Media Releases

AUSTRALIA COUNCIL’S NEW DIRECTIONS

The following article by Council CEO Jennifer Bott was published by The Advertiser on 19 April 2005.

‘Australia Council’s new direction’

Despite Louise Nunn’s assertions (‘Arts future reliant on changes across the board’, The Advertiser, 12.4.05), it is certainly not ‘business as usual’ at the Australia Council.

We are pursuing a new direction, one that asks the organisation to think and act differently, and the arts sector to work with us in a new way.

By claiming that there will be ‘no great shift’ in the operations of the Council’s ‘traditional’ boards, Nunn misses a fundamental shift in the way we will develop and support new media/hybrid arts, community cultural development and other community arts practices.

These practices are continually evolving, so we want the whole of the Australia Council to consider and support work that involves new directions in their sectors. This is, we believe, the best way to ensure the healthy future of these arts practices.

Nunn appears to presuppose that removing a Council board is akin to removing support. Nothing is further from our plans.

Nunn implied that the so-called ‘traditional artforms’ are not ‘producing groundbreaking work’. There are thousands of Australian writers, dancers, actors and musicians who would beg to differ.

As to the detail of how artists working in these areas will be funded, it is hardly the ‘mystery’ that Nunn claims: the plans are available on our website.

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