REMIX Perth Summit

an address by ANA CEO Kate Fielding

ANA CEO Kate Fielding delivered a presentation at REMIX Summit Perth held at the Western Australian Museum Boola Bardip in November 2025. 

REMIX Perth was themed ‘Futures for the Fearless’. It brought together Australian and international pioneers from culture, technology, media and entrepreneurship for two days of talks, workshops and discussions on the future of the creative and cultural industries, creative cities and creative economies.

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Towards an Arts and Culture System that Delivers for All Australians

Imagine it is 2035.

Perth is thriving.

Cultural and creative experiences are the foundation of flourishing people, community cohesion, and regional prosperity.

And abroad, cultural and creative exports have projected Perth’s contemporary identity as an inclusive, innovative, and energetic place for creators, audiences and consumers.

This future is within reach.

We can build an arts and culture system that delivers for all Australians.

And Perth can play its part in Australia becoming a cultural powerhouse.

Today, I’m here to talk about how we can achieve this vision for 2035.

I’m Kate Fielding, the CEO of A New Approach (ANA), Australia’s national arts and culture think tank.

Thank you for welcoming me here to the REMIX Summit and to the amazing team who have made this great event happen.

Today we will explore the urgent need for us to:

• understand the arts and culture system
• understand our audience
• and make policy purposeful.

Introduction

Before I begin, I would like to acknowledge the Whadjuk Nyoongar people, the Traditional Owners of this land, and pay my respects to Elders past and present.

Being here in this big sky country feels like coming home.

I spent many years living and working across WA – first up in Warburton in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands, and then in Kalgoorlie.

And I can tell you right now, there is a gravitational pull here that doesn’t exist anywhere else.

I honestly think you have a unique opportunity to realise the cultural, social and economic opportunities of creativity.

And in doing so, you can lead the way in Australia in building an arts and culture system that delivers for all Australians.

But to understand how we can leverage these opportunities, we first need to understand the arts and culture system.

Understanding the arts and culture system

You may have noticed the diagram behind me today.

This is ANA’s new model of the arts and culture system here in Australia.

You are the first to see this; we are releasing it publicly tomorrow.

This diagram draws on the brand new UNESCO Cultural Value-Generation model.

This new UNESCO model is the global statistical framework used to define and measure cultural and creative value across different countries.

Excitingly, through ANA’s work, Australia is the first worldwide to apply this model at a country level.

So what does it show us?

Firstly, we all know that our arts and culture system is not linear and is highly interconnected – this new model actually shows that.

The three big ‘C’ shapes that look a bit like Mickey Mouse show the clear and interconnected structures for:

• creation and production
• dissemination and consumption
• preservation and transmission.

Importantly, these three structures exist right across all the different cultural domains – such as design, creative services, music, heritage, and books – which you can see in the grey doughnut in the centre.

Next, let’s look at the central piece that’s bit like a Trivial Pursuit pie. This shows the cross-cutting sectors which overlap with all of these structures and help make activity possible right through the system. These are the ‘transversal’ domains like festivals, cultural education and interactive media.

Finally, look at the big white circle: the audiences. This model shows a far more contemporary understanding of the different ways audiences engage with culture and creativity – including in active, co-creative and interactive ways.

Tomorrow, ANA is also releasing two more models that help us understand different aspects of the arts and culture system. One shows how the arts and culture system is governed. The other shows how creative skills and cultural literacy are developed from the grassroots through to high-performance and professional.

Taken together, these three models can help us better understand the arts and culture system, and help each one of us see our place in the interconnected whole.

This matters because it lets us see the interdependencies across the system and find the leverage points for change. The report ANA is releasing tomorrow is all about these leverage points.

By taking a step back and seeing the whole, we can work out how to work better, together, to generate measurable cultural, social, and economic value.

And that helps us meet the needs of our contemporary audiences and consumers here in Perth and beyond.

Understanding your audience

So let’s understand these audience and consumer needs.

Recently, in a three-year nationwide focus group study, ANA spoke to middle Australians aged 18 to 75 about arts and culture – about what role it plays in their lives and what they value about it.

These middle Australians were from low and middle-income households living in outer suburbs and regional Australia, and they were not politically aligned – meaning they’d swung their vote more than once at both federal and state level.

Here in Perth, these Australians are your everyday audiences.

They visit your state galleries, support your local libraries, play games, watch films and attend your festivals.

When asked about arts and culture, these middle Australians said it is:

• a core part of being human
  In their own words: a world without arts and culture would be ‘colourless’, ‘depressing’ and ‘uninspiring’ and people would be ‘robots’ or ‘aliens’. ‘Without arts and culture, you may as well live on Mars.’

Middle Australians also said that arts and culture:

• is a foundation of their communities, strengthening local and national pride –
  that it drives their wellbeing by helping them to understand others and accept differences, as well as mitigating loneliness and isolation.
• And, finally, it fosters their imagination and innovation by encouraging them to be open to new ideas about existing and emerging challenges.

And it isn’t just everyday Australians who think this.

The domestic and international evidence is clear – arts and culture has a transformative impact in our lives.

Recognising the transformative impacts of culture and creativity

Let’s quickly look at the evidence-based impacts of arts and culture across five areas. Arts and culture:

1. enhances our prosperity by increasing local and national income, job satisfaction, and educational aspirations
2. strengthens our cohesion by fostering individual and community identity, connection and belonging
3. increases our security by supporting active citizenship and democratic participation
4. supports our health by contributing to determinants of health and improving returns on health investments
5. influences sustainability by diffusing knowledge about climate change adaptation and mitigation.

This means that arts and culture isn’t an option, it’s a necessity.

Being clear about these impacts – and persuasively communicating about them – is how we can change mindsets about what culture and creativity is, and what it can achieve.

Why does changing mindsets matter?

It matters because we know from ANA’s systems work that changing mindsets about what culture and creativity is and what it can do, is the most powerful leverage point we have in our arts and culture system.

Changing mindsets will help remove barriers, clarify desired outcomes and unleash investment.
And that will help us create an arts and culture system that delivers for all people and communities, so that all Australians have access to these transformative impacts.

Progress in Perth

The good news is that Perth is already using this leverage point.

Perth has a Cultural Development Plan, which describes a commitment to harnessing the potential of culture and creativity to achieve its cultural, social and economic objectives as well as environmental and civic objectives.

In the Plan, the Chair Commissioner reflects on Perth’s transformation so far, saying, “if anything, the transformation has given people a sense of what is possible and has left them wanting more.”

This compels us to ask: what would open the door to making further transformation possible? How can we take the next steps for Perth? For WA? And for Australia?

At ANA, we say it is time for purposeful policy action.

Making policy purposeful

Policy matters.

Policy shapes the environment in which our creators and cultural organisations thrive or struggle.

Policy affects whether our people and communities have access to cultural and creative opportunities.

Good policy delivers cultural, economic and social returns.

When it comes to cultural policy, Australia is in an unprecedented situation with current or in-development cultural policies at national and all state and territory levels.

This is a good thing and we should celebrate it.

But I’m ambitious. I think we can aim higher.

How about you, are you ambitious?

Right now, Australia does not have a multi-partisan, multi-government and outcomes-focused approach to cultural policy.

Australia urgently needs:

• a 10-Year National Arts and Culture Strategy
• a Ministerial Council focused on cultural access and creative industries.

Together, these would facilitate enduring cooperation between governments, and unlock effective collaboration with creative industries, business and philanthropy.

A National Arts and Culture Strategy can align government efforts across federal, state and territory and local governments, without limiting their independence.

This National Arts and Culture Strategy would complement – not replace – Perth’s Cultural Development Plan and the Creative WA 10-year vision.

And strategies like this exist in other areas – including the National Sport Strategy.

This National Arts and Culture Strategy would be overseen by the Ministerial Council.

The Ministerial Council would ensure that Australia has a formal mechanism for resolving priorities, making decisions and pursuing structural reform. It would work across levels of government and – importantly – across political lines.

Conclusion

This is a time to be ambitious.

We can build on the current policy momentum to achieve an operating environment in which our creators and cultural organisations can thrive and our communities have access to creative opportunities, whoever they are and wherever they live.

If you want this future, I encourage you to:

• understand the arts and culture system
• understand your audience
• and help make policy purposeful.

I look forward to being part of Perth and Australia’s journey to secure our place as a cultural powerhouse.

Thank you.