Australian Arts in an International Context

John Clark, Peter McCallum, Ian Maxwell, editors

Sydney: Sydney University Press 2007

ISBN 978-1-920898-14-4

Reviewed by Elizabeth Silsbury

Mem Fox tells me she is just back from her 100^th trip to the USA promoting Where the Giant Sleeps, her 32^nd and latest book. All paid for by her publishers. No subsidy from the public purse. They do things differently in America.

Sydney University academics John Clark, Professor in Arts History and founding Director of the Australian Centre for Asian Art and Archaeology, Peter McCallum, Academic Advisor, Office of the Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor and chief music critic for the Sydney Morning Herald and Ian Maxwell, Chair of the Department of Performance Studies collected an equally formidable galaxy of arts practitioners and administrators for a one-day seminar in December 2006. They teased out questions about whether Australia should be putting more effort and dollars into informing the world about our performing and visual arts.

Comparisons with other countries make us look like skinflints. “Australia spends just 17 cents per capita on cultural diplomacy, compared with Germany, which spends approximately $3, and the UK, which spends an impressive $19 per capita”, according to the report of a Senate Inquiry into the nature and conduct of Asialink, an organisation committed to promoting Australian-Asian engagement.

Questions – is it reasonable to compare our tiny population with their huge, even gigantic ones?

Is there an unstated background lurking? Why was there a senate inquiry? Was there some disquiet about the success of Asialink?

The nub (?) question comes early in Maxwell’s introductory essay. “Should Australia have an advocacy body of some sort, responsible for the dissemination of Australian culture [my italics] internationally?” Comparisons are made with the British Council, the Goethe Institut, Cervantes Institute and the Confucius Council. Welcome to the new PM, Mandarin speaker Kevin Rudd.

Inevitably, because this was a seminar run by academics, a fair amount of space is taken up writing about what other people have written about what more other people have written about the subject, like Maxwell on Arjun Apparduri – Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy –  and Peter Garrett – What Brandis Must Do (written pre-24 November). For the most part though, the papers are by the foot soldiers. Darryl Buckley (ELISION), independent producer Marguerite Pepper and Bernice Murphy, National Director of Museums Australia, were invited to address seminal questions on what we are doing and how we can do it better. Murphy flirts with the distinction between Australian arts and arts; a major point and one that invites further delving. The Australian Chamber Orchestra, arguably our best export in all the arts, takes roughly 80% European and 20% Australian compositions on its international tours – an approximate reflection of the state of things in our country. Some overseas critics write that they love ACO’s Australian style of playing, whatever that might be.

In sessions on International Opportunities and Success Stories Alison Carroll from Asialink gives details of overseas funding; Mary-Jo Capps encapsulates Musica Viva’s rich history – a sweet story about a tour to Tonga, Samoa and Fiji. Jennifer McLachlan rejoices that “Australian dance is bloody everywhere”; big, medium and small companies – in 2004/05 Adelaide’s Australian Dance Theatre played 68 shows in 45 venues in seven countries to a total audience of 40,000. Speakers for the visual arts produce facts and figures from the Sydney (1973-2006) and Venice Biennales – too early for the Australian triumphs there this year. Jennifer Bott speaks with authority about her experiences with many arts and government bodies – Tess de Quincy’s story is an inspiring one of an individual determined to bring her mixed-media, social inclusion exchange program with India to fruition despite spasmodic funding from Australian sources.

While writing this review, I was puzzled that there was no mention in the Seminar Report of John Davis, Director of the Australian Music Centre, the body above all others charged with building bridges between our music and the rest of the world. His reply email came from Hong Kong, where he was watching over five Australian composers presenting their own works, chosen against intense competition. At the ISCM World Music Days, yes, he had attended the Symposium, and recalled disparities between individuals struggling to go their own way and organisations with open access to government agencies such as DFAT and their prime movers. Davis referred to “political propaganda exercises”. Now there’s a thought.

In his Afterword, Peter McCallum puts the case for and against a formal advocacy structure – Rachel Healy makes a fair, strong and objective case for – suggesting that further discussions are warranted.

Two grizzles. This little book is so tightly bound I had to practically break its back to read it. And it could do with an index and an audience Appendix.