Novelist Christos Tsiolkas, arts philanthropist Janet Holmes a Court, and historian and author Clare Wright are among the senior figures who will help guide the Labor government as it looks to develop an all-encompassing strategy for the way cultural practices fit into the economy and society as a whole.
The government will on Friday unveil a seven-person expert advisory group that will “provide overarching strategic advice” as it seeks to develop its new National Cultural Policy. The group will sift through more than 1200 public submissions before tabling its report by December. The government is hoping to have legislation drafted by the first half of 2023.
Christos Tsiolkas has been appointed to a new expert advisory group that will help steer the federal government’s new national cultural policy.Credit:John Tsiavis
Australia Council chief executive Adrian Collette, writer and youth arts worker Alysha Herrmann, choreographer Sinsa Mansell and visual artist Kitty Taylor have also been appointed to the expert advisory group, which will sit atop the five review panels – each consisting of three figures from the cultural sphere – that were announced three weeks ago to “identify key issues and themes” raised through public consultations.
“I’m hoping what it will achieve is a cogent cultural policy for the nation, something we can build on in years to come,” said Collette, a former book publisher and CEO of Opera Australia.
Collette said Arts Minister Tony Burke had told the group, “this is not an arts policy, it’s a cultural policy, a whole-of-government policy”. That meant portfolios such as health, foreign affairs and education might also contribute to it, and benefit from it.
“The arts and cultural expression is fundamental to our cultural policy,” Collette said. “But what lies beyond artistic practice is equally interesting. And I think that’s really got huge potential.”
Professor Clare Wright and Adrian Collette, CEO of the Australia Council, in front of artist D.R.E.Z’s work in Melbourne.Credit:Chris Hopkins
This is Labor’s third stab at trying to embed cultural policy into the fabric of broader Australian society, following the Keating government’s Creative Nation in 1994 and the Gillard government’s Creative Australia in 2013. But each time Labor was voted out of office, the incoming Coalition government abandoned those policies.
Clare Wright, professor of history at La Trobe University, says developing a compelling strategy is “absolutely about putting more money into the space”. But she also knows that convincing mainstream Australia of the value of the sector is crucial if the policy is to have any hope of being longer-lasting than its predecessors.
“We need to get away from the idea of history wars and culture wars, we need to end the militarisation of the metaphors that surround arts workers and cultural production,” she said. “That’s been steered by a kind of anti-intellectualism, and it’s been incredibly unhelpful.”
The culture industries have been “trivialised and marginalised” in Australian public life when compared to some other sectors, such as resources, Wright argued, when in fact they are “absolute powerhouses of our economy”.
“Maybe instead of wearing tutus and painting smocks and being in orchestras wearing black, they should all get on stage in hi-vis,” she said. “Maybe then the nation would recognise that arts and culture workers are indeed workers.”
The rhetoric around the arts has in recent decades turned increasingly on a notion of economic impact and employment rather than intrinsic cultural value, which is of course much harder to model and to quantify. But, says Collette, “it’s not an either or” situation.
“The reality is arts and culture lies at the centre of something hugely beneficial to society, and part of it is economic – we shouldn’t resile from that,” he said. “It’s not the reason many artists do what they do, but it is a consequence of doing it.
“We construct all these false dichotomies – between the non-profit sector and the commercial, between visual arts and design, between composition and commercial music – but it’d be wonderful to have the opportunity to think what would policy look like if you do away with these?
“I don’t think we’ve ever done that,” he said. “And I’m relishing the opportunity.”
Email the author at [email protected], or follow him on Facebook at karlquinnjournalist and on Twitter @karlkwin.
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