Dance in the National Cultural Policy

A national cultural policy

Ausdance supports the development of a national cultural policy. It should not only deliver new ideas and strategies, but it should reflect the ambitions of the Australian community (including those identified in Dance Plan 2012). It should respect and promote Indigenous perspectives, and encompass the cultural ambitions of our multicultural society. It should reflect and acknowledge the breadth of cultural activity and diversity, including professional excellence in artistic performance and education, community access and participation, and artists’ career development and sustainability.

A National Cultural Policy provides an opportunity for:

• a whole-of-government approach to defining ‘culture’
• placing Indigenous perspectives at the centre of Australian cultural life (as it does across disciplines in the Australian Curriculum) and
• acknowledging and recognising the arts (and artists) as primary creators in a creative economy.

While the dance community and the Australia Council have taken responsibility for achieving the ambitions identified in Dance Plan 2012, the Australian government also has a major role to play in providing leadership, investment and a coherent cultural policy in which to deliver  outcomes.

How could a national cultural policy affect your work?

The ambitions in Dance Plan 2012 are interrelated—each depends on the success of the others, and their combined success would see a rich and diverse Australian dance culture which was sustainable, accessible, innovative and creative. Success would see all young people being educated in, through and about dance and the arts, and the best of Australian culture reflected in the work of our professional choreographers and regularly touring, regionally, nationally and internationally. The National Cultural Policy is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to achieve these ambitions.

What are we doing?

We provided a submission to the National Cultural Policy last year, and have followed up with meetings to discuss various aspects of the policy with the Arts Minister’s office. We have provided written information to political leaders about issues affecting the small to medium dance sector, about the demise of SCOPE for Artists and the need to include it in the National Cultural Policy, and about an alternative funding model for ‘ArtsReady’, a proposal based on a ‘SportsReady’ which seeks to get young people into the sports industry straight from school. This month we organised a meeting of 30 arts organisations to meet with Arts Minister Simon Crean, who will brief us on the National Cultural Policy and the National Broadband Network and its potential for the arts.

What are we suggesting?

The Government has said that it wants a National Cultural Policy to underpin broader government priorities and it's asking the community for ideas about how it could shape Australia’s future. We want the government to take a ‘whole of government’ approach so that the research, health, education and social security agendas are taken into account—arts policy made in isolation from these big policy areas has not worked well for artists' sustainability and the viablity of the industry as a whole. 

We want greater investment in building the capacity of the arts industry by increasing productivity and maximising investment in arts training. Programs such as SCOPE for Artists and the Indigenous dance development program Treading the Pathways have demonstrated success in the career development of artists. Artists themselves have greatly subsidised their work, with continuing low incomes, patchwork careers and periods of unemployment and under-employment. It's therefore also time for a new review into the small to medium performing arts sector and its contribution to the development of the art form.

The research agenda for the arts has had minimal investment, strategic planning and long-term commitment by Australian governments. Ausdance believes that there is an urgent need for deep and longitudinal research in the arts, and that a proposal to develop a Co-operative Research Centre (CRC) for Arts and Entertainment Futures is of vital importance to the future of the sector.