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HOT LINKS

Australia Council's Arts Funding Guide 2010. Please email with your name and address for a free copy.
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Call for Papers
'Culture and Sustainable Communities'
for a special issue of the 'Culture and Local Governance' journal, Canada
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LEAP (Localities Enhancing Arts Participation) Project
VicHealth, CDN and eight Victorian councils
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a network of Victorian arts organisations, artists and government agencies working with Arts Victoria to strengthen community-based arts practice
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ReGenerating Community: Arts, Community & Governance National Conference
Proceedings available
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Developing & Revitalizing Rural Communities
Through Arts & Creativity: International research report
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UNESCO e-journal:
Multi-Disciplinary Research in the Arts
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Agenda 21 for Culture is the first document with worldwide mission that advocates establishing the groundwork of an undertaking by cities and local governments for cultural development.
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Search the CDN site:

About CDN

What we do & how we do it

Annual General Meeting

CDN's Annual General Meeting was held on 2 June, 2009.
Minutes are available for download here.
Annual Report 2008

The Network's Annual Reports from 2007, 2006 and 2005 are available for download here, or by mail on request. Email us with your name and address.
Annual Report 2007
Annual Report 2006
Annual Report 2005

Cultural Development Network

The Cultural Development Network is an independent non-profit organisation that links individual practitioners, community organisations and government across Victoria around issues of cultural vitality. We advocate a stronger role for cultural expression to build a healthier, more engaged and sustainable society. We work towards a society in which local communities, in all their diversity, have the resources and support they need to make and express their own culture. We advocate a stronger role for local government in nurturing cultural vitality and see the arts (at the heart of culture) as central to this vision. We aim to elevate and embed the appreciation of culture and community-based arts into public life at the local level. The Cultural Development Network is based in Melbourne, Australia. We work primarily across our state of Victoria and have partnerships in other Australian states.

Our Four Action Areas:

Networking
Facilitating the growth of useful connections
Discourse and Debate
Stimulating interaction between diverse perspectives
Projects and Partnerships
Demonstrating the value of community-based arts activities by example
Advocacy
Promoting the need for public support to cultural development

Our Four Goals:

To support the flourishing of diverse and authentic community cultures, we hope that

Arts Practice
The making of art becomes an everyday activity amongst communities
Community Understanding
The value of making art together is embraced by agencies and organisations that work with communities
Effective Service
The Cultural Development Network responds with initiatives that are relevant and effective to our members, their communities and the wider community, especially in Victoria
Government commitment
All spheres of government develop policy and resources that support independent community cultural activities

Networking

Through our bulletins to members, our artists talks and forums program, this website and many single initiatives, we constantly provide opportunities for people interested in community cultural development to exchange information and ideas.

Discourse & Debate

Since our establishment in 2000, we have either initiated or contributed to more than sixty forums. These have been designed to stimulate productive dialogue between sectors as diverse as school and community education, arts and disability, housing, community dance and forum theatre, environmental sustainability, juvenile justice, local government arts and culture and community services. We have also run six major conferences: Regenerating Community in 2009, Expanding Cultures in 2007, The Fourth Pillar of Sustainability in 2004, Beyond Cultural Policy Symposium in 2003, and The Art of Dissent in 2002. Our activities have brought thousands of people together to meet, inspire and challenge each other toward the common goal of the development of culturally vital community life. Forums tackling new topics and audiences are being developed all the time.

Projects & Partnerships

We practice what we preach by developing projects that offer innovative models for community cultural development. Our action projects include:

• Home Lands, 2006 - ongoing, an internet television program made that connects
  young refugees to their home lands and separated communities.
• Generations, 2005-2009, a national project that examines the contribution of the arts in civic engagement of communities,
• Small Towns Big Picture, 2001-2002, that focussed on revitalisation of small towns in country Victoria and
• Knot At Home, 2001, that focussed on youth homelessness

Our research projects include:

• Arts and Disability for the State Government of Victoria, 2008-2009, that investigated how participation in the arts for people with a disability can be increased
  
• 'Developing and Revitalising Communities through Arts and Creativity: An International Literature Review and Inventory of Resources', 2009, as part of a project initiated by Creative City Network of Canada and Simon Fraser University. Case study examples from across Australia of the way rural communities have flourished, developed, revitalised or been renovated through arts and cultural businesses or activities are currently being sought. Please contact Project Manager Kim Dunphy on kim.dunphy@culturaldevelopment.net.au if you know of a project or place that might be relevant.

Advocacy

For some time now the Cultural Development Network has been advocating the inclusion of cultural vitality to the accepted 'triple bottom line' planning goals of economic, social and environmental sustainability. A major tool in this argument has been the monograph by Jon Hawkes The Fourth Pillar of Sustainability (pdf summary), that we commissioned in 2001. The ideas expressed in this publication continue to inform our approach to the place of culture in society as they influence communities, planners and policy makers all over Australia and overseas. Gesa Büttner, Information Manager, Culture and Cultural Heritage Department, Council of Europe commented that 'this book... is held in very high esteem among our colleagues here, because it gives guidelines on how to include the cultural dimension in actual policy making. They use it in their seminars organised for transition countries'.

The Network's influence extends beyond our designated patch of Victoria, with many governments including our 'fourth pillar' platform in whole of government strategy and policy initiatives. Canadian and New Zealand governments have also adopted 'four pillar' thinking with the inclusion of a cutural dimension in planning for communities. 'Agenda 21 for Culture', the guiding document for UCLG's (the international peak body for local government) Commission for Culture is based on the four pillars principle.

CDN recently took the role of guest editor for a international journal exploring issues related to cultural vitality and public policy. Articles on these themes from authors all around the world are available from the journal website.

Another significant publication was our Public Art Public Housing book commissioned by us with North Richmond Community Health Service and Department of Human Services Neighbourhood Renewal, written by Graham Pitts and designed by Lin Tobias in 2004. This book employs beautiful full colour photographs to document many interesting initiatives in community art participation in housing estates all over Victoria.

We also publish articles, lead discussions, present at conferences and represent the perspective of community-based arts on government and other decisions making panels.

Conference session titled: working with pllace & identity in regional Australia. Chaired by Julian Bowron.
ReGenerating Community Conference

Session titled: Creative responses to crises. Chair: Lisa Philip-Harbutt.
ReGenerating Community Conference

Angie Russi - Visual Artist
ReGenerating Community Conference

Grace Vanilau - Brown Roots Crew
ReGenerating Community Conference

ReGenerating Community Conference

Conference session titled: working with pllace & identity in regional Australia.
Speaker: Pilar Kasat.
ReGenerating Community Conference

Grace Vanilan
ReGenerating Community Conference

Audience participation for Creative Responses to Crises session.
ReGenerating Community Conference

ReGenerating Community Conference

ReGenerating Community Conference