Writing in ArtsHub, Gina Fairly provides an interesting summary of a recent NAVA and Artspace pre-election meeting to ‘harness the arts voice’.
For creative artists working in academia, the speakers views will resonate not only with the position of artists in society but also that of creative arts in academia. When Artspace Director Alexie Gass-Kantor strategically advises against opposition to ‘the majors’ – ‘their money is quarantined – it is always going to be quarantined’, one cannot help but draw analogies with the position of arts and STEM disciplines in research funding. Similarly with the observation that everyone wants to pay for projects but nobody wants to pay for operations, staff or infrastructure.
Suggesting a solution to build the case for arts, the article suggests ‘rather than crying for an inequality to be addressed and dwelling on the dollars and cents, we need to be looking at the bigger picture . . and find a way to speak collectively’.
As we face either a returned Coalition government or a new Labor administration, the article delivers timely reminder of the importance of a collective voice – as both artists and academics.