Australia Council Arts Catalyst

This is the title of the paper developed by the Australia Council to describe its intentions to restructure.. The Australia Council issued a press release in December 2004, announcing its plan to reorganise its operations. An analysis of the proposals was quickly prepared for the February Music Forum, at a time when the field had not yet responded (it being the beginning of the holiday period). Read this Article.

Various interest groups took their concerns to the Australia Council. For its part, the Music Council has worked with counterpart organisations in a national coalition named ArtsPeak. We had a correspondence with the Ozco and also met with its representatives twice. The main other interest groups were from the community cultural development (CCD) and new media arts (NMA) sectors, both of which lose the funding and policy boards especially committed to their interests in the Australia Council.

In early April, the Australia Council met and voted for a plan amended after all these consultations. It issued a press release outlining the decisions taken.

ArtsPeak had written to the Council expressing a number of concerns. Some of these were addressed in its second meeting, and others in the press release mentioned.

A summary of these exchanges can be read in this Music Forum article.

The final Australia Council formulation as of May 2005 can be read at www.ozco.gov.au Go to FUTURE PLANNING

The Australia Council originally announced the changes as a fait accompli. The response from the arts world was robust, especially from the community cultural development sector, whose Australia Council board was to be disbanded. One outcome is the formation of a sectoral advocacy group, the National Arts and Cultural Alliance, with a website at www.naca.org.au The other Board to be disbanded was New Media Arts. The special interests of that sector are covered by the publication RealTime and its website is at www.realtimearts.net