In the lead-up to the election, artists are asking why political support for the visual arts is relatively invisible?
Its absence is surprising given that visual arts and crafts is the most popular form of creative activity by Australians, with almost 40% participating in a visual arts and craft event, attendance at galleries on the rise and 43% of children involved outside of school hours. Yet none of the political parties has delivered a coherent policy for Australia which demonstrates long term developmental investment in the visual arts.
By contrast there is a strong commitment to the performing arts through the well established major organisations highlighted by the Labor party’s most recent effort – the ‘Creative Australia’ national cultural policy – which saw the major performing arts (MPA) organisations secure the lion’s share of the federal government’s attention and funding (an increase of $36.25 million over 4 years) but nothing new specifically for the visual arts. This was exacerbated by the appointment of a substantial majority of people with performing arts experience or knowledge to the newly restructured board of the Australia Council.
While the performing arts is a very important facet of cultural life in Australia, it is one element of a creative ecology that involves practitioners, audiences and economies of production and innovation across all artforms. Arts policy should not just respond to the most powerful performing arts voices, but demonstrate leadership for Australia’s cultural development as a whole. This should be fleshed out with real commitments in legislation, policy and investment informed by expert advice and feed back about the experience of practitioners and the whole cultural infrastructure. The views of peak representative bodies like the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA) and other industry leaders need to be sought by governments on a regular basis.
In devising visual and media arts, craft and design policy, NAVA would suggest all political parties should give consideration to the following.
1. High Quality Sequential Arts Education Pathways
As a start, every child needs to receive a sequential high quality visual arts education from appropriately skilled teachers and artists (eg: missing is an artist in every school in the country). At the least, this would enable everyone to get a good grounding in visual literacy, a skill required for everyone in the digital age. It should be followed up with the opportunity to choose a career in art through being able to study and get qualifications at TAFE or university. While the national arts curriculum is about to be introduced in schools, the required teacher education to support it has not been addressed. TAFE art courses are no longer subsidized and are out of reach for most people. University arts courses have been seriously eroded with diminishing discipline choices being offered. This lack of a smooth pathway into the profession is in urgent need of address.
2. Sustainable Careers for Artists
On graduation there are major pitfalls for emerging artists. Most face the immediate challenge of learning how to establish their professional practice as an artist. Acquiring business skills, money and space are the major hurdles. At this point government intervention is critical. NAVA provides excellent quality on-line short courses in a range of professional skills but could benefit from this being subsidised. The Australia Council’s ArtStart scheme is a great starting point but is restricted to very few. The Renew space model is a good temporary measure but does not answer the need of artists to have secure studio and exhibition space over the long term. Artists often find themselves in the curious position of being forced out of the very areas of the city they have contributed to making funky and desirable to the more comfortably off. NAVA has proposed a % for Art Space scheme which would see developers obliged to provide space for artists in every new development or refurbishment, to be managed by local councils. As artists progress through their careers, other challenges emerge such as the need for supported studio spaces, access to developmental programs and funding, opportunities to reach a variety of audiences, protection of their rights and superannuation.
3. International Opportunities
Greater assistance to artists to make international connections, capitalize on residencies and participate in exchanges is essential in an increasingly globalised art world. The re-establishment and expansion of scope of the International Cultural Council needs to be backed by funding to get more Australian visual artists and their work overseas and foster international dialogue.
4. Funding – Visual Arts and Craft Strategy
The last time the Coalition was in power, in response to the findings of research into the failing health of the sector, the then government’s Myer Inquiry delivered a funding increase of around $12 million a year through the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy. This injection of new funding yielded dramatic results especially for the small to medium visual arts organisations which are the developmental backbone of the industry. In NAVA’s view, a lot has changed since 2002 and a similar analysis is now well overdue.
Rapid developments in technology and international contact have brought new pressures to bear, but also provided new opportunities which the sector needs assistance to capitalise on and apply to full advantage. Waiting for new support are the vibrant experimental artist run spaces. We therefore view with great concern the potential for funding cuts hinted at by Senator Brandis QC, the Coalition’s Shadow Arts Minister. There has already been funding contraction in some states. With the major performing arts shielded from these cuts, they fall proportionally more heavily on the visual arts and other art forms. This must be reversed, and a new commitment made for grants to keep pace with inflation through annual CPI increases.
5. Rights and Access to Justice
The arts is impacted by a range of legislation some of which has detrimental unintended consequences for practitioners. A well developed arts policy really needs to address the legislative and regulatory context – the less glamorous but really important bits – like fair payment for artists’ work. The Australian Greens have made an important commitment here, responding to the sector’s call by promising to establish a $3 million/yr Artists’ Fund to ensure artists are properly paid for their non-selling exhibitions and performances. This needs to be taken up by the other parties.
Other important legislative areas include the need for viable copyright protection especially within the digital environment, continuation of the valuable resale royalty scheme, tax reform (removing artists from the constraints of the Non-commercial Losses legislation) and protection of freedom of expression. And a fix is needed for problems caused by the changes to regulations pertaining to the self-managed superannuation funds and by the Personal Property Securities Act. As very low income earners, for most artists legal redress of the abuse of their rights is unaffordable and this needs attention. There has been no consideration of any of this in the national cultural policy.
The federal election provides the opportunity for reflection, planning and bold commitments to adventurous arts policies. As a matter of urgency, NAVA calls on all political parties to put the visual arts back in the picture.
(Pictured: Atelier by Desiree Palmen, 2004)
