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HOT LINKS

Forthcoming events: Networking the Diaspora and Homelessness and Cultural Democracy
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Making the Case for Culture: Creative City Network of Canada
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Poems about Community Spaces
& other papers from Connecting Schools & Communities conferences, June 2008
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Meet, Meld, Merge Art Bringing a Community Together:
the Toil Art Project, in Yea, N.E. Victoria
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Home Lands: Internet TV program which connects young refugees to their home lands
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The Agenda 21 for Culture is the first document with worldwide mission that advocates establishing the groundwork of an undertaking by cities and local governments for cultural development.
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About CDN

What we do & how we do it

Annual General Meeting

CDN's fifth Annual General Meeting was held on May 22, 2008.
Minutes are available for download here.

The Network's Annual Reports from 2007, 2006 and 2005 are available for download here, or by mail on request. Email us with your name and address.
Annual Report 2007
Annual Report 2006
Annual Report 2005

Cultural Development Network

The Cultural Development Network is an independent non-profit organisation that links individual practitioners, community organisations and government across Victoria around issues of cultural vitality. We advocate a stronger role for cultural expression to build a healthier, more engaged and sustainable society. We work towards a society in which local communities, in all their diversity, have the resources and support they need to make and express their own culture. We advocate a stronger role for local government in nurturing cultural vitality and see the arts (at the heart of culture) as central to this vision. We aim to elevate and embed the appreciation of culture and community-based arts into public life at the local level. The Cultural Development Network is based in Melbourne, Australia. We work primarily across our state of Victoria and have partnerships in other Australian states.

Our Four Action Areas:

Networking
Facilitating the growth of useful connections
Discourse and Debate
Stimulating interaction between diverse perspectives
Projects and Partnerships
Demonstrating the value of community-based arts activities by example
Advocacy
Promoting the need for public support to cultural development

Our Four Goals:

To support the flourishing of diverse and authentic community cultures, we hope that

Arts Practice
The making of art becomes an everyday activity amongst communities
Community Understanding
The value of making art together is embraced by agencies and organisations that work with communities
Effective Service
The Cultural Development Network responds with initiatives that are relevant and effective to our members, their communities and the wider community, especially in Victoria
Government commitment
All spheres of government develop policy and resources that support independent community cultural activities

Networking

Through our bulletins to members, our artists talks and forums program, this website and many single initiatives, we constantly provide opportunities for people interested in community cultural development to exchange information and ideas.

Discourse & Debate

Since our establishment in 2000, we have either initiated or contributed to more than thirty forums designed to stimulate productive dialogue between sectors as diverse as public housing, education, community dance and forum theatre, environmental sustainability, juvenile justice, local government arts and culture and community services. We have also run two major conferences: 'The Art of Dissent' in 2002 and 'The Fourth Pillar of Sustainability' in 2004. Our activities have brought thousands of people together to meet, inspire and challenge each other toward the common goal of the development of culturally vital community life. Forums tackling new topics and audiences are being developed all the time.
CDN Events

Projects & Partnerships

We practice what we preach by developing projects that offer innovative models for community cultural development. Our projects include Knot At Home, 2002, that focussed on youth homelessness, Small Towns Big Picture, 2003, that focussed on revitalisation of small towns in country Victoria and our current national project, Generations that will examine the contribution of the arts in civic engagement of communities.
CDN Projects

Advocacy

For some time now the Cultural Development Network (CDN) has been advocating the inclusion of cultural vitality to the accepted 'triple bottom line' planning goals of economic, social and environmental sustainability. A major tool in this argument has been the monograph by Jon Hawkes The Fourth Pillar of Sustainability (pdf summary), that we commissioned in 2001. The ideas expressed in this publication continue to inform our approach to the place of culture in society as they influence communities, planners and policy makers all over Australia and overseas. Gesa Büttner, Information Manager, Culture and Cultural Heritage Department, Council of Europe recently commented that "this book... is held in very high esteem among our colleagues here, because it gives guidelines on how to include the cultural dimension in actual policy making. They use it in their seminars organised for transition countries".

Another significant publication was our Public Art Public Housing book commissioned by us with North Richmond Community Health Service and Department of Human Services Neighbourhood Renewal, written by Graham Pitts and designed by Lin Tobias in 2004. This book employs beautiful full colour photographs to document many interesting initiatives in community art participation in housing estates all over Victoria. We also publish articles, lead discussions, present at conferences and represent the perspective of community-based arts on government and other decisions making panels. Inputs include our representation on the Assessment Panel for Arts Victoria's Community Liaison Officers and Professionals in Residence Program and VLGA engagement with the Creative Capacity+ policy.

Evidence of the Network's influence is everywhere – in local government policy documents that feature fourth pillar thinking, state government policy and strategy initiatives that acknowledge culture as an important aspect of community life, community and non-government organisations documents that list culture as an important area for their focus. The Network's influence extends beyond our delegated patch of Victoria, with Canadian and New Zealand governments referring to our Fourth Pillar platform in whole of government strategy and policy initiatives.