There’s a comprehensive piece in today’s Australian on Maureen Wheeler’s philanthropic initiatives.  Her support of the Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas is wonderful.

However, towards the end of the article, Ms Wheeler offers an analysis of the place of the arts in the hierarchy of human needs with which I feel obliged to take issue.  She is quoted as saying: ‘So to me, the cultural nourishment of people is a luxury … culture should not be a priority of aid … art comes second (after the essentials of survival – medical support, food and drinking water)’.

Yes, health and sustenance are absolutely fundamental, but if achieving them requires any level of social organisation, collaborative art-making enters the picture – not as a luxury – but as the essential activity through which we learn to work together.

This not an argument for supporting books or opera (another of her loves) but for making sure that people (especially children) have the regular opportunity to sing and dance together – this is how we learn to co-operate and to enjoy co-operating.  Without this experience, we condemn ourselves to atomised individualism (thatcherism or reaganism perhaps).

Seems to me that hierarchies are always problematic, and human needs are a case in point.  We have a spectrum of needs, all of which are important.

The US Community Arts Network has put up its most read stories for last year. Of course, its a North American focus but worth being reminded that the underbelly of US society struggles with the same issues as the marginalised in the rest of the world.

Simon Brault, head of Canada’s National Theatre School and vice-chair of the Canada Council for the Arts has become the latest spokesperson for the need for government to acknowledge, honour and support ‘amateur practices’.

Dismissing the preoccupation of arts funding agencies with ‘audience development’, he is pushing for an arts version of ‘Participaction’ (a Canadian version of Australia’s ‘Life Be In It’ campaign). This program was designed to stimulate Canadians to get off their arses and shake their tail feathers and has apparently been widely successful.

He sees a similar program being essential to developing sustainable connections between professionally produced arts and the wider population.

James Bradshaw’s Dec 4 report in Canada’s ‘Globe & Mail’ offers a thumbnail of Brault’s recent pronouncements and activities. Good stuff.

I never thought that I’d find myself on the same side of an argument as the Chair of Fosters. But when his antagonists are the rabidly right wing media, led by a bunch of so-called journalists claiming to speak on behalf of the people of Australia, it’s impossible just to sit silent and observe the blood spatter.

The Report of the Independent Sport Panel does not recommend reducing government funding to ‘elite’ sports (even so, Coates called its members ‘ignorant and disrespectful’ – which means they must be doing something right) BUT it had the temerity to suggest that community sport and physical activity in schools might possibly be higher priorities than winning more Olympic medals than every other country in the world bar four.

They even went so far as to propose ‘a broadening of the definition of sporting success to include measures of our nation’s fitness and participation in activity’. And, unlike in the arts, when they say participation they mean the people on the field, NOT in the stands.

Outrageous really. London to a brick, the Murdoch backed hacks will whip enough of a frenzy to ensure that the FedGov declares a foul and Coates and his cronies will fill their snouts to the fullest.

Nevertheless there is some sweetness in reading a report where every mention of ’sport’ could be replaced with ‘art’ and we’ve have something approaching a decent arts policy.

Yesterday, I gave the final session of the lecture series I’ve been doing at Melbourne Uni. Normally, Kat McFerran and I co-deliver, but as she was off doing another gig, we decided to use the last session to show the students the recent pbs(US) doco, The Music Instinct because, as well as being well made, it covers very much the same ground as the series. I look forward to it being broadcast here.

Not being used to being a lecturer, I find the moment of saying goodbye quite odd. What effect has twelve weeks had? Will any of the 160 see the world differently as a result? And so on …

The night before, on ABC Radio I listened to some of the Australia Talks show, Music & Identity; its guests included Shelley Morris who I had seen the week before in dirtsong. The talk was of the connections between people and place through music – how we discover through music a sense of belonging, and how we celebrate those connections musically.

And then this morning, found that the Music Show had a couple of segments on grassroots singing: inspirational tales of women who have devoted their lives to bringing out the singing in others.

All of which made me feel some nostalgia for my time with Community Music Victoria.

It’s way too late at night for me to be thinking clearly, but I have to put this stuff up, if only because of its synchronicity. On the western side of the Pacific, we have Oz Arts Minister Peter Garrett announcing a ten point framework that may lead to a national cultural policy.

And, on the other side of the ocean we have ccd advocate Arlene Goldbard giving us the backstory to a not dissimilar push for a new cultural policy in USA.

Both polemics emphasise the capacity and value of citizens telling their own stories- making their own culture. How much of this good, and well-expressed, intent survives the ravages of future phases of the processes will depend on many factors, not least the commitment of cultural activists to engage in the debate.

These initial expressions, along with Jordi Pascual’s recent work in Europe (see my post of 25/10) are moving the issue into new territory, making it possible to imagine that the ways we go about making sense together may become a topic debated on the street, in community halls, in schools by ordinary folk,

I’ve had a series of overhead projections (being unwilling to engage with PowerPoint) for some years now that I’ve been using as summaries of various aspects of my post Four Pillar thinking. Viewed sequentially, they read a bit like a guide through the rooms of the virtual building for which the pillars are the facade.  While I’m ambivalent about this metaphor, I do find these ‘Cultural Displays’ quite useful when I’m trying to sort out what I’m on about. I’m hoping others might find them similarly functional.

Arlene Goldbard last week was part of the launch of this Obama-initiated new look at the function of the arts in society. ‘This new Framework was developed by the Cultural Policy Working Group created on May 12th, 2009 at a White House Briefing on Art, Community, Social Justice, National Recovery, The framework describes five principles that should underscore ‘Recovery’:

• Use creativity for the common good
• Engage all of us
• Build on cultural memory
• Put artists to work to support cultural recovery.
• Stand for free expression, supporting democratic media

This morning I received Circular 33 from the Agenda 21 for Culture crew in Barcelona.

It announces the online publication of a report by Jordi Pascual entitled ‘Culture and sustainable development: examples of institutional innovation and proposal of a new cultural policy profile’. Jordi has been pushing a ‘fourth pillar’ perspective for some years now and this report is not only a fantastic overview of some interesting examples of cities that are working through this planning model but also contains some truly wonderful lists and charts (I’m a sucker for such things) that will come in very handy for anyone wanting to introduce this sort of thinking into their workplace.

On Friday night I went to the first of only two performances of BAB’s new show. I was so overwhelmed that as soon as I got home I had to write to the show’s director Stephen Richardson:

Dear Stephen,

I enjoyed and respected last night’s performance so much that I want to get down on e-paper what I felt/thought about it before its impact recedes too far into my addled memory for me to be able to retrieve it.

I can’t recall a show in the last ten years (which in fact means I can’t recall a show) that I have enjoyed and been moved by as much – the look, the sound, the meaning were seamlessly integrated. The way the space was occupied, the aesthetic, the accompaniment, the background media, the playing to the performers’ strengths, the use of text – all were so focussed and so profoundly aligned in their direction that the result was overwhelming. I can’t find the words to express how moved I was.

But that’s not the half of it. I am convinced I witnessed a culture-changing moment. From this point on, ‘Australian music’ is something different from what it was yesterday. Language has of course been used in a contemporary musical context before but usually as something exotic or private (I can’t find the right word – parochial, personal, specific…).
What dirtsong has done is move from saying this is OUR culture to this is YOUR culture.

Just as blackfella visual art has become, in the eyes of the world, the heart and soul of ‘Australian art’, so this event has shifted (or at least will shift) the international consciousness of ‘Australian music’.

Sadly, just as the recognition of the beauty of blackfella images has done nothing to improve the social conditions and political power of blackfellas, so it is a sure thing that this recognition will not immediately impact on the ‘real world’ either. After all, black music has always been the fundament of American music without much appreciable effect on black power.

BUT, I believe it is major step in the process of blackfellas civilising their visitors. And, as we witness black and white musicians playing together in dirt that is so clearly respected and cherished as being the ground of its long term custodians, so we may be able to imagine a world where that leadership moves beyond the musical. And being able to imagine another way is perhaps the first step to finding it.

Last night I experienced sadness and joy, but above all, awe. A vision of a different world became that little bit clearer.

Thankyou all