Source: listofimages.com
The following report is drawn from the Communique: Meeting of Cultural Ministers, 10 October 2014. The meeting of Arts and Cultural Ministers was held in Alice Springs on Friday 10 October 2014.
Collecting Cultural Material
Of particular interest to museums will be the official release by the Ministers of the Australian Best Practice Guide to Collecting Cultural Material. It was agreed that each Minister would promote the resource to public collecting institutions in their jurisdiction. For further detail on the development and content of the Guide see the earlier CAMD news item ‘Collecting Cultural Material’.
Cultural Statistics
Another item of interest to museums relates to the collection of cultural data in Australia. This collection has been seriously compromised in recent year by the withdrawal of funding for statistical collection on the museum industry and the recent decision by the Australian Bureau of Statistics to withdraw from the collection of arts and cultural statistics.
At their meeting, the Ministers endorsed work to secure the ‘continued collection of core cultural data’, which will support national cultural statistics collections from 2015-16. Further detail of what this will involve is currently being sought from the MCM Secretariat.
Ministers also noted progress by the WA Government in measuring the public value of the arts through the CultureCounts system which it is piloting.
Other issues
At the meeting, the Ministers also:
- released the National Arts and Disability Strategy Evaluation 2009-12 and endorsed its recommendations and priority areas of action as a framework for continued focus;
- acknowledged the importance of private sector support by requesting officials to identify opportunities to increase private giving and philanthropy;
- agreed to an updated policy framework for the Visual Arts and Crafts Strategy to be implemented from 2015-16; and
- noted the establishment of the national review of opera.
Meredith Foley
CAMD Executive Officer
