AUSTRALIA 2020 SUMMIT OUTCOMES

The future of the arts, film and design

• Australia 2020 Initial Report [1]

By a long shot this stream produced the best butcher's paper brainstorms, if it had only occurred to them to sign them and sell them off by auction at the end of the event.

Our artistic delegates want to see a greater emphasis placed on art as part of the school curriculum, featuring the participation of "practitioners in residence", and an extension of the creative opportunities available to students through summer schools. They want to see national art collections digitised by 2020, and for more support to be provided to creative endeavours through existing R&D funding mechanisms.   

Delegates also called for the creation of National Endowment Fund for the Arts, combining public and private philanthropy, and providing a range of funding mechanisms which reward success in artistic endeavours.

Interestingly, this stream also called for Indigenous creativity and culture to be placed at the core of art in Australia, with a greater emphasis on indigenous culture, language and heritage through the creation of a National Indigenous Cultural Authority.

But can we fit more art into a school curriculum already full to bursting? Should we really be encouraging our kids to focus on artistic achievement, in a time of a skills shortage? How would these programs contribute to the country overall?

To read pre-Summit submissions by Open Forum participants, click here [1].