Where were you on election night 2007? If you are involved in Australian visual arts, in the coming years you may have cause to remember. The new PM, Kevin Rudd has firmly indicated that arts is on his agenda with the announcement of the establishment of the richest literary prize in the world. Could this be heralding a new Renaissance in Australia?
For the visual arts, Labor’s victory signals the opening up of some exciting new possibilities. Many items on NAVA’s wish list were included in New Directions for the Arts (Labor’s arts policy) though at this stage some are only mentioned in principle. When Peter Garrett gets back from climate change talk in Bali, there will be an eager group of arts advocates waiting for him and we’ll be at the head of the queue.
Our lead story is that there is a firm commitment to introduction of an Artists Resale Royalty. Labor had tried twice previously with private members bills being introduced into parliament, but the Coalition was opposed and that was that. Now it is way up there on Labor’s ‘to do’ list.
One of NAVA’s election proposals which isn’t yet in the policy is the need for the following financial commitments:
* $3 million per annum for the payment of artists’ fees for work exhibited in publicly funded galleries (and therefore not offered for sale)
* $4 million per annum to enable smaller arts organizations to develop their on-line management, communication & information systems to keep pace with technological change
* $12+ million per annum Visual Arts and Craft Strategy (VACS) commitment needs to be adopted as the new baseline level of additional support and fully indexed every year.
This text appears in a regular monthly column NAVA writes for Arts Hub, the online home for arts workers. To read the full column, click here to visit Arts Hub News, Analysis and Comment.
