Embracing the Remoteness

Is capacity building and valuing the arts at the

Local Government level a sign of connectedness

or remoteness from a National Cultural Policy?

Dr Edwina Marks - Ex-CEO Barkly Regional Council

Dr Jan-Claire Wisdom – Cr., previously Deputy Mayor, Adelaide Hills Council

The latent role of Local Government ‘Local government, like Glad Wrap, is something we didn’t know we needed until … someone forgot to collect our rubbish, return our lost dog, or help us with our yarn bombing project…. Now we just can’t do without it.’

(inspired by David Throsby’s Platform Essay 2006)

• LG funds 20% of all arts expenditure but only gets 4% of the national revenue

• Rarely funded through or directed by national cultural policy settings

• So why does LG invest so much in arts?

• It doesn’t. As the level of government closest to the people it invests it in community - the arts are at the heart of our communities – and culture arises from the community.

• Thriving local cultures require community development and cultural sustainability.

• The foundation of Local Government rests not only in its role as a service provider (roads, rates, rubbish) but in its ability to build community capacity. One way of doing this is to facilitate cultural participation and sustainability.

Over the horizon but below the radar • There have been two major Commonwealth National Cultural Policy statements

over the past twenty years – Paul Keating’s 1994 Creative Nation and its successor - Simon Crean’s 2013 Creative Australia.

• Despite their all-encompassing view that “culture arise from the community”, the community cultural development at Local Government level is often found operating below the policy radar.

• National cultural policy-makers in Canberra remain geographically, theoretically, politically and financially remote from Council-conceived arts and cultural programs.

• Many local Councils don’t have formal arts or cultural policies or any reference to the importance of culture in their Strategic or Business Operating Plans.

• But they all have some form of Community Development Plan which embody cultural aspirations.

Beyond the urban • Two case studies that highlight capacity-building and culturally sustainable

development at the peri-urban and rural and remote fringe

• The Barkly – where cultural policy is social policy renewing health, creating hope and rebuilding communities

• The Adelaide Hills – where cultural policy is community aspiration, developing community capacity and creating cultural sustainability through valuing the arts

The Barkly • Known internationally for its cultural heritage and the birthplace of

Aboriginal Art (Utopia)

• Very remote Barkly 1.5 times size of Victoria, 14 living languages

• Extreme poverty, complex social issues – petrol sniffing, unable to be solved conventionally; arts program used as a tool for re-engagement- only realistic and feasible option - cobbled to existing programs

• Community is both nation and ‘country’ (its own universe)

• No Alternatives – extreme outcomes – over 65% of all youths in the detention system in NT are ATSI; death; incarceration, fractured communities, physical loss of life and infrastructure

Children of the sun – the Schooly Crew 2012 In October 2012 Desert Pea Media/BRC Alpurrurulam Program creating and recording songs and film clips for a DVD / CD compilation. It's titled "Binge Thinking not drinking" -features 9 film clips and 12 songs that have created over the duration of the program.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6IsvrCEa0Q Courtesy of Desert Pea Media and Sean Spencer Barkly Regional Council

Traditional nutrition and life skills Courtesy Barkly Regional Council and Desert Pea media

Lantern Parade 2012 In October 2012 Desert Pea Media/BRC Alpurrurulam Program creating and recording songs and film clips for a DVD / CD compilation.

It's titled "Binge Thinking not drinking" -features 9 film clips and 12 songs that have created over the duration of the program.

Desert Sevenz Ampilatwatja Two Wayz May 2013 program https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DfHD50NU8Y

The Adelaide Hills

‘Council acknowledges that we meet on the traditional lands of the Peramangk and Kaurna people and we recognise their connection to the land. We understand that we do not inherit the land from our ancestors but borrow it from our children and … that nothing we do should decrease our children’s ability to live on this land.’

• Known for its natural beauty and worldwide reputation for the production of food and wine – current application for World Heritage Listing

• A mix of rural and peri-urban but not so geographically remote from population centres and government services as The Barkly

• Compared to The Barkly this is a comparatively wealthy, well-educated demographic without complex social problems

• Fragmented communities with over 70 small townships across two main local council areas – AHC and DCMB

• Known to be home to local, national and international artists – yet has no international reputation for its art and culture

One man’s vision – Silvio’s story Adelaide Hills International Sculptural Symposium

A tale of two communities Lobethal’s Woollen Mill and Macclefield’s Crystal Lake

Who is making a difference?

• Valuing the arts – individuals, local communities and the public

• Capacity building – AHISS and the Artistic Director, Caylus and BRC

• Cultural development – The Trail and cultural tourism, youth based music and media production; new enterprise

• Cultural sustainability – the Interns and future symposiums, participants become program designers

• Local Councils - partnerships with the community and each other, facilitation, increased participation and access, in-kind support, advocacy, seed funding

The Remoteness

Artist: Miguel Isla, Spain

Connected or Remote – does it matter? • Is capacity-building and valuing the arts at local government level a sign of

connectedness or remoteness from National Cultural Policy?

• It is a sign of remoteness because it is mostly enacted independent of national cultural policy direction and individual artists and communities feel remote from any impact of national directives.

• But there is a connectedness too: Crean said at the launch of Creative Australia that “Culture is not created by government but enabled by it”. Local Government shares that mission and enacts it everyday by community capacity building encouraging participation in the arts and, facilitating the sustainability of cultural activity. It enables the spirit of national cultural policy.

• Does the remoteness matter?

• No – because we continue to make a difference in partnership with our communities irrespective of national direction;

• Yes – because a National Cultural Policy provides legitimacy for and raises awareness about the importance of creativity in nation-building.

The Call to Action The Issues

• Creativity has become remote from innovation

• Local Government’s role as a key cultural facilitator is disconnected from national arts and cultural policy-making

• Cultural value is increasingly measured by economic metrics – community aspirations and wellbeing, and social cohesion demand better metrics

• Commonwealth doesn’t traditionally invest in LG as producer of social dividends through arts and culture

Call to Action

• Demand a national Creativity Statement - re-affirms the creative process as central to innovation and acknowledges grass roots investment

• Acknowledge the important role that the third level of government plays in connectedness and the creation of social and cultural dividends

• Nudge the current conversations towards ‘participation’ as a key dimension in cultural metrics

• Direct a proportion of arts and cultural funding, under a National Cultural Initiative, to Local Government level

The Challenge - disruptive discourse

Raise our voice!

We will continue to raise our voice at Local Government level

Raise your voice!

As residents and ratepayers - ensure culture is embedded in your Councils’ Strategic Plans and participate in local arts and cultural initiatives

Adelaide Hills International Sculptural Symposium

4 – 25 April 2016 International sculptors ‘carving dreams in stone’