Report on NSW multicultural arts forum
Groundswell has published the final report on the Multicultural Arts Forum 2012 held in April this year. The forum brought together over 180 artists, arts workers, policy-makers, arts leaders and critical thinkers from NSW and across Australia to share ideas, perspectives and experiences on how to reap the benefits of our culturally diverse arts.
This report presents the main outcomes of the forum as well as a comprehensive evaluation of its results.
A night to remember at the Australian Dance Awards
The 2012 Australian Dance Awards were presented in spectacular fashion at the beautiful new Heath Ledger Theatre in the State Theatre Centre of Western Australia on 1 September.
Catherine Osborne (l) President, Ausdance WA and Lauren Malkin (r) Client Manager AON Risk Services, presented Lucinda Sharp with her award for Services to Dance. Photo: Matthew ThompsettNanette Hassall—Award for Lifetime Achievement 2012
Nanette Hassall is the 2012 recipient of the Australian Dance Award for Lifetime Achievement. This Award honours the career and achievements of an outstanding senior figure in the Australian dance community who has dedicated at least 40 years to dance as a performer, choreographer, advocate, educator, administrator or visionary.
Congratulations to the inaugural PvP fellowship winner!
Congratulations to Stephanie Lake from Melbourne, who has been awarded the first Ausdance Peggy van Praagh Choreographic Fellowship. Stephanie was presented with a cheque for $10,000 at the Australian Dance Awards in Perth on Saturday 1 September.
Photos: Bronwyn KiddTouring programs move to the Australia Council
On 22 August 2012, the Hon Simon Crean, MP, Minister for the Arts, announced that the administration of the regional touring programs and the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy is to be transferred to the Australia Council.
Report on National Dance Research Forum
Thank you for a great weekend. The National Dance Research Forum was stimulating, energising and so well organised with great food and venues. (Dr Cheryl Stock)
Last weekend we had the pleasure of partnering with the Tertiary Dance Council of Australia to welcome 35 Australian and five international dance researchers to the first national dance research forum held for many years.
The forum provided a unique opportunity for everyone to hear some high-profile speakers, share their own research, join small discussion groups and make plans with potential collaborators.
Speakers included: (l to r) Dr Carol Brown (Uni of Auckland), Dr Kim Vincs (Deakin) & Ruth Gibson (igloo).Dance, young people & change—diversity in action
The collaboration between World Dance Alliance (WDA) and dance and the Child international (daCi) produced one of the biggest global dance festivals ever held—Dance, Young People and Change. Hosted by the Taiwan National University of the Arts (TNUA) in Taipei, the event attracted young people from North and South America, Europe, the UK and most Asia-Pacific nations.
The festival/conference was a multi-layered event that included keynote addresses, ‘dance flavour’ taster classes, workshops, forums and paper presentations. It brought together young people, their parents, mentors and educators from across the world to reflect on key issues and future directions for dance in young people’s lives.
Ann Tai, Taiwan representative for daCI and teacher at TNUA, exuberant in the opening parade.There was also a wonderful range of performances by young people, a festival of international dance academies, and an amazing program of Taiwanese dance performed by Taiwan’s professional companies and groups, including Cloud Gate 2 and Dance Forum. Teachers attended masterclasses and paper presentations and exchanged ideas about approaches to dance learning, teaching and curriculum for young people.
National crowdfunding strategy
The Australia Council for the Arts with its philanthropic arm, Artsupport Australia, has commenced its national crowdfunding roadshow as part of a strategy to explore the opportunities in crowdfunding for cultural and creative projects.
The roadshow is the culmination of a multi-stage strategy which included a pilot mentoring phase by Artsupport Australia for a group of crowdfunding projects, and the Australia Council commissioning the first piece of research in Australia into barriers and motivations of donors to crowdfunding projects in the cultural and creative sectors.
Caroline Vu, NSW Manager of Artsupport Australia said:
With crowdfunding reaching a tipping point in Australia, there’s huge potential to increase individual giving to arts and culture...the key to this is improving the understanding and skills of the sector; leading to better and more successful campaigns. As the success rate for crowdfunding projects increases, people will become more confident that crowdfunding truly enables creative ideas to become reality.
Brolga in 2013
Brolga 35 (December, 2011) was the final print edition. From issue # 36 Brolga–an Australian journal about dance will be published on our website and available for purchase either as a complete volume (PDF) or as individual articles. All you need to do is create an account and become an Ausdance customer.
Brolga is pleased to welcome Professor Maggi Phillips from WAAPA, as its new editor.
By the end of 2013 we intend to have all back issues of Brolga online. We believe that this collection of articles will be a valuable resource for students, researchers and dance lovers all over.
Harobo Perth, 2005. Dancer: Hannah Cann. Photo: Laura RossAusdance advocacy
The last few weeks have seen us engaged in quite a diverse range of advocacy activities across several states and territories.
We’ve chaired a National Advocates for Arts Education (NAAE) meeting in Sydney, attended the Arts & Health Forum at Parliament House in Canberra, discussed arts policy with Minister Crean’s arts adviser and the Secretary of the Office for the Arts in Canberra, and lobbied Schools Minister Peter Garrett about the implementation of The Australian Curriculum: The Arts.
Dance in the Northern Territory
In June we visited Darwin and participated in Monsoon Sessions, a professional development program for local artists. The two dance forums considered a range of issues of particular concern to NT artists, including Indigenous dance opportunities, career pathways, dance policy and the future of Ausdance NT.
NAAE welcomes arts curriculum
The National Advocates for Arts Education (NAAE) have welcomed the release of The Australian Curriculum: The Arts for public consultation.
Launching the draft on Monday, Schools Minister Peter Garrett said that he had been "a passionate advocate of the importance of arts as part of a comprehensive, well-rounded education", and that learning in the arts "inspires creativity, encourages young people to think critically, helps develop their sense of identity and can provide great benefits for learning in other core areas".
The NAAE is now advocating for improved teacher education in the arts, and for the allocation of more resources to enable the arts curriculum to be properly implemented.
The NAAE has released a media statement today supporting the draft curriculum, while noting that 'there is still work to do'.
Draft arts curriculum launched for consultation
Ausdance welcomes the launch of the draft of The Australian Curriculum: The Arts for public consultation, announced yesterday by The Federal Minister for School Education, the Hon. Peter Garrett. The consultation period will be for three months, until 23 September.
The new curriculum will, for the first time, entitle all young people to learning in dance at school, a major breakthrough for students and dance educators. The four other subjects in the arts curriculum are drama, media arts, music and visual arts.
Ausdance has played a strong lobbying role in having dance included in The Australian Curriculum: The Arts, and has supported ACARA—the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority—in the development of the dance curriculum.
We encourage you, as dance teachers in schools, students and parents, to continue having your say throughout this next consultation stage.
Ausdance welcomes new treasurer
The Ausdance team is pleased to welcome Peter Bayliss from Into Tomorrow on board as its Treasurer. Into Tomorrow is a Chartered Accounting firm that provides a variety of services to music, arts and community sector clients. The company was founded by Peter in 2009 to combine his passions for music, the arts and community services with his skills as an accountant and business manager.
Screen dance initiative 2012 – 14
Carriageworks will undertake a 3-year $300,000 Screen Dance initiative established by the dance board of the Australia Council for the Arts. The initiative has been developed in response to major shifts in the cross-disciplinary, collaborative nature of choreography, visual arts and film.
The National Arts & Health Forum
The forum at Parliament House on 27 June was an important step in developing a meaningful and effective arts and health policy framework. The forum media release gives you further details of speakers, topics and the outcomes of the meeting.
The audio of the forum is now available on Place Stories, as is the opening speech by the Minister for the Arts, the Hon Simon Crean MP.
Until recently the forum was referred to as a one-off event. However, the organisers now see the need for it to continue, informing the advice that the Arts & Health Foundation provides to the Ministerial Working Group on Arts and Health.
We have been invited to be part of this ongoing process, and hope that our members will contribute their experiences and amazingly successful dance and health stories via the Arts and Health PlaceStories website. More resources will be posted on PlaceStories in the weeks ahead.
Keith Bain tribute
Keith Bain OAM passed away in Sydney on 4 July, 2012. He was much loved and repected by the Australian dance community and will be greatly missed. Keith's inspiration, insights, generosity, humour and vision were valued by many.
Keith's funeral was held at the Eastern Suburbs Crematorium on Tuesday 10 July.
About Keith
Keith began as a ballroom dancer in the country town of his birth, Wauchope. He graduated as Dux of the year from Armidale Teachers College in 1945 and taught at Kogarah Boys High and Temora High where his students experienced quality music, drama and dance.
It was in Temora that he saw the Bodenwieser Dance Group perform, and after talking with the dancers, Keith said that he
...sensed that [he] had the eyes to analyse the work, the head to appreciate it and a body that might someday master it.
Keith moved to Sydney to begin his modern dance career.
2012 National dance research forum program
On the weekend of 4 – 5 August 2012 Australian dance researchers will meet in Melbourne to share their work, ideas and develop their dance research networks. Participants include dance researchers working in choreographic cognition, technology, injury prevention and management, intercultural research, audience development and dance education.
Australia Dancing leaps into Trove
The National Library of Australia has integrated the Australia Dancing service into the national discovery service Trove.
Trove is an exciting destination for dance researchers and expands the potential of finding new and rare materials in many diverse collections. Trove takes you to resources in libraries, archives, performing arts collections, galleries; to biographical databases and online collections including pictures, digitised newspapers and finding aids. Trove also incorporates the National Library's dance resources, which continue to grow each year.
BlakDance 2012 triumph
BlakDance 2012 festival in Brisbane highlighted a wonderful range of contemporary Indigenous dance from Australia and New Zealand.
Choreographers, dancers, industry members and audiences came together to celebrate and gain a deeper understanding of contemporary Indigenous dance practice.