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HOT LINKS

Australia Council's Arts Funding Guide 2010. Please email with your name and address for a free copy.
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Call for Papers
'Culture and Sustainable Communities'
for a special issue of the 'Culture and Local Governance' journal, Canada
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LEAP (Localities Enhancing Arts Participation) Project
VicHealth, CDN and eight Victorian councils
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a network of Victorian arts organisations, artists and government agencies working with Arts Victoria to strengthen community-based arts practice
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ReGenerating Community: Arts, Community & Governance National Conference
Proceedings available
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Developing & Revitalizing Rural Communities
Through Arts & Creativity: International research report
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UNESCO e-journal:
Multi-Disciplinary Research in the Arts
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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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Projects

Current Projects | Past Projects

Read more below about these current projects:
Rhizome Project
LEAP
Home Lands
Generations
Arts & Disability Research

The Rhizome Project: Creative media for people with disabilities, in
western Victoria

In collaboration with partners: Horsham Regional Arts Association and Wimmera Primary Care Partnership, Horsham Rural City Council, Horsham Regional Art Gallery, On Track Learning, Rural Access Wimmera, Deaf Access, Awakenings Festival and the Grampians Department of Human Service, CDN have been collaborating to develop a project to offer people with disabilities from rural and remote Victoria opportunities to develop skills in creative use of media.

The project progresses with a one day workshop. More info in attached flyer.

The 'Rhizome' Project Pilot: Bringing People, Art and Technology Together
Thursday February 18th Workshop – Horsham
Building internet and social technology skills of participants by engaging them in art projects that utilise both traditional and innovative approaches to image making.

LEAP

LEAP: (Localities Enhancing Arts Participation) Local government project

CDN is pleased to be working with VicHealth and the three councils selected for its LEAP project: Casey, Mildura and Ballarat.

The projects are:

• Six Shires/Three Goals/One United Team (6 x 3 x 1) (Ballarat City Council
  with Ararat Rural City Council, Golden Plains, Hepburn, Moorabool and
  Pyrenees Shires)
• Casey Arts Participation Initiative (City of Casey)
• LEAPing into Arts and Culture Mildura (Mildura Rural City Council)

CDN’s Director John Smithies has been travelling the state working with these councils as their projects shape up. Find out more:
www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/LEAP

Download flyer

Home Lands

Home Lands is an internet television program made with entry-level technical resources that connects young refugees to their home lands and separated communities.

Home Lands is underpinned by the premise that refugee youth resettlement is more successful if identification, communication and engagement is maintained with home communities.

Low-cost digital media production tools and networks overcome the previous barrier of privilege usually associated with access to traditional media production facilities.

Evolving media technologies enable production storage, streaming, broadcast, mobile communication and therefore new forms of storytelling to give true global access to an audience.

The pilot being undertaken in Melbourne, Australia will work with young refugees from Karen and Sudanese refugee communities and the corresponding refugee camps and home communities.

More about the Home Lands project

Generations

Building civic engagement through the arts in five communities across Australia

Visit the Generations website

The Generations project commenced in 2006 to explore links between engagement in community based arts activities and active civic engagement. There is growing literature that supports the link between creative or ‘artistic’ activity and improved health and well-being, but the links between creative communities and civic engagement are less well documented. The Generations project was conceptualised to contribute to research on this topic through a significant research component. It was thought that demonstration of this link could have significant effects on the development of public policy and the targeting of resources to community-based arts projects. The research proejct was carried out by Dr Martin Mulligan with researcher Pia Smith at Globalism Research Centre (RMIT) over the three years of the project.

In preparation for the project, each of the five participating councils worked with the Cultural Development Network to identify issues of serious concern for their municipalities. Five community projects addressing these local issues got underway in 2006 in councils across Australia; Charters Towers Regional Council (Queensland); City of Liverpool (New South Wales); Rural City of Wangaratta (Victoria); City of Greater Geelong (Victoria); and Latrobe City (Victoria). The projects completed their formal engagement with Generations in late 2009.

The work of the five councils and the communities was celebrated within a national conference held in Melbourne in September 2009. Key findings of the research are expected to be released early in 2010.

Preliminary findings and an extensive literature review presented by researchers Martin Mulligan and Pia Smith from RMIT at this conference, appear in this article.

Art, Governance and the Turn to Community: Putting Art at the Heart of Local Government
Dr. Martin Mulligan and Pia Smith, RMIT University

The Generations Project was a test of the view that truly sustainable communities need the addition of fourth dimension, or pillar, of cultural vitality to the accepted triple bottom line indicators of a viable economy, a healthy environment and good social policies.

Arts and Disability Research Project: increasing participation in the arts

Cultural Development Network for the Office for Disability, Arts Victoria and Department of Human Services, May 2008 - February 2009

The Cultural Development Network undertook a research project examining ways that the participation of people with a disability in the arts, as artists and as audience members, can be increased. The project was commissioned by the Office for Disability and partners, Arts Victoria and Department of Human Services.

Stage One

Literature Review: May to September 2008
A review of national and international literature and policy documents on arts and disability was undertaken to provide a reference point for the project. This extensive review was completed in September 2008.

Stage Two: Data collection

Stage Two of the project involved data collection, through three main strategies

- Interviews of 22 key informants
- Surveys of people with a disability and organisations who offer arts programs that are inclusive of people with a disability: More than 400 responses were obtained to these surveys.
- Forums and Focus Groups: A series of eleven focus groups (involving 189 people) were held throughout Victoria to provide opportunities a range of stakeholders to discuss their experiences.

Findings of the research were distilled into a report that was completed in February 2009.

The Literature Review and Final Report have been provided to Office for Disability. CDN's contribution to the project is now complete. The Arts and Disability research project wiki site has been closed.

For further information: Please contact project Manager Fofi Christou at fofi.christou@dpcd.vic.gov.au

The Cultural Development Network is grateful to the many people who contributed their time and expertise to this project. We have endeavoured to represent your perspectives as faithfully as we possibly could.

CDN Project team:
Project Team Chair: Dr Nick Hill, University of Melbourne
Project Manager: John Smithies, CDN, john.smithies@culturaldevelopment.net.au
Lead researcher: Kim Dunphy, CDN, kim.dunphy@culturaldevelopment.net.au
International Research Associate: Associate Professor Petra Kuppers, University of Ann Arbor, Michigan
Literature review research and editing: Chris Brophy
Research Advisor: Professor John Toumbourou, Deakin University
Research Assistant: Indrani Parker