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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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Where we came from

National Art and Community conference spawns the Network

In October 1999, the Cities of Port Phillip and Melbourne jointly hosted a national three-day conference, Art and Community: New Century New Connections. 650 people from across Australia witnessed 240 community-based arts projects at twenty venues in St Kilda and the central city. Anne Dunn, the CEO of the City of Port Phillip at the time, led the team that managed an event that many still remember fondly as much for its anarchic party atmosphere as for the workshops and passionate debates that gave it its vitality.

The conference focused on the development of the community-based cultural sector in Victoria with an emphasis on affirming and extending the cultural role of local government.

One of the conference’s important goals was to re-energise and re-connect artists, community activists and organisations involved in community-based cultural practice. The Kennett government’s massive structural changes in the mid-nineties, including local government amalgamations, compulsory competitive tendering and cuts to the social and community services sectors, combined with the demise of Victoria’s Community Arts Network in 1994, meant that opportunities for networking, debate and program development had become virtually non-existent.

On the final day of the conference, delegates called for the development of a linking agency or information hub to build on the connections nurtured during the conference.

The Cities of Melbourne and Port Phillip, both Councils with a long tradition of active support for the arts, answered the call. In early 2000, they agreed to jointly support the establishment of just such an agency. Judy Spokes, the organiser of Art and Community, took up a part-time position to consult with artists and local government staff across Victoria and to set up an independent agency to spearhead policy reform, advocacy and professional development and debate in the community cultural development sphere. Both Councils supported her efforts in cash and in kind during this establishment phase.

The City of Melbourne’s sponsorship of the now independent Incorporated Association continues today through provision of office space and equipment and a grant towards our forum program. While it took some time, we eventually secured continuing organisational funding. We are indebted to VicHealth and the Australia Council’s Community Cultural Development Fund for recognising the value of our work so early in our development and supporting our vision. We are also grateful for the annual grant that subsequently came from Arts Victoria.

Getting started

In early 2000, we focused on consulting with, and building opportunities for networking among, cultural development staff in the 78 (now 79) Councils in Victoria. What emerged was a desire for new research and critical debate about cultural development practice. The consultation and networking also helped us to understand what were the most pressing issues for our constituency (that grew quickly from Council staff to include artists and others in communities who were involved in cultural programs). Most often raised was the need to clarify and demonstrate the links between the arts and urban design, social inclusion, public health and local identity programs.

Our program emerged accordingly, focusing on what we continue to do best: informing and hosting forums that bring different sectors together in exploration of cultural questions.

It became clear that many local government senior managers had a limited understanding of the value of the arts and wider cultural processes in achieving local government’s core mission - engaging and serving local communities. Our response was to link a cultural dimension to the policy agenda that was increasingly preoccupying opinion leaders in local governance: ‘triple bottom line’ planning and the quest for sustainability and well-being.

The Fourth Pillar becomes our platform

We commissioned research that would make a contemporary and credible argument for the important place of ‘culture’ in public policy. Jon Hawkes undertook this task and after several months and lots of discussion delivered a monograph for publication in March 2001. Entitled the Fourth Pillar of Sustainability: Culture’s essential role in public planning (pdf summary), we published this book with Common Ground Publishing (from whom you can order it). It has generated lots of interest in government, social and community sectors and has been the bedrock of all our advocacy work since. For example, it was the basis of Re-engaging Community (PDF), our submission to the Victorian Government’s arts policy review in June 2001 (on which Jon also worked).

Our continuing partnership with Jon has strengthened our effect well beyond the arts sector. Since he was originally commissioned, Jon has made over forty presentations to conferences and forums throughout Australia. Seen as a body of work, these demonstrate a continuing development of the arguments in support of a cultural framework. Commissioned papers and articles have also emerged from this partnership, and have been crucial to our mission to permeate the public policy environment with a more profound perception of a cultural perspective.

The City of Port Phillip has adopted the ‘four pillars’ model for its community and council planning and has integrated it into the structure and culture of its organisation. Port Phillip has also established a ‘cultural vitality’ project officer position to embed this innovative new mind-set into all its programs.

And now...

We're now into our sixth year. We’ve been busy advocates for every minute of these years, incessantly pushing for a cultural perspective at every opportunity.
Find out more about our past and future activities.