What's the 5th World Summit on Arts & Culture?

  

Arts and culture policies and funding around the world will be compared and contrasted in Melbourne next week at the 5th World Summit on Arts & Culture.

Over 400 delegates from 74 countries are expected to attend the three-day conference that will also include a cultural program developed in consultation with Brett Sheehy, the Artistic Director for the Melbourne Festival.

The event is being co-hosted by the International Federation of Arts Council and Cultural Agencies (IFACCA) and the Australia Council for the Arts in partnership with Arts Victoria. The IFACCA serves as a global network of national arts funding agencies (that is of national organisations that have quasi-governmental artistic and cultural funding roles similar to that of the Australia Council) and others interested in arts funding and cultural policy. It provides a way to share experiences and information, to cooperate and to collaborate. Members include national arts councils, ministries of culture, cultural policy makers and researchers, artists and community leaders from 69 countries (The full list is available on the IFACCA website)

Among the IFACCA’s objectives are improving access to knowledge of world best-practices in public support of arts and culture, enhancing cooporation by facilitating networks and collaborative projects and promoting the value of public investment in a diversity of arts and cultural practices.

The Australia Council provided a critical role in the development of the IFACCA, which was inaugurated in 2001 after the first World Summit was held in Ottawa in 2000, hosted by the Canada Council. Triennial summits since have been held in Singapore in 2003, Newcastle Gateshead in 2006 and in Johannesburg in 2009.

As preparations geared up for next week’s Summit, Kathy Keele, CEO for the Australia Council said in a statement, “This is the only international event of its kind…It’s a rare occasion for us to gather from all corners of the world to share an illuminating diversity of cultural perspectives and arts policy-making.’

Creative Intersections
The Summit’s program and theme developed by the IFACCA in close consultation with Programme Advisor, Robyn Archer AO is Creative Intersections. This has been broken down into three areas guiding the program across the three days: Place, People and Projects.

Each day opens with a keynote session that is followed by a panel session then in the afternoon delegates will breakout into nine smaller roundtable discussion groups presented by over 70 speakers from 26 countries.

Among the keynotes will be a presentation from Catherine Cullen, Deputy Mayor in charge of Culture for the City of Lille, France who has also been President of United Cities and Local Government’s Committee on Culture speaking on the links between culture and place and the impact that has on arts policies; Jacques Martial talking about Parc de la Villette, in France, and Alison Tickell from Julie’s Bicycle in the UK, a non-profit company helping the creative industries to reduce their environmental impacts.

The panel session on the first day will discuss the role the arts have played in three very different places: struggling towns in the US, villages in New Delhi and isolated communities in Western Australia. Then on Wednesday, times and places where being an artist is dangerous and politically subversive will be discussed by Moroccan journalist and playwright, Driss Ksikes, Mexican anthropologist Lucina Jimenez and South African activist and playwright, Mike van Graan.

Roundtable discussions will cover a wide range of arts policy topics from issues of indigenous culture, community participation, environmental and climate change responsibilities, arts policy intersections with education, health, and community renewal; plus philanthropy and the impacts of digital technology and global connectivity.

Among the local Aussies participating will be Macquarie University’s Professor David Throsby, philanthropist and chair of the National Gallery of Australia Rupert Myer, Arts Access Australia’s Emma Bennison, Gavin Artz from the Australian Network for Art and Technology, Scott Rankin from Big hART, Marcus Westbury and Angharad Wynne-Jones from Tipping Point Australia.

“With the assistance of Programme Advisor, Robyn Archer AO, we have created a robust and dynamic programme to encourage lively debate, discussions and creative policy ideas,” said Sarah Gardner, Executive Director of IFACCA. “We hope the delegates will also take advantage of the many opportunities for learning, exchange and building worldwide networks.”

It seems likely the World Summit will provide much food for thought for Australians contemplating the role and the future of our own National Cultural policy.

5th World Summit on Arts & Culture,
Melbourne 2011
Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre
3-6 October 2011

For further information visit http://artsummit.org/