Announcing the publication of the E-book Re-structure conference proceedings (edited by J.H. Brüggemeier & H. Davies) published by Unlikely Journal for Creative Arts

Featuring participants from performance, fashion, creative arts, gaming, media and community intervention, the Re-structure conference explored both broader sustainable strategies as well as “clever partial solutions” to cultural and knowledge production in a post-public sector environment.

Authors included Stephen Healy, Maria Miranda, Grace McQuilten and Anthony White, Jon Hawkes, Katharine McKinnon, Vic McEwan and Joan Staples.

The Re-structure conference in 2014 looked at the current state of the arts, and considered alternative modes of culture and knowledge production within times of shrinking public expenditures. Featuring participants from performance, fashion, creative arts, gaming, media and community intervention, the event explores both broader sustainable strategies as well as “clever partial solutions” to cultural and knowledge production in a “post-public” sector environment.

In seeking alternatives, the Re-structure conference looked to the proliferation of smaller scale community economies worldwide, in both on and offline environments, and to the modes of cultural production and knowledge exchange with other sectors such as environmental NGOs. We explain this brief history to establish an important context – to inform the reader that the essays collected together here were written under the shadow of the extraordinary changes proposed by Brandis and Abbott.

And now for some good news!

Here is the announcement lifted from Creative Victoria website:

With more than $115 million in new funding, Creative State is designed to grow Victoria’s $23 billion creative and cultural economy, turbocharge local creative enterprises, create new jobs and employment opportunities, and bring social and cultural benefits to Victorians.

Creative State was launched on Tuesday 19 April by the Minister for the Creative Industries, Martin Foley. Read the Minister’s foreword here.

There are five focus areas and 40 targeted actions in the strategy, which you can explore in full on the Govt website. The focus areas are:

Backing creative talent

Strengthening the creative industries ecosystem

Delivering wider economic and social impact

Increasing participation and access

Building international engagement

This is Part 2 of Runway Art Journal blog series on ECOLOGIES – An audio conversation between Anabelle Lacroix, Madé Spencer-Castle and me, Maria Miranda.

IN RESPONSE: REVISITING A MELBOURNE PERSPECTIVE

Anabelle Lacroix

Madé Spencer-Castle

Maria Miranda

As Part 2 of our ongoing blog series on the ecologies of the Artist Run Initiatives, we’re hoping to stimulate further conversation, reflection and debate. We’ve asked all the contributors from Part 1 to create a response to the contributions of their peers. In this week’s instalment, Maria Miranda (Research fellow at the Victorian College of the Arts) leads a conversation with Madé Spencer-Castle (Artist and Curator at Bus Projects) and Anabelle Lacroix (Independent Curator and General Manager at Liquid Architecture) on their responses to the series and to their own experiences. You can read Maria’s first post here.

ACAB in collaboration with Nickk Hertzog, CONCRETE TERRA, 23 July – 16 August, 2014. Photo credit Deb Bain-King. The Front.

On March 22, the new Canadian Govt brought down its budget. During his campaign Prime Minister Trudeau had promised to double funding to the Canada Council for the Arts. And that’s just what he did. Sort of. It will be doubled over a period of four years. But hey! let’s not quibble. This is a wonderful example of a government with some vision and understanding of the value of the arts and more broadly cultural production, to the whole community.  And please note the FINANCE Minister says:

“Culture is synonymous with creation. It also creates a collective wealth that goes beyond economic benefits and statistics,” Finance Minister Bill Morneau said in his budget speech.

Here’s a snippet of  from Canadian Art news.

$40 Million More for Canada Council

The federal budget released today offers $40 million in new funding to the Canada Council (on top of its previous $180 million allotment) in the upcoming year.

This brings total annual Canada Council funding for the coming year to $220 million—a 20% surge, but $140 million short of the original fall promise of $360 million.

However, the budget plan promises that funding for the Canada Council will increase each year over the next five years—with $75 million in additional funding to come next year, and $115 million more the year after that. The doubling of the Council budget to $360 million under this plan is scheduled to happen in 2020–2021.

Representatives from the Canadian Arts Coalition, the Canadian Museums Association, the Artist Run Centres and Collectives Conference, and CARFAC all expressed optimism at the new Council funding.

“Visual artists in Canada contribute greatly to the economy and our cultural identity, yet more than half subsist on less than $18,000/year,” read a statement from CARFAC. “Providing for more federal grants through the Canada Council for the Arts will have a significant and positive effect on artists’ incomes and the sustainability of their lives.”

Promises on Art Abroad, But Needs on Artist-Run Home Front Too

The Artist Run Centres and Collectives Conference (ARCA), for instance, released a post-budget statement to the effect that it wants to see the new money at the Canada Council distributed to address gaps in current funding for artist-run centres.

“ARCA is optimistic that this [Canada Council] investment will make up for years of stagnation in the funding of artistic organizations, including artist-run centres (ARCs),” the statement read.

“ARCA sincerely hopes Council will work in close collaboration with arts service organizations for the implementation of the new funding model and consider increases to multi-year core funding to organizations a priority. It’s worth recalling that only 10% of the $146 million in public funding received by visual arts organizations goes to artist-run centres,” the statement continued.