Submission to the 10 Year Vision for Culture and the Arts in Western Australia

 A New Approach (ANA) welcomes this opportunity to make a submission to assist Western Australia (WA) with its ‘10 Year Vision for Culture and the Arts in Western Australia’. The release of the National Cultural Policy ‘Revive’ provides a renewed opportunity for the WA Government to work in concert with governments across Australia. ANA notes that at the time of writing the New South Wales Government is also developing an arts, culture and creative industries policy and other jurisdictions are considering potential policy updates. ‘Revive’ also provides an opportunity to consider how to embed policy concerning arts, culture and creativity across portfolios and into the future.

ANA is Australia’s leading think tank focused on arts and culture. Through credible and independent public leadership, ANA helps build an ambitious and innovative policy and investment environment for arts, culture and creativity. We work to ensure Australia can be a great place for creators and audiences, whoever they are and wherever they live.

To assist WA, we are pleased to share:

• ANA’s submission to the federal National Culture Policy consultation, which highlights ways for Australia to reach its potential as a cultural powerhouse.

• An embargoed advance copy of ANA’s Insight Report ‘To Scale: Mapping financial inflows in Australian arts, culture and creativity’, which will be published on 31 August. This report dispels the myth that Australian cultural and creative industries are predominantly financed through government assistance. In fact, the largest proportion of income in the cultural and creative industries was from ‘sales and services’ in 2020-21. These industries earned 87% of income from sales and services, which included things like ticket sales for art and cultural events and royalties from intellectual property to cultural exports and computer software consulting fees.

• Highlights of ANA’s research into the impacts of arts, culture and creativity for youth in Australia, below.

In our role as a philanthropically funded, independent think tank, ANA is ready to provide further information about the response in this submission and would welcome the opportunity to discuss. We confirm that this submission can be made public.

Warm regards,

Kate Fielding, CEO, A New Approach (ANA)

Highlights of our research into the impacts of arts, culture and creativity for youth in Australia

ANA’s Insight Report ‘Transformative: The Impacts of Culture and Creativity’ (the ‘Transformative’ report) includes international and Australian research finding arts and culture-based education is beneficial in developing intellectual skills and enhancing educational impactsFielding, Kate, Iva Glisic, and Jodie-Lee Trembath. “Transformative: Impacts of Culture and Creativity.” Insight Series. Canberra: A New Approach and The Australian Academy of Humanities, November 2019.
https://newapproach.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/2-ANA-InsightReportTwo-FullReport.pdf. Not only does arts and culture-based education help future-proof Australia’s workforce, it also helps mitigate disadvantage, particularly with students who are “at-risk”: who are socio-economically disadvantaged, at risk of prematurely disengaging from schooling, and/or expressing anti-social or non-coping behaviours. The evidence base includes:

• a study of 643 upper primary and high school students in 15 schools across eastern Australia considered outcomes for students who actively engaged with arts and creative activities during their schooling years. It found these students have higher levels of motivation and self-discipline, better self-esteem, higher life satisfaction and are better at bouncing back from academic setbacks.

• a comprehensive three-year study of an Indigenous community in remote central Australia conducted by anthropologist Inge Kral. The study found that engagement with the arts and culture, particularly via digital and online channels, helped re-engage early school leavers and disaffected Indigenous youth with learning, and facilitated greater engagement with community.

• a major Australian study entitled Risky Business conducted in 2002–05 that explored the use of the creative arts within diversionary programs for “at risk” youth—that is, programs that aim to divert young people away from crime, prosecution and custody. This four-year ethnographic study, by the University of Melbourne, and with the departments of Justice and Human Services, VicHealth and Arts Victoria, investigated the qualities and impact of effective arts programs for at-risk youth in urban and rural Victoria. The study concluded that young people who engaged in these arts programs experienced many personal and social benefits, including increased self-esteem, refined artistic skills, improved communication skills, a sense of achievement and wellbeing and a greater connection to their communities.

We encourage you to draw on the ‘Transformative’ report for evidence and examples of the impact of arts and culture in the lives of West Australians.

We also highlight ANA’s Insight Report ‘The Next Generation of Voters: Young middle Australians talk Arts, Culture & Creativity’. This provides current insights into the attitudes and beliefs held by ‘young middle Australians’ towards arts and cultural engagement and the role it plays in their lives. It includes the findings of a national focus group study of 18–29-year-old ‘undecided voters’ from lower- and middle-income families, predominantly living in outer suburbs and regional areas in predominately marginal federal electorates from right across Australia, including Western Australia. The findings highlight that young middle Australians see arts and culture as central to their lives. They describe their engagement with arts and culture as inseparable from their other everyday activities. They do not associate arts and culture with elitism – they see it as integral to a full and rounded life. As such, arts and culture will play an increasingly critical role in shaping our nation’s future direction.

You may also be interested in ANA’s interactive portal ‘The Big Picture’. By analysing cultural expenditure in Australia over the last 14 years, ‘The Big Picture’ shares findings and identifies opportunities for bold public policy that supports effective investment, enlivens the sector and enriches the lives of all Australians. ‘The Big Picture’ includes information on state and territory expenditure on arts and culture, including the chart below.

For further information, see:

• Chapter 5 of ANA’s Insight Report ‘Transformative: The Impacts of Culture and Creativity’Fielding, Kate, Iva Glisic, and Jodie-Lee Trembath. “Transformative: Impacts of Culture and Creativity.” Insight Series. Canberra: A New Approach and The Australian Academy of Humanities, November 2019.
  https://newapproach.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/2-ANA-InsightReportTwo-FullReport.pdf
• ANA’s factsheet ‘Education and learning: Transformative Impacts of Arts, Culture and Creativity’A New Approach. “Factsheet 5 Education and Learning: Transformative Impacts of Arts, Culture and Creativity,” August 2021.
  https://newapproach.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/ANA-5-Education-InsightReport2-Factsheet5.pdf
• ANA’s Insight Report ‘The Next Generation of Voters: Young middle Australians talk Arts, Culture & Creativity’Jodie-Lee Trembath and Kate Fielding, “The Next Generation of Voters: Young Middle Australians Talk Arts, Culture and Creativity,” Insight Series (Canberra: A New Approach, August 2021),
  https://newapproach.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/ANA-InsightReportSix-Fullreport-6.pdf
• ANA’s interactive portal ‘The Big Picture’A New Approach. “The Big Picture,” 2023.
  https://thebigpicture.newapproach.org.au