If you were asked, could you describe in say 20 words or less what it is that the peak arts service organisations do? While they occupy a crucial position in the broader arts ecology, their work and achievements are sometimes not well known or understood. When you’re an artist working towards an exhibition or performing on stage, the importance of getting things sorted like industry standards, artists rights, fair payment, tax, copyright, insurance, superannuation and so on fade behind the urgent issues of getting your art out in front of audiences and buyers. However, when something goes wrong who can help?
Across the board the missions of these organisations are very similar; to positively profile the arts to the community, strengthen the industry as a whole and ensure a conducive environment for artists to work in. One of the most essential ways they do this is to advocate – to governments, other key decision makers like funding bodies, the private sector and the public at large. This will often involve undertaking research to gather the data to support a case, making submissions to inquiries, commenting in the media, staging public participatory events, organising collaborative action and crossing paths with influential people who need to hear the collective voice of artists and the sector.
The peak bodies are also often responsible for setting best practice standards in their industry and monitoring compliance to ensure that artists’ rights are not being abused. This can include determining minimum fees, wages and working entitlements, dealing with copyright, providing the right advice at the right time and representing artists where they get into disputes, for example going into bat in censorship cases to ensure respect for artists’ freedom of expression.
Representation is an important task, acting as the voice on behalf of the particular sectoral group in meetings and at forums and conferences, nationally and internationally. Many of the peak organisations represent Australia on international bodies, for example, the International Association of Art, International Music Council, World Dance Council, World Intellectual Property Organisation, International Federation of Coalitions for Cultural Diversity, etc. The collective strength of these groups can help achieve respect for and protection of the lives of cultural producers. This is particularly important in countries that don’t enjoy the artistic freedom that is taken for granted in liberal democratic societies.
Another substantial area of activity is the training and resources provided to facilitate sustainable careers for artists. This can include various skills development programs, brokerage of income generating opportunities, providing expert career advice and mentoring, offering professional networking opportunities and encouraging formation of knowledge sharing and discussion communities. Making sure artists have an understanding of business as well as artistic practice and can generate their own opportunities are important aspects of the work done by peak service organisations.
But who are these national bodies that are doing such heavy lifting? You may be surprised to learn that there are at least thirty of them (depending on how they define themselves). They cover not only the specific artforms (visual arts and design, music, dance, drama and writing) but also generic issues such as disability, arts law, copyright, Indigenous and multicultural interests, young people in the arts, regional arts – too many to list here. All are members of ArtsPeak, the confederation of national peak arts organisations, which undertakes collective action at strategic moments especially in election years. The most recent joint effort was in relation to the long promised National Cultural Policy where they met in Canberra with Simon Crean, the federal Arts Minister to discuss priority issues from a grass roots perspective.
One of the challenges that the peak bodies face together is the difficulty of providing quantified performance statistics to report back on outcomes from the investment of government funds. The results of much of the work can’t be measured through ‘bums on seats’ accounting eg it can take 20 years to achieve legislation like Resale Royalties. While it’s possible to count the number of career development workshops offered, the number of unique visits to websites providing opportunity listings and the number of times that media comments are published, this does not yield data about whose life was changed and how. So it’s often more difficult for these organisations to gain recognition of the value of their work by funding authorities. Yet this value is immense as they are relied on to act as the conduit for expert advice about the industry, be its voice when there’s a politically sensitive issue which needs airing and ensure arts and culture are on the political agenda.
The structure of the organisations varies; some have state/territory branches while others have only a national office, some have artist members while others have organisational members or no members at all. They were established at different times, some as long ago as 40 years, while others are only a very few years old. Most are supported by the Australia Council, which is an encouraging recognition that they are essential to the sustainability of the industry.
In every case, their achievements are remarkable. You should check out their websites. Without them, the rights of artists in Australia would be back in the dark ages.
