From Arts Access Australia:
A new National Cultural Policy for Australia is being developed and you are invited to have your say.
The Federal Minister for the Arts, Simon Crean, has released a discussion paper on the National Cultural Policy that asks how the Australian Government should support arts and culture over the next 10 years.
You can read the discussion paper at http://culture.arts.gov.au
Help us make sure that arts and disability stays on the agenda!
To have your say…
There are a number of different ways you can tell the Government what you think should be in the National Cultural Policy.
We’ve made some notes on what we think should be included (see below). Feel free to copy or adapt these to make your own response. And ask your friends to do the same. Help us spread the word to get our voices heard!
Option 1: Fill in a short online survey…
The survey is also available in Word or PDF format and can be sent to culturalpolicy@pmc.gov.au or National Cultural Policy, Office for the Arts, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, PO Box 6500, Canberra ACT 2600.
Option 2: If you have more to say, then you can make an online submission…
The submission form is also available as a Word or PDF document and can be sent to culturalpolicy@pmc.gov.au or National Cultural Policy, Office for the Arts, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, PO Box 6500, Canberra ACT 2600.
Option 3: Join in one of the NCP roundtable discussions happening round the country.
Melbourne: 10th of October, 6 to 8pm at Arts Access Victoria (222 Bank Street, South Melbourne). RSVP to RSVP@artsaccess.com.au
Sydney: 13th of October, 9:30am to 3pm at the Utzon Room, Sydney Opera House. RSVP to Pia at pia@beyondempathy.org.au or 02 6772 0101. Or follow the debate on Twitter…
Have your say ends at midnight on the 21st of October 2011.
Arts and disability in the National Cultural Policy
Arts and culture plays an important role in the lives of all Australians. But not all Australians are able to participate in it equally.
The National Cultural Policy should actively demonstrate its commitment to improving access and opportunity for people with disability to engage in the arts at all levels: from attending as a member of an audience, to being employed within an arts organisation, to taking on a leadership role or working as a professional practicing artist.
The only area where disability is explicitly mentioned within the NCP Discussion Paper is in Goal 1. We call on the Government to ensure that disability is adequately represented in all areas of our National Cultural Policy. We must use this opportunity to make sure that Australia’s arts and culture is accessible for everyone to enjoy.
Goal 1: To ensure that what the Government supports – and how this support is provided – reflects the diversity of a 21st century Australia and protects and supports Indigenous culture.
All Australians should have the opportunity to participate in the cultural life of the nation, regardless of our abilities, age, gender, cultural and linguistic diversity, or geographic location.
The strategies needed to help meet this goal include:
- Authoritative national leadership on arts access and inclusion for people with disability.
- Including the findings, strategies and recommendations of the National Arts and Disability Strategy within the National Cultural Policy, rather than making it an appendix to it.
- Introduction of ongoing, dedicated funding for artists with disability.
- Conducting a full review and upgrade of our arts funding programs to make sure they’re accessible to all.
- Encourage and enforce compliance of the obligations that arts and cultural organisations have under the Disability Discrimination Act through monitored Disability Action Planning and support of a national Arts Access Award.
- Make sure that people with disability have a stronger voice in the decisions and organisations that affect us through cultural policy that supports and actively encourages participation at all levels of decision making (including senior management, leadership and governance roles).
- Building more active support and audiences for arts and disability practice and access to it by the entire population.
- Greater access and inclusion for Indigenous artists with disability, particularly due to the high level of disability experienced within our Indigenous communities.
Goal 2: To encourage the use of emerging technologies and new ideas that support the development of new artworks and the creative industries, and that enable more people to access and participate in arts and culture
Cultural policy needs to reflect the different ways that Australians take part in arts and creative activity.
The use of new technologies can go a long way to making our arts and culture more accessible to people with disability. But it is also important to note that while people with disability tend to be early adopters of new technologies, statistically we are still amongst the least likely to be able to afford them.
The Government has a role to make sure arts and cultural venues use new technologies to enhance engagement with their audiences, participants and collaborators and not as a way of offering people with disability a lesser service.
The strategies needed to help meet this goal include:
- Encourage and enforce compliance of the obligations that arts and cultural organisations have to provide captioning and audio description technologies.
- Ensuring that new technologies can’t be introduced at the exclusion of more traditional methods. For example, funding applications that can only be made online aren’t accessible to everybody.
- Increased emphasis on the use of new technologies to create new ways of making art and a commitment to funding innovative content.
Goal 3: To support excellence and world-class endeavor, and strengthen the role that the arts play in telling Australian stories both here and overseas
Australia’s diversity should be nurtured, supported and encouraged, and reflected in our arts and cultural activities.
The strategies needed to help meet this goal include:
- Commissioning new research to document the disability arts movement in Australia, our successful Australian artists with disability, and the benefits of participating in arts activity for people with disability.
- Increased investment in the arts and disability sector. A commitment of ongoing financial support from all three levels of government is required in order to redress the historical imbalance that has seen artists with disability receive fewer opportunities to develop their practice and professional careers.
- Promote excellence and encourage world-class standards above and beyond the major funded organisations and individuals. A diverse sector is a strong sector.
- Commitment to increasing representation of people with disability in our creative culture through funding organisations and artists to tell their stories.
- Encouraging organisations to stop casting non-disabled performers to depict people with disability on stage and on screen.
- Protection of the rights of those creating cultural works, including our freedom of expression, through effective policy and Australian copyright law. This is particularly relevant to artists with disability who work within a disability arts context, where themes relating to their own or a collective experience of impairment can be potentially confronting for some audiences.
Goal 4: To increase and strengthen the capacity of the arts to contribute to our society and economy
Every Australian has the right to experience and learn about the arts throughout our lives, and these experiences should be accessible for everyone to enjoy.
Participation in and access to arts and culture by people with disability is important to support a society that fosters creativity, innovation and community enrichment.
The strategies needed to help meet this goal include:
- Making sure that the new national curriculum is fully accessible to people with disability, to ensure all young Australians have access to this important arts education.
- Policing the accessibility of our arts education institutions to ensure accountability and to increase representation of students with disability at all levels of arts education.
- Recognising and resourcing alternative routes into arts education and employment, including volunteerism and mentoring.
- Ensuring that professional and aspiring artists and arts workers with disability have the same choices and opportunities to engage, practice and pursue a career in the arts as those without disability.
- Encourage and enforce compliance of the obligations that arts and cultural organisations have to be inclusive employers. Tap into the potential of the arts and cultural sector to lead the way in terms of inclusive, open employment for people with disability.
