Though sparsely reported in the media, three recent Australian Government actions have very great implications for us all. A landmark decision has just been made by the Federal Arts Minister Peter Garrett and all the state and territory education minister members of the Ministerial Council for Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA). They agreed at their April meeting to include visual and performing arts in the second phase of the development of a national curriculum for schools. Until then, the National Curriculum Board had been fobbing off the vociferous chorus of voices pointing out that unless the arts was included as a core element of every child's school education, all the rhetoric about the need to foster innovation and creativity would be to little avail.
NAVA is an active member of the National Advocates for Arts Education (NAAE), which has been lobbying hard for the recognition of the importance of an arts education for every 21st century child. NAAE presented international research evidence proving the value of an arts rich education to children's cognitive development. This was strongly supported in the two government commissioned reviews into visual and music education, which made a powerful case for arts learning to be a compulsory subject at least from Kindergarten to Year 10.
NAVA maintains that visual imagery is so ubiquitous in young people’s on-line and phone communication, that the curriculum urgently needs to catch up. Tamara Winikoff, NAVA’s Executive Director said, “It is a key to stimulating creativity, imagination and invention in children and equipping them to be articulate in the visual realm. As one of the core skills underpinning the creative industries, it is now needed by all adults to be able to contribute effectively to Australia’s economic, social and environmental development.”
NAAE will be advising the newly formed Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority in its task of developing the best possible arts curriculum model to be applied across the nation. The changes will also have to encompass teachers’ pre- and in-service training needs to keep pace with the rapidly expanding scope of the field and kids’ interdisciplinary interests, and will require an investment of new resources by both levels of government.
Another decision of fundamental importance to Australian artists is one to be made as the result of the Government’s National Human Rights Consultation currently underway around the country. The consultation is designed to seek the views of the Australian community on how human rights and responsibilities should be protected in the future. A core element will be freedom of expression. This consultation implements the Rudd Government’s election commitment and builds on the human rights ideas emerging from the 2020 Summit held last year.
In undertaking its work on an Art Censorship Guide, NAVA has come across a disconcerting number of cases where artists’ freedom of expression has been curtailed, sometimes at the whim of one person or interest group. Until faced with this problem, most people don’t realise that there is no legislated protection of this right in Australia, the only developed country not to have it.
The National Human Rights Consultation provides the opportunity for
you to share your views by making a written submission on or before June 15th, either online or by post. As well, there are still some community roundtable discussions going on which you can join in. The Government will then consider the report and hopefully move to legislate for human rights protection in Australia. For more information go to: www.humanrightsconsultation.gov.au/. Also if you have experienced or know of cases of censorship, NAVA is keen to hear from you. Email merrilee@visualarts.net.au or ring 02 9368 1900.
The other important signals being given by the Government are its recent response to the recommendations of the 2020 Summit. In relation to the Towards a Creative Australia stream, some responses dealt with initiatives already being implemented including the $5.2 million Artists-in-Residence schools program over four years intended to improve access to quality artistic experiences for primary, secondary and tertiary students, and the $6.6 million over four years devolved to the Australia Council for the Opportunities for Young and Emerging Artists program, which will include a significant national mentoring component, currently being decided on.
Some election promises were reaffirmed including the promise to provide start up assistance for emerging artists (exactly how was not specified) and undertake a review of the current state of artists’ incomes. Also reiterated was the intention to implement the ArtStart program, which would introduce initiatives that enable artists currently on welfare to have greater opportunities to produce work and generate employment. The Government also reaffirmed its intention to ratify the UNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity for which a draft National Interest Analysis has been prepared. Hard to measure but welcome will be the intention to actively promote Australian arts and culture internationally through the Government’s overseas network of Australian diplomatic posts and interagency arrangements.
Of the new elements, some were only in principle indications like the agreement to consider development of a national cultural policy and to consider a number of support mechanisms for the arts, including in relation to private sector support. The Government commented that a national endowment fund could be considered in that context. Philanthropic tax incentives will be considered as part of the Government’s Review of Australia’s Future Tax System and possibly other reviews of the not-for-profit sector.
In relation to the recommendation for the establishment of an Indigenous Knowledge Centre, the Government said it would initiate a comprehensive feasibility study to ask the Indigenous and wider communities and existing institutions to propose options for the most effective way to strengthen and support Indigenous culture.
Then there’s the economic downturn and swine flu and….
