The arts have rarely been at the heart of so many policy discussions in so many places at once.All over the world politicians and artists have been making a strong case for the social and commercial value of ‘culture.' It is found in debates about education, industrial policy, criminal justice and community wellbeing. As ‘creative industries,’ it is part of international competitiveness and the future of our cities and towns, from Shanghai to Sheffield to Shepparton.Many practitioners and advocates have welcomed culture’s new prominence in policy discourse and the new markets it offers for cultural production. Others, however, see a danger that instrumental justifications for cultural funding risk overlooking the intrinsic qualities of culture, reducing it to an ‘input’ and blunting any radical edges.This book asks: are we are at ‘a new moment’ for cultural policy? Leading international thinkers from countries including Australia, Britain and the United States provide a timely overview of these issues, debating and discussing the directions that cultural policy should take in the future.Making Meaning, Making Money will be of value to artists, policy makers, cultural managers and planners who are involved in the practices, processes and decision making that constitute contemporary cultural industries and shape emerging cultural economies.
Author Biography:
Lisa AndersenLisa Andersen is manager and senior researcher of the Australian Research Council's CAMRA Project—Cultural Asset Mapping in Regional Australia—and she is also community engagement coordinator for Shopfront Community Program at the University of Technology, Sydney. Her research interests are audience and market development, cultural industries and regional development, community cultural development, and community-engaged research, and she has practiced and produced theatre for 25 years. Lisa's recent research includes Quality of Light, Quality of Life: Cultural Industries in and around Broken Hill (co-authored with Jane Andrew, 2007), Common Ground: Cultural Festivals in NSW’s Northern Rivers Region (2006), and ‘Archie in the Country’: The Archibald Prize Exhibition in Cowra (2005). In 2005 she was co-winner of an Australian Award for University Teaching for the provision of education services to the community.Kate OakleyKate Oakley is a writer and policy analyst, specialising in the cultural industries, cultural policy and regional development. She is a Visiting Professor at the Department of Cultural Policy and Management, City University, and at the University of the Arts in London.Recent publications in this field include London’s Creative Economy: An Accidental Success? (2007) co-written with John Knell, published by the Work Foundation and Better Than Working For a Living? (2007) a study of labour markets in festivals and events, published by City University. She has just completed a study of the changing working lives of fine arts graduates, entitled, The Art of Innovation and published by the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) in London.Kate’s current research interests concern labour in the cultural industries, urban policy and art education.Contributors Include: Anne Bamford, John C. Barsness, Pamille Berg (AO), Eva Cox, Paul Brown, Chris Gibson, Cathy Henkel, Christopher Madden, Deborah Mills, Tony Moore, Martin Mulligan, Jeremy Sim and David Throsby.
