Regional focus: how can local arts projects contribute to the strength of regional communities?
Claims have been made that community art projects in Australia can play a significant role in regenerating flagging levels of citizen engagement and democratic participation at a local level. A large number of local government authorities have adopted the notion—first promoted by Jon Hawkes in 2001—that ‘cultural vitality’ should be seen as a ‘fourth pillar’ of community sustainability. However, criticisms are being made of instrumental uses of the arts for predetermined social policy outcomes on the grounds that they undermine the authenticity of art practices. This reconfirms the need for more research on what authentic community art can achieve in terms of social benefits.
In order to demonstrate that community arts projects have a special role to play in making local governance more effective, the Cultural Development Network and the Australia Council have set up the comparative ‘Generations Project’ to track the development of five major community arts projects in different local communities—three in Victoria and one each in NSW and Queensland. Working in partnership with the Australia Council and the Cultural Development Network, RMIT’s Globalism Institute has completed phase one of a three-year study using the Generations Project to investigate the contribution of arts projects to civic participation. For this phase, we concentrated on analysing the work of key people involved in the overall Generations Project and the implementation of each local project. More broadly, this paper focuses on how the Generations Project can encourage local government to invest in arts-led processes in their strategic work. Further, it will test claims in the Australian context that the arts play a unique role in re-engaging communities with democratic institutions.
This project builds on previous work by the Globalism Institute, in partnership with VicHealth, on the role of the arts in building inclusive and resilient local communities.
Dr Martin Mulligan is Deputy Director of RMIT University's Globalism Institute.
Before joining the Globalism Institute in 2004, Martin worked in the innovative Social Ecology program at the University of Western Sydney where he developed new courses in areas related to ecological thinking and environmental education. He is interested in ways exploring how a deeper 'sense of place' can bring together concerns for the environmental and social sustainability of local communities. His current research interests includes sense of place and community well-being in particular Victorian communities; community development strategies in Papua New Guinea; the recovery of local communities in post-tsunami Sri Lanka; strategies for nature conservation in the post-colonial era and the social history of ecological thought and action. He has just published “Creating Community: Celebrations, Arts and Wellbeing within and across Local Communities”, an ARC funded report on a three year research program in Victoria that was prepared in partnership with VicHealth.