Australia Council
The Australia Council for the Arts is the Australian Government’s arts funding and advisory body. It supports Australia’s arts through funding, strengthening and developing the arts sector. See www.australiacouncil.gov.au
Data from the Australia Council and the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that the number of professional artists in Australia grew strongly between 1987 and 2001, faster than both the population and the labour force. New estimates suggest that this strong historical growth may not have continued from 2001 to the present, but that there has been a noticeable surge in creative arts activity within the wider population, in what might be thought of as ‘non professional’ arts practice.
On the other hand, the 2001 and 2006 Censuses indicate that the number of artists who have creative arts as their main job declined by 15 per cent. By comparison, total employment grew by 10 per cent over the period. This is the first time in over 20 years that the Census has recorded below trend growth for ‘main job’ artists.
Income gap:
In 2001, the median income of full time artists was $26,000 below that of other professionals; in 2006 it was $30,100 below.
Indigenous
The Indigenous population is relatively young with 65 per cent of the total Indigenous population under 25 years of age and of that cohort, 40 per cent are under the age of 15 years. Of the total Indigenous population 3 per cent are over the age of 65 years of age. In the transmission of cultural knowledge, issues of cultural identity are paramount due to the loss of elders and the acculturation of younger people. In this regard, the theme of Powering the Young takes on a particular meaning and gravity when discussing Indigenous culture.
Powering the Young
According to recent Australia Council research young people are more likely than older people to be producers of visual arts and crafts, theatre, dance, creative writing and music. This was to some degree a reflection of education, with young students more actively involved in the arts than young workers. Arts participation levels amongst younger people also appeared to be on the rise, with this group more likely to have increased their involvement in the arts in the last year.
The Australia Council’s Young People and the Arts Strategy works to align the Council’s efforts to support this creativity through:
- Increasing the number of young people applying to our program of assistance and identifying professional development opportunities
- Supporting organisations that provide significant opportunities for creative collaboration between professional artists and young people in all aspects of artistic planning and the creative process.
Education
International research demonstrates that when children engage in the arts as part of their education, their skills increase in other areas. Embedding the arts in our education curricula allows young Australians to realise their full potential, and provide the “big ideas” thinkers of tomorrow, on whose creativity and skill the nation will rely for its stability and prosperity. Providing arts training to all primary and secondary school teachers will facilitate this growth.
The education agenda is wider than this. Through effective audience development and community engagement programs, we can encourage more Australians to embrace the arts as an intrinsic part of their physical and emotional vocabulary, competency and democratic inheritance.
Access to high quality arts events remains an important aspect of a student’s arts experience and this will continue to be addressed through arts organisations’ programming and touring. The Australia Council’s Education and the Arts Strategy 2009 – 2012, which is informed by the National Education and Arts Statement, aims to facilitate long-term, strategic engagement and partnerships between students, teachers and schools, and artists and arts organisations in and through the arts.
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