World Summit on Arts and Culture 2011
The 5th World Summit on Arts and Culture was held in Melbourne from 3 to 6 October and hosted by the International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies (IFACCA) in partnership with the Australia Council.
The theme for the 2011 Summit ‘Creative Intersections’ focussed on the relationship between arts and culture and other sectors of society. This was particularly relevant in light of the development of Australia’s National Cultural Policy which will highlight the important social and economic contribution that the arts and culture in this country is making to other policy areas.
One of the common themes running through key sessions was the impact that the source of funding, particularly funding from non-arts areas of government, can have on discovering new ways of addressing social and health issues through the arts. For example Wan Smolbag, an artists’ collective from Vanuatu, spoke about how their productions had changed after receiving funding from AusAID, which meant that their projects had a stronger focus on health, capacity building and education.
The summit attracted close to 500 delegates from 74 countries around the world. With so many different representatives from arts and culture agencies, there were naturally differing views on the key priorities and issues facing the arts and culture sector.
A representative of KHOJ, an Indian artists’ group, spoke about the difficulty in relying on funding from foreign aid groups alone with no government support. Delegates from areas of conflict spoke about the risk of death or injury faced by artists who speak out against current rule or practice. Other speakers gave presentations on the significant capacity of community arts projects to help communities in conflict resolve their differences and rebuild.
At a roundtable discussion on digital technology and its impact on the arts, participants highlighted the role technology can play in opening up new means of creative expression and the importance of ensuring that policy reflects changes in use of new technologies.
Throughout the summit, there was a consistent theme of the important role arts and culture play in social engagement, community development and economic recovery. This and the many other topics of debate were valuable in helping inform what we do here in Australia to support our arts and culture industries.
In particular, there was strong interest among delegates in Australia’s new National Cultural Policy. It is clear that arts agencies across the world will be watching closely as we move forward with setting the direction of Australian arts and culture into the future.