Supporting the practice of arts in communities
Creating Australia (CA) is a not-for-profit organisation with a broad brief to support community arts and cultural development in Australia. CA was established in 2013 as a cross-sector organisation for the Australian community arts and cultural development (CACD) sector, providing communication, collaboration, national discussions on CACD practice and advocacy.
Between 2013-2016 CA’s broad brief was to support community arts and cultural development which saw the organization initiate and deliver a number of projects and events including: partnering with the Griffith Review to publish its 2014 Winter Edition – Cultural Solutions; launching CACD500 an online project documentation platform; and hosting The Rights of Culture Summit: a conversation about Indigenous freedoms which examined ways to build the visibility and sustainability of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural practice.
In 2016, CA joined with CDN to bring the shared goals of both organisations together. CA functions as a valuable research platform intended to build the evidence-base for the impacts of cultural practice on social justice.
Creating Australia’s vision is an Australia where access to and participation in cultural life is recognised as a fundamental right of all individuals.
This philosophy is founded on a theory of change that evidence based planning and evaluation of arts and cultural activities will inform and strengthen policy development, arm funders and decisions makers with reasons to invest, and raise the standards of public discourse.
To deliver on its vision, Creating Australia will advocate for governments at all levels to have a cultural development policy that is integrated with social, economic, environmental and governance domains and that culture is recognised equally as public policy domain in its own right.
CA has contributed to the development of the CDN frameworks with Indigenous and cultural organisations through the “Three Bark Canoes” project and an ongoing cooperative relationship with the Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Cultural Centre (KALACC).
Organisation
Creating Australia is an independent company limited by guarantee with Tax Concession Charity status and DGR-1 status through the Register of Cultural Organisations.
Both CA and CDN are managed by a volunteer Board of directors whose expertise includes arts practice, academia, local and state government, the non-profit sector and arts organisations.
Resources and Publications
The following two factsheets were published by CA as a guide to practice and a helpful explanatory tool for artists and organisations to use when describing their work to those outside the sector.
Principles of Community Arts & Cultural Development
What is Community Arts and Cultural Development?
As part of its brief to support community arts and cultural development CA partnered with the Griffith Review to publish its 2014 Winter Edition – Cultural Solutions which can be downloaded here.
In 2015, CA hosted the ‘Rights of Culture: a conversation about Indigenous freedoms’ summit which examined ways to build the visibility and sustainability of Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander cultural practice. A copy of the summit report can be read here.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples should be aware that this report may contain images or names of people who have since passed away.
The Three Bark Canoes project was developed by the community arts organisation, Wurinbeena Ltd. This organisation is comprised of Elders and Aboriginal and non-Indigenous members of communities in East Gippsland. Objectives of this project included connecting young men with their cultural heritage and bridging some of the social cleavages which exist within and across those communities. A team of researchers tracked the project across most of 2017 and its afterlife up to September 2018 and the final report can be read here.
Contact
General Enquiries: contact@culturaldevelopment.net.au
Call: 0474 890 971
Executive Officer: John Smithies: john.smithies@culturaldevelopment.net.au
Administration Officer: Raji Uppal: raji.uppal@culturaldevelopment.net.au
Postal address:
PO Box 12099, A’Beckett Street, Melbourne, VIC, Australia, 8006
Office street address:
Level 1, 168 La Trobe Street (RMIT University Building 24)
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3000
ABN: 48 164 354 278
ACN: 164 354 278