Attended the AICV’s ‘Finger on the Pulse’ conference on Tuesday 28/9. It kicked off with an address from Brook Andrew who told us (including the arts Pooh-Bahs from each of the three big political parties) that artists needed to be trusted and supported, that alternative practices are valuable because ‘breaking with tradition is tradition’ and [...]

The international association of local governments (UCLG) has just released a draft proposal for the adoption of culture as the fourth pillar of sustainable development by its members. The UCLG’s Executive is now ‘arguing that not only is cultural diversity presently a crucial element in globalization, but that development cannot solely be based on economic [...]

Saw this fantastic show on PBS back in June 09 in Canada and have been waiting since for it to reach our airwaves. Hosted by Daniel Levitin and Bobbie McFerrin, it’s been split into two parts for Oz showing, the first part at 9.35 tonight on ABC1 I can’t recommend it too highly – it [...]

For the past thirteen years, Quebec has had an annual ‘Journées de la culture’ (3 day) event designed to raise ‘public participation and engagement’ in culture-making. It appears to have been enormously successful, if measured by the numbers of people who engage on the day. Finally, after a feasibility study confirmed the obvious (commissioned in [...]

On 27/5/10, Kate Ellis, the Minister for Early Childhood Education and Child Care, announced that the Commonwealth Government is developing the country’s first Outside School Hours Care Learning Framework. I can find no details about what the content of this Framework will be, beyond the report in The Australian on 28/5 that ‘children in before- [...]

I’ve recently come across four books that look as if they will be well worth a solid examination by those involved in grassroots cultural action/policy making (those that have time to read, that is).  I haven’t had the chance to get my hands directly on any of them, but given what I know about many [...]

There has probably never been a liberation struggle that has not had a musical backing track.  And in many cases this has been superbly documented – for example, Rhythm of Resistance – Beat of the Heart and Amandla! A Revolution in Four Part Harmony (South Africa) and The Singing Revolution (Estonia).  The function of music [...]

The ways that a group gather, prepare and consume food offer unique insights into their values, that is, their culture. Not surprisingly, there are strong connections between their arts and their attitudes to food.  Many anthropologists believe that the preparation for and celebration of the hunt formed the basis for early human music and dance, [...]

Researchers have confirmed that yet another piece of common observation is really so. Country folk sing and dance together more than city folk. And along with this revelation, comes another reminder of the definitional hoops we are constantly being expected to jump through. This time, it’s the faintly dismissive phrase ‘informal arts’, which, in the [...]

The March 3 edition of Arts Watch pointed me to the recent discovery by the LA Times that making music has more profound effects than listening to it. Given that we know that babies aren’t made by watching blue movies, it is perhaps surprising that this revelation is deemed newsworthy. I guess the not inconsiderable [...]