The eighth National Local Government Cultural Forum was held 15 November 2016, in Melbourne. An initiative of the Cultural Development Network (CDN) with the Australia Council for the Arts, Australian Local Government Association (ALGA), its member state and territory associations and capital cities and the Department of Communications and the Arts. The objective of the Cultural Forum is to extend the understanding, quality, reach and profile of local government’s contribution to Australia’s cultural life.
National Local Government Cultural Forum Meeting
The eighth meeting of the Cultural Forum agreed to progress the following activities.
- The development of new datasets on inputs, outputs and outcomes moved closer to agreement through trials and validation. The eight capital cities reported on their second collection of agreed inputs and outputs data which will lead to working with the local government associations in each jurisdiction to extend the trial to a further selection of councils over 2017. The development of five measurable cultural outcomes for use in evaluation with inputs and outputs will move to a formal program of validation over 2017.
- Quality. The use and efficacy of measurable cultural outcomes for measuring quality will continue into 2017. The Cultural Forum will continue to develop frameworks for better planning and evaluation and a key stage in this development was the Cultural Forum’s endorsement of five measurable cultural outcomes of cultural development which will be trialled and reviewed with more councils. The measurable cultural outcomes will form an important part of cultural development panning for local government as measuring the cultural outcomes of engagement in cultural development activities will be possible, for the first time, alongside the social, economic, environmental outcomes.
- The reach of local government’s contribution to Australia’s cultural life is represented through more than 560 Australian local governments. The Cultural Forum agreed that a key activity is to continue the work with the associations in each jurisdiction to expand the sample councils across Australia to participate in trials of an online cultural development project building and recording system. This will enable benchmarking and exchange of arts projects and artists’ data that not only addresses the objectives of the cultural development activities but increases the consistency of understanding reach and impact through agreed evaluation methods.
- The work of the Cultural Forum supports increased planning and capability across arts, libraries and heritage and beyond local government. As the profile has increased, the members of the Cultural Forum agreed to prepare a communications plan that will assist in clearly communicating the work and future directions of the Cultural Forum.
The National Local Government Cultural Forum is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body, and managed by CDN in cooperation with ALGA.
Further information, contact the CDN: John Smithies john.smithies@culturaldevelopment.net.au
or +61 3 99250974.