'To celebrate ten years of Platform Papers, tracking the cultural thinking of the nation, we have invited Wesley Enoch, a theate artist and Nunuccal Nuugi man from Stradbroke Island, to define what we mean by cultural leadership; and to ruminate on where to find it. With the growth of governmentled cultural patronage, have we obscured the core reasons why the arts exist? Have the voices of the mob, the dissenters and the rambunctious opposition been corralled into an official culture? ‘I am sick of hearing we’re not good enough, we don’t do enough for artists, we need more money. Where are the visionaries? Artists are amongst the best qualified people to imagine a future, the ones who can carry the creative dreams of a nation. But where are you? Government champions the arts more than artists do, he says.
'Enoch finds the arts community ridden with mistrust, and fearful of those who speak out. Australia, he concludes, is in great need of cultural leadership; of a fresh force to challenge thinking and gather confidence, to speak out as citizens in the national interest. But where to look? He finds the answer close to home.' (Publication summary)
Performing Arts Markets and Their Conundrums
Strawberry Hills
:
Currency Press
,
2020
18632407
2020
single work
criticism
'Once, the idea of the arts participating in what are undeniably trade fairs, complete with product booths, giveaways and funny hats, would have been a breach of faith with their sponsors. Today, it is the norm. These events range from the huge and grotesque, such as APAP (American Performing Arts Presenters) to the less daunting, such as CINARS in Montreal or APAM in Australia. From the US the concept spread around the globe and while Europe has largely resisted the trend there are now arts markets throughout Asia, North and South America and the Pacific.
'But the question now is: has the arts market outlived its usefulness? Have the new digital platforms made touring redundant? Has the rapid, borderless exchange of artists, and the worldwide experience of co-productions, residencies and other collaboration, made them superfluous? Isn’t the world simply saturated with dance, physical theatre and new music, not to say festivals and circuits? Veteran marketeer Justin Macdonnell is uncompromising in his advice. APAM is seeking to reinvent itself from an intensive four-day conference every two years to an elongated ‘process’ in Melbourne. So, an awareness of the need is in the air. But change to what and where might it end?
'This paper questions the assumptions underlying the whole notion of a market: the role that government agencies have played in advocating, enabling and even owning such events; and re-evaluates their achievements and shortcomings. It suggests other possibilities, including those now under trial in Australia.' (Publication abstract)
Performing Arts Markets and Their Conundrums
Strawberry Hills
:
Currency Press
,
2020
18632407
2020
single work
criticism
'Once, the idea of the arts participating in what are undeniably trade fairs, complete with product booths, giveaways and funny hats, would have been a breach of faith with their sponsors. Today, it is the norm. These events range from the huge and grotesque, such as APAP (American Performing Arts Presenters) to the less daunting, such as CINARS in Montreal or APAM in Australia. From the US the concept spread around the globe and while Europe has largely resisted the trend there are now arts markets throughout Asia, North and South America and the Pacific.
'But the question now is: has the arts market outlived its usefulness? Have the new digital platforms made touring redundant? Has the rapid, borderless exchange of artists, and the worldwide experience of co-productions, residencies and other collaboration, made them superfluous? Isn’t the world simply saturated with dance, physical theatre and new music, not to say festivals and circuits? Veteran marketeer Justin Macdonnell is uncompromising in his advice. APAM is seeking to reinvent itself from an intensive four-day conference every two years to an elongated ‘process’ in Melbourne. So, an awareness of the need is in the air. But change to what and where might it end?
'This paper questions the assumptions underlying the whole notion of a market: the role that government agencies have played in advocating, enabling and even owning such events; and re-evaluates their achievements and shortcomings. It suggests other possibilities, including those now under trial in Australia.' (Publication abstract)
