded</a> to communities in marginal electorates for party political purposes. Yet we know the arts are a public good and Australia is a wealthy country that can afford to provide adequate funding for them. So what needs to change?</p>
<p>For the past 20 years arts advocates have asked for a national cultural policy or a national arts plan. This has been reinforced by recommendations from two <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/House_of_Representatives/About_the_House_News/Media_Releases/State_of_the_arts_in_2020_and_beyond">parliamentary</a> <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Legal_and_Constitutional_Affairs/Arts_Funding">committees</a> within the past seven years. </p>
<p>Yet, aside from Labor’s short-lived <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/FlagPost/2013/April/Creative_Australia__National_Cultural_Policy_2013">Creative Australia</a> in 2013, there has been no attempt <a href="https://theconversation.com/paul-keatings-creative-nation-a-policy-document-that-changed-us-33537">since 1994</a> to address the needs of the sector or create a comprehensive plan for the future at a national level.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/paul-keatings-creative-nation-a-policy-document-that-changed-us-33537">Paul Keating’s Creative Nation: a policy document that changed us</a>
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<p>Relying on the political goodwill of governments to bring about change does not seem to be effective. Policy developed by one side of politics can be quickly undone when the opposition comes to power, and little bipartisan progress is made.</p>
<h2>Establishing an Australian Ministry for Culture</h2>
<p>Many countries resolve this problem with a Ministry for Culture. </p>
<p>An Australian Ministry of Culture might include the arts, First Nations arts and heritage, public broadcasting, film and cultural heritage in its ambit. All these areas are interconnected through their association with “culture”. Placing them together in an integrated and central location would help bring “culture” into the political mainstream.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454314/original/file-20220325-29-9hhwg0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A hiker views an australian Indigenous art in a cave" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454314/original/file-20220325-29-9hhwg0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454314/original/file-20220325-29-9hhwg0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454314/original/file-20220325-29-9hhwg0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454314/original/file-20220325-29-9hhwg0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454314/original/file-20220325-29-9hhwg0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454314/original/file-20220325-29-9hhwg0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454314/original/file-20220325-29-9hhwg0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An Australian Ministry of Culture might include the arts, First Nations arts and heritage, public broadcasting, film and cultural heritage.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While there might be concerns a Ministry of Culture could extend government control over arts practice, this could be prevented by use of the arm’s length principle of funding and peer review. Political intervention in grant decisions is in no one’s interest and reduces the credibility of the government and the minister concerned. </p>
<p>As part of a national cultural heritage framework, all major cultural organisations could then be funded directly by the government from within this department.</p>
<p>The list would include our major galleries, libraries, museums, archives and other national entities that are already direct-line funded, such as Screen Australia and the Australia Council. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454312/original/file-20220325-17-1mujmr2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4928%2C3253&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An art gallery filled with red poppies" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454312/original/file-20220325-17-1mujmr2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4928%2C3253&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454312/original/file-20220325-17-1mujmr2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454312/original/file-20220325-17-1mujmr2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454312/original/file-20220325-17-1mujmr2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454312/original/file-20220325-17-1mujmr2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454312/original/file-20220325-17-1mujmr2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454312/original/file-20220325-17-1mujmr2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The ministry would include all our major art galleries.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It could also include the major performing arts organisations, as they also represent aspects of our cultural heritage. That is, the state orchestras, the national opera company and perhaps a national theatre company. </p>
<p>Having a ministry that took responsibility for everything within the ambit of culture would ensure national protocols were put in place to protect the national interest against the commercial interests of private enterprise. </p>
<p>All public broadcasting would be part of this ministry to prevent private market forces from dominating the discourse. Entities such as the ABC, SBS and NITV enjoy public trust and are critical to the national public debate, freedom of expression and the right of citizens to hold politicians and their governments to account. </p>
<p>They have also played a significant role in presenting Australian stories and commissioning work from Australian writers, filmmakers and performers. </p>
<p>SBS has challenged the homogeneous norms of Australian culture and ethnicity and ensured the inclusion of a range of voices in the public space. NITV has provided a voice for our First Nations people and raised awareness and understanding of the culture within the wider population.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cTT76MSoO-o?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Middle-size and smaller arts organisations and individual artists would continue to be funded by the Australia Council; and film would continue to be funded through Screen Australia. </p>
<p>It might also be helpful to establish a new statutory authority, similar to the Australian Foundation for Culture and Humanities that was lost in a change of government <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/binaries/library/pubs/bn/2008-09/artspolicy.pdf">23 years ago</a>. This entity could address the gap between community cultural heritage, local history and community arts, and ensure grants were awarded at arm’s length from political interests.</p>
<p>Obviously, the new entity would not be a cure-all, but it would allow the development of a critical mass of shared interests and knowledge that would benefit the country. </p>
<h2>A wealthy country</h2>
<p>A plan for future development of the arts and culture is also essential. A plan would allow goals to be set and ensure the decisions of government were proactive rather than reactive. </p>
<p>The pandemic experience has demonstrated that if we don’t develop clear policies, then sectors that are excluded from the political framework, such as the arts, could be sent to the wall. </p>
<p>Australia needs to mature as a nation by taking its arts and culture seriously, and a Ministry of Culture would provide a central platform for the nation’s identity.</p>
<p>We must all take responsibility for caring for our country and our culture. This means placing the arts at the centre of our thinking. We can do this – and we need to do this – to ensure our nation has a positive and creative future. </p>
<p>We are a wealthy country both materially and culturally. We need to acknowledge this and then act upon it, to ensure all future generations can enjoy their culture and practise their arts. </p>
<p>As our First Nations’ people have told us, arts, culture and country are all one.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This is an edited extract of New Platform Paper 2: Arts, Culture and Country, republished with permission from Currency House. The full paper is now available for free on <a href="http://www.currrencyhouse.org.au">www.currrencyhouse.org.au</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180026/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jo Caust has previously received from the Australia Council.
She is a member of NAVA and the Arts Industry Council (SA).</span></em></p>The pandemic has been a wake-up call: we need to properly acknowledge and support Australia’s cultural wealth.Jo Caust, Associate Professor and Principal Fellow (Hon), School of Culture and Communication, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1774432022-02-21T05:30:48Z2022-02-21T05:30:48ZNo, the federal government didn’t spend $4 billion on COVID support for culture and the arts<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447429/original/file-20220221-18-1lgyv2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C0%2C3788%2C2776&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Canberra thinktank <a href="https://newapproach.org.au/">A New Approach</a> put out an interesting paper last week on the state of public funding for Australian arts and culture. </p>
<p>The report made some bold statements about the level of support given to the arts and culture during the pandemic. </p>
<p>Most notably, A New Approach claims “arts and culture organisations and businesses accessed <a href="https://newapproach.org.au/insight-reports/the-big-picture-2/">more than $4 billion of COVID support</a> in the last four months of the 2019–20 financial year.”</p>
<p>The big number would have surprised many in the cultural sector who struggled through the pandemic with little or no government support. </p>
<p>Sure enough, the figure was picked up in an article for the Nine newspapers, which led with the headline “<a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/art-and-design/billions-in-crisis-payments-paid-to-the-arts-new-report-shows-20220215-p59wpx.html">Billions in crisis payments paid to the arts</a>”. </p>
<p>With prominent contemporary music venues in both Sydney and Melbourne <a href="https://www.broadsheet.com.au/sydney/food-and-drink/article/legendary-sydney-pub-lansdowne-closing">announcing their closure last week</a>, you could be forgiven for asking where all those billions went. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-john-curtin-hotel-is-a-home-for-melbournes-musicians-activists-and-unionists-shutting-it-down-is-a-loss-for-our-cultural-heritage-177313">The John Curtin Hotel is a home for Melbourne's musicians, activists and unionists. Shutting it down is a loss for our cultural heritage</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Unfortunately for the cultural sector, if you drill down into the statistics the $4 billion number is indeed too good to be true. A New Approach has misinterpreted some fuzzy data from the federal government, dramatically over-estimating the amount of support given to Australian culture in 2020. </p>
<h2>Measuring the “creative sector”</h2>
<p>A New Approach’s figures come from the federal government, specifically a set of reports from the <a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/cultural-data-online/government-cultural-funding-and-participation/cultural-funding-and-participation-national-overview">Meeting of Cultural Ministers</a> on funding and participation by the Commonwealth and state and territory governments. </p>
<p>If you check the <a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/documents/cultural-funding-government-2019-20-australian-government">report for the Commonwealth for 2019–20</a>, there is indeed a statement on COVID support. The report says the federal government “spent $4,272 million in COVID support funding for eligible organisations, businesses, and individuals in creative and cultural industries”. </p>
<p>This figure was made up of: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>$3,065.3 million in JobKeeper</p></li>
<li><p>$1,168.4 million from Boosting Cash Flow for Employers, and</p></li>
<li><p>$38.4 million in arts portfolio grants.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Even so, $4 billion of federal stimulus in just four months seems like an awful lot. Was there really this much money sloshing around the sector? </p>
<p>As always when it comes to statistics, the answer comes down to how you define “the sector”. The reason the JobKeeper figure looks so big is the federal government’s definition for the cultural and creative industries is very broad. </p>
<p>Drawing on an Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) <a href="https://www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/ausstats/subscriber.nsf/0/EFFE2547EC51F5AACA257C78000C1B53/$File/52710_2008-09.pdf">definition of the cultural and creative sector from 2008–09</a>, this definition includes not just the core arts and cultural activities, but vast swathes of the rest of the economy as well. </p>
<p>Industries in the dragnet include significant parts of the manufacturing and retail sectors, such as clothing, footwear and jewellery manufacturing and retail; software publishing and computer system design; zoos and parks; advertising; and architecture.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447461/original/file-20220221-17-80qzpg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Queen Victoria Building, Sydney" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447461/original/file-20220221-17-80qzpg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447461/original/file-20220221-17-80qzpg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447461/original/file-20220221-17-80qzpg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447461/original/file-20220221-17-80qzpg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447461/original/file-20220221-17-80qzpg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447461/original/file-20220221-17-80qzpg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447461/original/file-20220221-17-80qzpg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Large parts of the clothing retail industry are also included in figures about Australia’s ‘creative sector’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Digby Cheung/Unsplash</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This same expansive approach was adopted by the government’s Bureau of Communications and Arts Research in 2018 to give a total figure for the size of the cultural and creative sector of <a href="https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/department/media/publications/visual-summary-cultural-and-creative-activity-australia-2009-10-2018-19">$111.7 billion in 2016-17</a>. But again, the devil is in the detail. </p>
<p>Of this $111.7 billion, the single biggest component was the technology-rich design industry, valued at roughly $43 billion. Fashion was second, valued at around $14 billion. Compare that to the performing arts, with a gross value add in 2016-17 of just $1.7 billion. </p>
<p>The reasons for including these sectors go back to <a href="https://wakeinalarm.blog/2020/06/20/art-as-industry/">old debates about the size and shape of the “creative” sector</a>. When the stats were being drawn up, there was an earnest attempt by the ABS to capture associated activity that fed into creative supply chains. </p>
<p>But the arts ministry doesn’t break their JobKeeper figures down by industry, and so we don’t actually know how much funding went to core arts and cultural sectors like the performing arts, galleries and museums, or independent artists and creators. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-a-world-of-pain-australian-theatre-in-crisis-168663">Friday essay: a world of pain – Australian theatre in crisis</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Exaggerated figures</h2>
<p>In reality, it is likely the majority of this money did not flow to closed music venues or shuttered theatres. The inclusion of the entire clothing and footwear sector in these figures is a big hint as to where the bulk of the stimulus was likely spent. </p>
<p>As we know from their annual reports, big retail outlets collectively <a href="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7542184/latest-asic-data-reveals-the-amount-of-jobkeeper-taken-by-public-companies/?cs=14264">banked billions in JobKeeper support</a> during the pandemic (even though <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-21/jobkeeper-subsidy-turnover-small-business-covid-pandemic-pbo/100477492">some of them still made profits</a>). </p>
<p>JobKeeper was great for workers at businesses like Best & Less and Just Jeans. But this funding was not actually support for culture or artists and including these sectors in the data shows how misleading the $4 billion figure is. </p>
<p>By highlighting an exaggerated figure for cultural stimulus, A New Approach’s report glosses over some very real problems in the federal response to the pandemic crisis. </p>
<p>Tens of thousands of artists and cultural workers were ineligible for JobKeeper, because they were <a href="https://www.rmit.edu.au/news/acumen/regular-and-systematic-casual-employment">casual employees with insecure work patterns</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-government-says-artists-should-be-able-to-access-jobkeeper-payments-its-not-that-simple-138530">The government says artists should be able to access JobKeeper payments. It's not that simple</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Other parts of the sector, including art galleries and museums run by local and state governments and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/may/04/australian-universities-angry-at-final-twist-of-the-knife-excluding-them-from-jobkeeper">public universities</a>, were excluded from JobKeeper because of the way the program was designed. </p>
<p>The most recent <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/employment-and-unemployment/labour-force-australia-detailed/latest-release">detailed ABS labour force</a> data shows employment in the arts and culture has not recovered to 2019 levels. </p>
<p>In the three years since it was set up by prominent philanthropists, A New Approach has published a number of thoughtful reports. The organisation describes itself as “<a href="https://newapproach.org.au/about/">Australia’s lading arts and culture think tank</a>” and claims it is “objective” and “led by evidence”. </p>
<p>Given this, it’s disappointing that A New Approach decided to package up exaggerated government data and spin it as cultural funding.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177443/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ben Eltham has peviously received arts funding from the Australia Council for the Arts. He is affiliated with Fund the Arts, a campaign to increase arts funding. </span></em></p>Thinktank A New Approach claims the federal government spent more than $4 billion supporting the arts and culture in 2020 alone. Sadly for the arts, the figure is too good to be true.Ben Eltham, Lecturer, School of Media, Film and Journalism, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.