Spread the Word
Get the facts and tell the story
One of the myths about arts practitioners is that they can’t explain what they do. Without pinning the butterfly of creativity to the wall and killing its intrinsic beauty, we can build up information that is convincing about the value of arts activity.
Annual reports from the national body, the Australia Council for the Arts (OZCO) and from Arts Queensland are good sources of statistics for advocates. In the Year in Review 2006-2007, the Australia Council reported that the arts in Australia contributed $16.9 billion to the economy and employed 300,000 people.
If you google Arts Queensland and type ‘report’ into the search box on the site you can read the latest report and subscribe to the newsletter which keeps you up to date on activities and funding statewide. Make sure you let them know about your event too.
When arts and cultural activity is making such a great contribution, it is amazing how it still disappears under ‘social’ in so much policy, reporting and funding activity. As advocates we need to keep the cultural and creative industry sector in the spotlight.
Through an extensive research project funded by Regional Arts Australia, which took her around the nation, Anne Dunn identified some of the issues around valuing the arts (2006:13).
She made these priority areas for action:
- For artists and communities to gain skills in dealing with the media and to develop a local media strategy.
- For new ways to be found for arts news to be integrated into TV, radio and newsprint.
- For robust statistics that can be used in media campaigns.
In our own small ways we can act on this advice in our own communities.