tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/art-policy-10870/articlesArt policy – The Conversation2020-06-24T06:58:24Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1413142020-06-24T06:58:24Z2020-06-24T06:58:24ZStaff cuts will hurt the National Gallery of Australia, but it’s not spending less on art. It’s just spending it differently<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343636/original/file-20200624-132410-1y4qvr7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5419%2C3042&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Thennicke/Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On September 10 1965, Sir Robert Menzies commissioned the <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22publications%2Ftabledpapers%2FHPP052016000736%22;src1=sm1">National Art Gallery Committee of Inquiry</a> to consider the establishment of a national gallery for Australia.</p>
<p>The resulting <a href="https://nga.gov.au/collection/pdfs/acquisitionsstatementofintent.pdf">Lindsay Report</a>, published in 1966, is an ambitious document, describing an art gallery to serve the nation through the quality and range of its collections and exhibitions. </p>
<p>It emphasised the need to have an all encompassing collection of Australian art. The report recognised, in the second half of the 20th century, it was not possible to acquire a significant collection from European art history and advised a focus on modern art, including from Indigenous Australian artists, south and east Asia, and the Pacific Islands.</p>
<p>James Mollison became the gallery’s first director and began collecting work in 1971, construction began in 1973, and the National Gallery of Australia <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/116475320">finally opened</a> in 1982. The Lindsay Report was most recently reviewed in 2017, and is still the guiding document for the gallery’s foundation and continuing collection policies.</p>
<p>Menzies <a href="https://www.humanities.org.au/2019/06/24/50-years-on-a-golden-moment-for-the-australian-academy-of-the-humanities/">understood</a> a culture that supported the arts and the humanities was essential to Australia’s development. Although his aesthetic taste was conservative, often described as reactionary, he greatly valued the arts. </p>
<p>For many years, his successors showed equal enthusiasm for seeing the National Art Gallery grow into international prominence. </p>
<p>Now, with subsequent efficiency dividends, the gallery is facing a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jun/23/national-gallery-of-australia-to-shed-staff-and-slash-acquisitions-from-3000-to-about-100-a-year">budgetary shortfall</a> and will lose 10% of its staff. The gallery has also recently reduced the number of new acquisitions, leading some to assume a connection to the loss of funding. This is not the case.</p>
<h2>A $6 billion collection</h2>
<p>In the late 1970s, after the prices paid for American and European art became a <a href="https://theconversation.com/blue-poles-45-years-on-asset-or-overvalued-drip-painting-102639">political issue</a>, the Fraser government placed <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/127535017?searchTerm=Braque%20Grand%20Nu%20Fraser%20National%20Gallery&searchLimits=#">restrictions</a> on the price the gallery could pay for international art. Any major purchases would now require permission from parliament. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/blue-poles-45-years-on-asset-or-overvalued-drip-painting-102639">Blue poles 45 years on: asset or overvalued drip painting?</a>
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<p>As the gallery’s acquisition budget was not otherwise constrained, the gallery redirected its purchases to create an encyclopaedic collection of Australian art. Over the years, the collection has matured into a balance between Australian, American, European, Asian and Pacific art, still keeping the bias towards art of the 20th and 21st centuries as proposed by the Lindsay report</p>
<p>The collection now comprises almost 160,000 works of art valued at <a href="https://nga.gov.au/aboutus/reports/nga_ar_18-19.pdf">A$6 billion</a> – a remarkable achievement for a collection that began only fifty years ago. </p>
<p>Over the last decade, the gallery has added an average of 2,134 items to its collection each year, including 863 new purchases.</p>
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<p>In the early years, under James Mollison’s directorship, there was a need to build the collection from a very small base of works that had found their way into the hands of the old Commonwealth Art Advisory Board. </p>
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<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>Collections policy is not governed by numbers of works but by the nature of what is available, and how it relates to other works already in the collection. Once the collection was established, acquisitions could be focused on areas of particular need. Ron Radford expanded the Pacific collection; current director Nick Mitzevich is focused on contemporary art. </p>
<p>The gallery’s significant budget cuts will not impact the acquisitions budget. Gallery director Nick Mitzevich tells The Conversation the $16 million annual spend on buying art will be maintained, and cannot be appropriated for other purposes. </p>
<p>With such a collections base to work from, he says the gallery will focus on the quality, rather than quantity, of works which can be purchased from the same budget: collecting major works, or, as Mitzevich describes, “absolute excellence”.</p>
<p>But while the acquisitions budget is being maintained, other gallery departments are facing serious budget cuts.</p>
<p>With the exception of the Australian War Memorial, which will receive a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jun/16/former-war-memorial-heads-join-call-to-redirect-500m-for-grandiose-expansion-to-veterans">controversial</a> $500 million expansion, Australia’s national cultural organisations have been hit <a href="https://theconversation.com/federal-budget-2014-arts-and-culture-experts-react-26638">exceptionally hard</a> by a succession of conservative governments. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/federal-budget-2014-arts-and-culture-experts-react-26638">Federal budget 2014: arts and culture experts react</a>
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<p>The gallery’s operations budget must comply with the Australian Public Service’s <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/BN/2012-2013/EfficiencyDividend">efficiency dividend</a>. This year, operating revenue is reduced by $1.5 million. To counteract this reduction, the gallery <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jun/23/national-gallery-of-australia-to-shed-staff-and-slash-acquisitions-from-3000-to-about-100-a-year">will cut</a> 10% of its total staff, beginning with voluntary redundancies. </p>
<p>This will inevitably mean a loss of senior staff, some of those with the greatest expertise. </p>
<h2>Shifting worlds</h2>
<p>It has been a difficult year for the gallery. Due to smoke from the bushfires on January 5 and 6, the gallery had to <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/art-and-design/galleries-grapple-with-climate-change-and-unprecedented-closures-20200106-p53p7r.html">close</a> for the safety of its collection, including the major summer blockbuster Picasso and Matisse.</p>
<p>It was the first time the National Gallery of Australia has ever closed for more than one day.</p>
<p>Then, COVID-19 struck. The gallery shut its doors on March 23, not re-opening until June 2. Visitor numbers remain small. Yesterday, only 250 came through the doors. This time last year they were in the thousands.</p>
<p>Mtizevich has yet to calculate the full cost of these dual disasters to the gallery’s revenue. He told The Conversation the act of keeping to budget while keeping faith with the National Gallery’s objectives is “not an easy job, a tightrope”. </p>
<p>He is adamant the collections policy will remain unchanged.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141314/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joanna Mendelssohn has in the past received funding from The Australian Research Council </span></em></p>The National Gallery of Australia is facing a 10% reduction in staffing, but will maintain its $16 million acquisitions budget.Joanna Mendelssohn, Principal Fellow (Hon), Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne. Editor in Chief, Design and Art of Australia Online, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/526862016-01-20T19:21:28Z2016-01-20T19:21:28ZAustralia’s arts community has a big diversity problem – that’s our loss<p>The revelation last week that, for the second year running, every actor nominated for a major acting award in this year’s Oscars is white has prompted <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/oscarssowhite">furious debate</a>. The president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/oscars/oscarssowhite-academy-issues-heartbroken-and-frustrated-mea-culpa-20160119-gm975i.html">promised</a> to take “dramatic steps” in order to bring about “much needed diversity”.</p>
<p>That’s a conversation that Australia needs to have as well. The arts are how we tell stories about ourselves, and inform our sense of <a href="https://theconversation.com/finding-our-identity-arts-policy-and-the-future-48091">who we are as a nation</a>. </p>
<p>Yet the most recent comprehensive survey of <a href="http://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/workspace/uploads/files/research/arts-nation-technical-appendix-56382834062ea.pdf">Australian artists</a> – conducted in 2009 – shows that only 8% of professional artists in Australia are from a non-English speaking background, compared to 16% of the general population. That data comes from 1,030 practising professional artists, selected from the membership lists of a range of arts organisations.</p>
<p>So the arts community is much less diverse than the rest of Australia. If there is one thing that the arts sector should rally around, it is improving its own capacity to embrace cultural diversity, both in its own ranks and in what it projects to the world. </p>
<p>We were commissioned to write a new Australia Council report, <a href="http://australiacouncil.gov.au/research/research-news/promoting-diversity-of-cultural-expression-in-arts-in-australia/">Diversity of Cultural Expressions</a>, published in October 2015, which aims to do just that. </p>
<h2>Dealing with diversity fatigue</h2>
<p>Worldwide, the diversity agenda received a significant boost with the adoption of UNESCO’s <a href="http://en.unesco.org/creativity/">Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions</a> in 2005. </p>
<p>This Convention positions “diversity” as a key theme for cultural policy in the 21st century. Australia became a signatory of the Convention in 2009, but Australia has been trying to engage with diversity for far longer.</p>
<p>Ever since Australia officially became a multicultural nation in the 1980s, there have been attempts to shore up the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-arts-organisations-can-reap-the-benefits-of-cultural-diversity-35914">representation of cultural diversity</a>, including in the arts. </p>
<p>But repeated failures to reach diversity targets have led to “diversity fatigue”. People are tired of hearing about it and it not happening. We need new, more vigorous and pro-active ways of promoting and nurturing diversity from the ground up. </p>
<p>Smaller, less established arts organisations are the <a href="https://theconversation.com/share-dont-scare-we-need-to-nurture-and-learn-from-young-cultural-leaders-48753">indispensable laboratories</a> for new and innovative artistic work, advocates say. What is less often noted, however, is that it is precisely in such smaller organisations that cultural diversity is most creatively explored and expressed. </p>
<p>Over the years, the Australia Council has funded a whole range of small, experimental projects and initiatives, which are the hothouses of a rich, vibrant and diverse national culture. </p>
<h2>Three ways to boost diversity of cultural expressions</h2>
<p>The DICE report examines a number of these projects closely, and shows that they play a hugely important role in three different ways: community, industry and artist-mediation. </p>
<p>Community-based projects aim to support underrepresented minority groups to participate in cultural life, either as artists or as audiences. An example of such a project is the <a href="http://www.multiculturalarts.com.au/visible.shtml">Visible Program</a> developed by Multicultural Arts Victoria, a mentoring program for musicians from refugee and Indigenous communities. The focus here is on enhancing cultural democracy. </p>
<p>Industry-focused initiatives centre on organisational development through advocacy, networking and capacity building. An example of this approach is <a href="http://www.kultour.com.au/">Kultour</a> which, since its beginnings in 2001, has become a national organisation dedicated to touring innovative multicultural art productions across all art-forms. The focus here is on building cultural sustainability. </p>
<p>Last but not least, artist-mediated projects emphasise the creativity of the artist, in generating new work that imaginatively extends the diversity of cultural expressions. A case in point from a few years ago is <a href="http://issuu.com/performancespace/docs/translab_dialogues">TransLab</a>, an initiative of the Australia Council’s Theatre Board, which supported new intercultural performance through extended research and development residencies. The focus here is on fostering cultural innovation. </p>
<p>Of course, cultural democracy, cultural sustainability and cultural innovation are interrelated objectives. They can be achieved by the patient nurturing of creative talent from all sorts of diverse backgrounds to achieve what the arts community calls “excellence”. </p>
<h2>At the heart of the arts</h2>
<p>In today’s interconnected world diversity is no longer a peripheral add-on to an otherwise monocultural centre, but a central dimension of the entire domain of culture and society. If the arts sector has not yet come up to speed with this inescapable 21st-century reality, how can arts policy step in? </p>
<p>To begin with, promoting cultural diversity in the arts should go way beyond “ethnic showcasing” and the narrow area of “multicultural arts” set apart from the cultural mainstream. </p>
<p>Diversity is not a deficit, but absolutely central to exciting and innovative arts. The projects and initiatives documented in our report show that policy does not have to be big to be effective. </p>
<p>Small to medium art companies have an important role to play in this process. </p>
<p>Clarity of purpose and sustained intercultural dialogue through well-targeted programs across the variety of art forms may be more important than large-scale initiatives. Supporting emerging artists can generate ripple effects to show that truly relevant and energetic creative art will come from working across cultures.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/52686/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ien Ang has received funding from the Australia Council to conduct research in the context of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of Diversity of Cultural Expressions. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Phillip Mar has received funding from the Australia Council to conduct research in the context of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of Diversity of Cultural Expressions.</span></em></p>Diversity is a vital part of a thriving art sector, yet only 8% of professional Australian artists come from a non-English speaking background. How can we beat “diversity fatigue”?Ien Ang, Distinguished Professor of Cultural Studies, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney UniversityPhillip Mar, Research Associate in Cultural and Social Research, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/518192015-12-13T19:27:06Z2015-12-13T19:27:06ZWhat 2015 looked like in visual art<p>There are as many ways to summarise a “year in art” as there are eyes to look at art with. </p>
<p>But certainly, in terms of the Australian art market, 2015 seemed to be boom-time. The <a href="http://sydneycontemporary.com.au/">Sydney Contemporary Art Fair</a> in September <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-17/art-fair-success-signals-booming-art-market/6784548">recorded A$14 million in sales</a>, A$4 million up on the first Fair two years earlier. </p>
<p>Art fairs <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-art-market-is-failing-australian-artists-51314">are often like factory outlets</a> for designer fashion labels. Commercial galleries cram into trade fair cubicles in what could just as easily be a home renovation expo. </p>
<p>Yet Sydney Contemporary significantly lifted the game, partly because of the magnificent Carriageworks venue in Redfern, Sydney.</p>
<p>The increased sales were certainly a good indicator for the commercial sector and the mid-to-late career artists it supports – making money is not a bad thing for the visual arts. Artists <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-artists-dilemma-what-constitutes-selling-out-50696">have to eat</a>. </p>
<p>But 2015 was not such a good year for young and emerging Australian artists. </p>
<p>In the 2015 budget, the Abbott Government <a href="https://theconversation.com/philosophy-vs-evidence-is-no-way-to-orchestrate-cultural-policy-42487">cut A$105 million over four years</a> from its arms-length Australia Council funding, redirecting it into the National Program for Excellence in the Arts (NPEA), a <a href="https://theconversation.com/beyond-the-inquiry-some-notes-on-effective-strategy-to-free-the-arts-43386">de facto discretionary fund</a>. </p>
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<span class="caption">Performers protest cuts to the Australia Council budget by creating a musical flash mob outside the Opera House in Sydney in June. .</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP Image/Paul Miller</span></span>
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<p>Importantly, the Australia Council not only funds established artists and arts organisations, but also supports those starting out – the fresh minds and innovators. The cuts effectively diverted funds from the experimental to the safe and proven, removing opportunities for young artists. </p>
<p>Following Turnbull’s coup, which saw Mitch Fifield replace George Brandis as federal arts minister, around a <a href="https://theconversation.com/out-with-the-npea-in-with-catalyst-expert-response-51026">third of the funds will be reinstated</a>. There remains a A$73 million hole. </p>
<p>In visual arts education, from where our future artists emerge, a concerning development in 2015 was the University of Sydney’s announcement to <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/sydney-university-abandons-art-school-at-callan-park-20151124-gl6rus.html">move Sydney College of the Arts</a> out of its Kirkbride campus, where it currently faces “serious financial sustainability issues”. </p>
<p>The College will possibly be absorbed into another faculty or even merge with UNSW Art & Design or the National Art School. As an alumnus of Sydney College of the Arts, along with <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/jane-campion-9236601">Jane Campion</a>, <a href="https://www.awm.gov.au/exhibitions/quilty/bio/">Ben Quilty</a>, <a href="http://www.portrait.gov.au/people/shaun-gladwell-1972">Shaun Gladwell</a>, <a href="http://www.portrait.gov.au/people/fiona-lowry-1974">Fiona Lowry</a> and many others, the decision makes me more than a little sad. </p>
<h2>Venice Biennale</h2>
<p>The theme of art, money and power also resonated internationally through the oldest biennale in the world, the <a href="http://www.labiennale.org/en/Home.html">Venice Biennale</a>, curated by <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-okwui-enwezor-changed-the-art-world-1410187570">Okwui Enwezor</a>. </p>
<p>Critics noted the <a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/56th-venice-biennale-politics-jj-charlesworth-295350">greater political bite</a> of this biennale, attributed to Enwezor’s curatorship, but also that many of the pavilions were funded by artists’ commercial galleries and that their works on exhibition were actually for sale. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">High Fidelity TV meets Isaac Julien.</span></figcaption>
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<p>The tensions were perhaps most evident with the work of British artist <a href="http://www.isaacjulien.com/includes/bio.php">Issac Julien</a>, who directed <a href="http://www.labiennale.org/en/art/exhibition/arena/">Das Kapital Oratorio</a>, a three-day repeated reading of Karl Marx’s epic critique of commodity capitalism, while his film installation <a href="http://www.designboom.com/art/isaac-julien-stones-against-diamonds-rolls-royce-venice-art-biennale-05-16-2015/">Stones Against Diamonds</a> was displayed in the pavilion <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/may/07/das-kapital-at-venice-biennale-okwui-enwezor-karl-marx">sponsored by prestige car manufacturer, Rolls-Royce</a>. </p>
<p>Some critics <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/may/10/venice-biennale-2015-review-56th-sarah-lucas-xu-bing-chiharu-shiota">panned Venice 2015</a> for its “glum trudge” through works with “little visual power, originality, wit or bravado”; but it did possess one real showstopper in the shape of Chiharu Shiota’s stunning The Key in the Hand, in the Japanese pavilion. </p>
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<span class="caption">The Key in the Hand, by Chiharu Shiota.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jean-Pierre Dalbéra</span></span>
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<p>Perhaps the most bizarre event of the 2015 biennale and art fair circuit occurred at the Art Basel Miami Beach. Earlier this month, A 24-year-old woman <a href="http://observer.com/2015/12/woman-stabbed-at-art-basel-miami-in-bizarre-altercation-mistaken-for-performance-art/">stabbed another woman in clear view of bystanders</a> at the Miami Beach Convention Center. Fair-goers casually watched what they thought was a performance work. According to <a href="http://artforum.com/news/id=56559">one witness</a>,</p>
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<p>People didn’t really know what had happened. It was calm and everyone was milling around and talking. </p>
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<p>Perhaps the art world is where real life comes to die. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Shoot, Chris Burden. 1971.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Among notable art-world departures in 2015 were some of the key activist artists of the 20th century. <a href="http://www.britannica.com/biography/Chris-Burden">Chris Burden</a> died aged 69 on May 10. </p>
<p>Burden was a pioneer performance artist best known for the 1971 performance Shoot, in which he was shot in the arm with a .22 calibre rifle as a protest against America’s war in Vietnam. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.britannica.com/biography/Miriam-Schapiro">Miriam Schapiro</a>, described by <a href="http://www.artnews.com/2015/06/23/miriam-schapiro-pioneering-feminist-artist-dies-at-91/">Art News</a> as “a leader of the Feminist Art Movement”, also died, aged 91. </p>
<p>Along with Judy Chicago, Schapiro organised the now-legendary <a href="http://womanhouse.refugia.net/">Womanhouse</a> project that emerged out of <a href="https://calarts.edu/">CalArts</a> in 1972.</p>
<p>The Australian art world also lost some influential female figures in 2015. On March 31, <a href="https://theconversation.com/betty-churchers-death-is-a-loss-for-the-arts-and-for-australia-39571">Betty Churcher</a>, author, curator and director of the National Gallery of Australia for most of the 1990s, died aged 84, and the painter <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-03/acclaimed-portrait-painter-judy-cassab-dies-aged-95/6909614">Judy Cassab</a> died aged 95 on November 3. </p>
<p>Yet, it’s the same long-dead white males whose work commanded indecent figures. In February, a painting by <a href="http://www.paul-gauguin.net/">Paul Gauguin</a>, When Will You Marry? (1892), fetched nearly <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/06/arts/design/gauguin-painting-is-said-to-fetch-nearly-300-million.html">US$300 million at auction</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105352/original/image-20151211-8314-11upcqw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105352/original/image-20151211-8314-11upcqw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105352/original/image-20151211-8314-11upcqw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105352/original/image-20151211-8314-11upcqw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105352/original/image-20151211-8314-11upcqw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105352/original/image-20151211-8314-11upcqw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105352/original/image-20151211-8314-11upcqw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105352/original/image-20151211-8314-11upcqw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A painting by Peter Churcher of his mother Betty Churcher is seen during a memorial service at the National Gallery of Australia in April.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP Image/Lukas Coch</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is one of Gauguin’s many leering paintings of Tahitian girls, who were the main attraction to the South Pacific for the <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/8011066/Is-it-wrong-to-admire-Paul-Gauguins-art.html">notoriously misogynist</a> French colonialist. It is currently the highest price ever paid for a work of art. </p>
<p>There were some shining moments in 2015, when art demonstrated it still has the power to inspire, and maybe even change the world. </p>
<p>Last week <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-35031707">we learned that</a> Britain’s leading contemporary art award, the <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-britain/turner-prize">Turner Prize</a>, was given to an architecture and design collective called Assemble. </p>
<p>Assemble won the Prize for an urban renewal project in Toxteth, a suburb of Liverpool, in England’s historically poorer north. </p>
<p>The project straddles the boundaries of socially-engaged art and urban design, but ultimately was aimed at creating better quality of living in a working class neighbourhood. </p>
<p>A convicted drug trafficker, not generally known as an artist, created some of the most powerful art works of 2015, both politically and emotionally. Myuran Sukumaran was sentenced to death as a ringleader of the “Bali Nine”, a group of young Australians who, in 2005, had attempted to traffic 8.3 kilograms of heroin out of Indonesia. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105349/original/image-20151211-8297-wl4f0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105349/original/image-20151211-8297-wl4f0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105349/original/image-20151211-8297-wl4f0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105349/original/image-20151211-8297-wl4f0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105349/original/image-20151211-8297-wl4f0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105349/original/image-20151211-8297-wl4f0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105349/original/image-20151211-8297-wl4f0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105349/original/image-20151211-8297-wl4f0i.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">A man carries a painting by Bali Nine death row inmate, Myuran, the writing at the back reads, satu hati, satu rasa di dalam cinta (one heart, one feeling in love), at Wijaya Pura port in Cilacap, Central Java, Indonesia, on April 28, 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP Image/Roni Bintang</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While on death row in Kerobokan Prison, Sukumaran <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-ben-quilty-supporting-two-convicted-drug-smugglers-36905">asked Archibald Prize winner Ben Quilty</a> to teach him to paint. Quilty accepted and made several trips to the prison. Sukumaran adopted Quilty’s expressionist style, but perhaps not the artistic maturity of his mentor. </p>
<p>But, in the 72 hours leading up to his execution on April 29, Sukumaran created his last paintings – including a dripping red Indonesian flag, and a human heart – that fuelled international debates around the death penalty. </p>
<p>The most powerful work I saw first-hand in 2015 was William Pope.L’s Tricket at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/h5wdIAtO4pU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">William Pope.L: Trinket.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In a cavernous industrial space, Pope.L installed a large American flag, which flapped and whipped with the force of four industrial fans. The enormous building was filled with the drone of the fans and rushing air. </p>
<p>As an African American artist, Pope.L’s work spoke about the freedom just to breathe in America today. In those last weeks of June, the US passed marriage equality and the rainbow flag was seen everywhere, while Donald Trump was flanked by stars and stripes as he began his divisive political campaign. </p>
<p>Amid this, Trinket reminded us of the enduring importance of symbols, of the visual, of art. </p>
<p>It was a powerful reminder that in art, as in life, there are more important things than money.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/51819/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kit Messham-Muir 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>There are as many ways to summarise a “year in art” as there are eyes to look at art with. Art had some shining – and not-so-shining – moments in 2015.Kit Messham-Muir, Senior Lecturer in Art History and Theory, University of NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/501262015-11-04T05:58:23Z2015-11-04T05:58:23ZAustralia wins at the global creative game<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/100723/original/image-20151104-21203-fafvxb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"></span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">lauren rushing</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>I like a good index, and the University of Toronto-based American economic geographer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Florida">Richard Florida</a> has been my main supplier for a few years now. </p>
<p>His super-popular <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Rise-Creative-Class-Transforming/dp/0465024769">Creative Class</a> products are all made of the same three progressive ingredients: <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/mpian/overview-of-the-creative-class-theory-and-the-3-ts">Technology, Talent and Tolerance</a>. </p>
<p>The label on the bottle tells an uplifting story of how great American cities are not made of steel mills anymore, but of gay-friendly citizens, great universities, and bicycle paths. Like Helen of Troy, his ideas were of such inestimable beauty that some <a href="http://www.city-journal.org/html/14_1_the_curse.html">1,000 city government plans</a> were launched to create, at very least, some of these university-flavoured bicycle paths. </p>
<p>Dr Florida’s idea is that you take these policy prescriptions, then you wait (it was never actually specified how long – some say 10-15 years) for the effects to kick in. What will happen is that first you will start to feel creative, and then later prosperous.</p>
<p>So I always look forward to my latest delivery of creativity index. (Some colleagues and I sometimes even make our own, <a href="http://www.regionalstudies.org/uploads/Does_residential_diversity_attract_workers_in_creative_occupation_-_Sveta_Angelopoloulos.pdf">here</a> and <a href="http://cultural-science.org/journal/index.php/culturalscience/article/view/51">here</a>.) This year’s product (from his <a href="http://martinprosperity.org/">fine research group</a>) does not disappoint – being a <a href="http://martinprosperity.org/media/Global-Creativity-Index-2015.pdf">Global Creativity Index</a> no less! </p>
<h2>We’re #1!</h2>
<p>And guess what? Australia is number one! We win at the global creative game! Ozzy, Ozzy, Ozzy!</p>
<p>NZ is number three – suck that NZ and your stupid Rugby World Cup – and the USA is rather pathetically only number 2. </p>
<p>(An entirely predictable list of Canada, some bicycle path-ridden Nordic countries, Singapore, and some other overeducated quasi-Nordic countries make up the rest of the top ten. The 11-20 spots are mostly occupied by the good coffee precincts in the Eurozone.)</p>
<p>Australia wins because of its consistent performance over all of the measures. Most countries fall down on at least one.</p>
<p>Australia is 7/112 on the Technology index component. (South Korea, Japan and Israel make up the top 3.)</p>
<p>Australia is 4/136 on the global tolerance index, a mix of attitudes to gays and lesbians and racial and ethnic minorities, only just behind the world-class tolerance of the Canadians. But they also gave the world Justin Beiber, so should probably lose some points for that.</p>
<p>And get this: Australia is 1/134 on the global talent index. (This is a mixture of creative class density, and educational attainment.) That’s amazing – we win over education powerhouses of Finland, Singapore, Denmark and the US because of our proportionally higher ranking in the creative class measure, which in many ways is a reflection of the high past quality of Australia’s education.</p>
<h2>Yay! Now what?</h2>
<p>So, what would be an appropriate way to celebrate this great and deserved win? Let me suggest with a few hearty rounds of deregulation.</p>
<p>If these index findings are indeed true – and I have no reason to doubt them: the list of ingredients is clearly labelled on the bottle – then our economic and cultural performance, our overall prosperity, should be better than it is. </p>
<p>Some ingredient is missing. Australia is a world-beater at the creative game. But we don’t seem to be as good at translating that sort of winning creative on-field performance over inputs (our tolerance, our talent, our technology) to the off-field realm of deliverables, our “merchandising” if you will. </p>
<p>What’s missing from our great potential in innovation is entrepreneurship. Being creative is not enough. We also need to improve our entrepreneurial game. (This same point was also made, in specific reference to Australia, by the US think-tank <a href="http://www.kauffman.org/blogs/policy-dialogue/2015/november/australia-most-creative-country-but-what-about-entrepreneurship">the Kauffman Foundation</a>.)</p>
<p>Dom Talimanidis of the Institute of Public Affairs produced a report last year entitled <a href="http://ipa.org.au/publications/2299/where-have-all-the-entrepreneurs-gone">Where have all the entrepreneurs gone?</a>. It showed how the number of new firms created has fallen by almost 50% since 2002. A major reason for this is the <a href="http://ipa.org.au/publications/2338/innovation-strangled-by-red-tape">high and growing regulatory burden in Australia</a>, which raises the costs of entrepreneurship, inhibiting entry. This is bridling our great creative potential. </p>
<p>Maybe the Assistant Minister for Innovation <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/business/what-happened-at-wyatt-roys-policy-hack-20151017-gkbtpy.html">Wyatt Roy</a> will lead us through this with the tech-community’s favourite answer: start-up incubators and accelerators. </p>
<p>But a better strategy to work on our translation game is simply to increase the size of the team on the field. This doesn’t require redirecting resources, or increasing taxes, but simply giving our highly creative world-class players a bigger, freer space to run.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/50126/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<h4 class="border">Disclosure</h4><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason Potts receives funding from the Australian Research Council. He is affiliated with the Institute of Public Affairs. </span></em></p>‘If these index findings are indeed true then our economic and cultural performance, our overall prosperity, should be better than it is.’Jason Potts, Professor of Economics, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/274552014-06-06T06:46:46Z2014-06-06T06:46:46ZYou are ignoring university art collections – you shouldn’t<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/50462/original/p7btchd8-1402030390.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Installation view from Stan Hopewell: God is Love, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, 2013.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of Nic Montagu</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In <a href="http://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/198584/AU2000_TalkingPoints_FINAL_13_May2014_.pdf">Talking Point</a>, the Australia Council’s recently published “snapshot” of the Australian contemporary visual arts in 2014, it was surprising to find only one reference to the country’s 42 university based art galleries and museums and no interviews with any of their professional staff. </p>
<p>Described as an overview of the “vibrant and diverse ecology” of Australian visual arts it nevertheless ignores 26% of the country’s public art museums. These galleries and museums collectively care for important and valuable collections, spend in excess of A$6million annually on acquiring the work of Australian artists and mount 250 exhibitions each year. </p>
<p>It’s hard to imagine how any mapping of the cultural terrain of Australia could ignore such a significant topographical feature.</p>
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<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Installation view of Traversing borders: art from the Kimberley 2013-14. Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Art Museum.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Richard Stringer</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Although mentioned briefly as “an untapped resource” with the potential to offer partnership on more ambitious and long-term projects, there is no acknowledgement in the report of the substantial contribution made by university-based museums and galleries. </p>
<p>So what do the country’s university art museums contribute to their host institutions and more broadly to the Australian community?</p>
<p>Since their establishment more than 150 years ago, universities in Australia have commissioned and collected artworks to enrich their cultural milieu and ensure their graduates develop as fully rounded individuals, with a balanced education that includes a knowledge of the arts through contact with their own and other cultures.</p>
<p>Additionally, universities have acknowledged their responsibility as agents in building civic responsibility and social capital, helping communities to better understand and celebrate their cultural heritage. </p>
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<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Installation view of Selected works: new acquisitions from the QUT Art Collection 2012. Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Art Museum, Brisbane.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Richard Stringer</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That two-fold mission of providing a centre for teaching and research while concurrently enriching community life continues to guide the development of programs within university-based museums and galleries. Certainly over the past decade the inclusion of new galleries when refurbishing or constructing facilities for art schools and the opening of purpose-built or renovated gallery spaces on university campuses is evidence of a continuing commitment to their mission as custodians and interpreters of our visual culture. </p>
<p>University art galleries are in an excellent position to critically engage with different ideas, and to offer a vision beyond the local while providing a critical appreciation and interpretation of local beliefs. </p>
<p>One way they can do this is through their collections, which focus a particular lens on the local by creating a repository of artefacts and images that documents aspects of community life and activity that might otherwise be overlooked. </p>
<p>The universities of Australia are a national treasure-trove. Their holdings constitute a significant quota of the nation’s cultural heritage and through their annual program of exhibitions, supported by publications and scholarly research, they are a vibrant component of Australia’s cultural life.</p>
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<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, UWA.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">uwa studentservices</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>My own university – the University of Western Australia – is a case in point. Its art collection originated from the acquisition of books and artworks by <a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/murdoch-sir-walter-logie-7698">Professor Walter Murdoch</a> while on a trip to Europe in 1927, with funds provided by the Hackett Bequest. The purchase of art works began in earnest in the late 1940s, and the University maintains its commitment to purchasing contemporary art. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.culturalprecinct.uwa.edu.au/venues/berndt-museum">Berndt Museum</a> was founded on the donations of Professor Ronald Berndt and his wife Catherine and its collection has continued to grow through donations and acquisitions. </p>
<p>Together with the <a href="http://www.lwgallery.uwa.edu.au/collections/ccwa">Cruthers Collection of Women’s Art</a>, donated to the University in 2007, these three collections constitute more than 16,000 artworks and artefacts and in excess of 35,000 photographs. </p>
<p>To grow and showcase these holdings the University, through its museum and gallery, commissioned new work by 13 Australian artists and presented 12 exhibitions, 11 featuring the work of Australian artists, in 2013. These exhibitions were supported by the publication of two books, two journals and ten catalogues and the professional staff in the museum and gallery presented 57 public program events and hosted 118 tour visits by internal and external school groups. </p>
<p>It is regrettable that this level of engagement, which is replicated in university-based museums and galleries around the country, is not acknowledged for its significant contribution to the commissioning, acquisition, research and presentation of Australian contemporary visual arts practice. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/50460/original/vys2z2fk-1402029743.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/50460/original/vys2z2fk-1402029743.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/50460/original/vys2z2fk-1402029743.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50460/original/vys2z2fk-1402029743.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50460/original/vys2z2fk-1402029743.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50460/original/vys2z2fk-1402029743.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50460/original/vys2z2fk-1402029743.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/50460/original/vys2z2fk-1402029743.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=416&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">Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source"> Image courtesy of The University of Western Australia</span></span>
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<p>Certainly one talking point that arises from this recent report is how did the authors overlook such a body of evidence when investigating the “diverse ecology” of the Australian contemporary art community?</p>
<p>Established in 2008, <a href="http://uama.org.au">University Art Museums Australia</a> (UAMA) is an affiliated group of art museum professionals who each has direct responsibility for an Australian university art museum. Its primary objective is to advocate on behalf of university-based museums and galleries to create a greater understanding of their impact in building and maintaining a dynamic and sustainable visual arts sector in this country. </p>
<p>The Talking Point report reinforces the urgency of that task. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/27455/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ted Snell is affiliated with University Art Museums Australia (UAMA)</span></em></p>In Talking Point, the Australia Council’s recently published “snapshot” of the Australian contemporary visual arts in 2014, it was surprising to find only one reference to the country’s 42 university based…Ted Snell, Winthrop Professor, Director Cultural Precinct, The University of Western AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.