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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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Publications

CDN Publications | Conference Papers | Publications for Sale

Papers by presenters at many of CDN's events are available here.

CDN's Annual Reports are available on this page.

Developing and Revitalizing Rural Communities Through Arts and Culture: international research project

The Cultural Development Network contributed a chapter to this new research report investigating the revitalisation of rural communities through arts and culture.

The Centre for Policy Studies on Culture and Communities at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver and the Creative City Network of Canada have released a new research report, 'Developing and Revitalizing Rural Communities Through Arts and Creativity'. This comprehensive review of research on cultural and creative business development in rural communities includes information from Canada, Australia, the United States, and Europe. It is intended to assist rural communities to take best advantage of their creative capacity.

The study was conducted by Dr. Nancy Duxbury and Heather Campbell at Simon Fraser University's Centre for Policy Studies on Culture and Communities, Vancouver, with insightful contributions from three international collaborators:

– Kim Dunphy, Program Manager, Cultural Development Network, Melbourne, Australia

– Dr. Patrick Overton, Director, Front Porch Institute, Oregon, United States

– Dr. Lidia Varbanova, Laboratory for European Cultural Cooperation, Amsterdam; and the Centre for Intercultural and Social Development, Montréal (reviewing Europe)

The final project consists of four papers with accompanying project and community case studies/examples, and an extensive annotated bibliography. A summary overview highlights the common themes emerging around cultural development in rural areas across the four project papers, and reoccurring critical ingredients to foster vibrant arts activity in rural and small communities.

The report was developed partnership between the Creative City Network of Canada and the Alberta Recreation and Parks Association, and with the support of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

All papers are available in electronic form on the Creative City Network of Canada website.

Paper by Kim Dunphy: Developing and Revitalizing Rural Communities Through Arts and Creativity
Annotated bibliography of Australian literature for the project

Developing and Revitalizing Rural Communities Through Arts and Creativity (Powerpoint presentation)
Arts for Health conference, Port Macquarie, NSW, October 2009

e-journal of Multi-disciplinary Research in the Arts

UNESCO Observatory, University of Melbourne
Vol 1, Issue 2: 'Creative Local Communities: Cultural Vitality and Human Rights'
Guest editors: Kim Dunphy and John Smithies, Cultural Development Network

Journal website

This issue features peer reviewed papers that examine the way policy and practice impact on the cultural vitality of local and wider communities. Authors from Australia, Poland, Spain, Canada, the United States and India present papers on themes:

• active planning for creative communities
• impact of the framework that includes cultural vitality as a necessary ingredient for the sustainability of local communities alongside economic, social and environmental concerns.
• the significance of freedom of expression and cultural rights, as an aspect of a broader human rights agenda.
• the relationship between creativity and cultural expression and health and wellbeing, and the ability of local communities to keep pace with change

Several articles examine the relationship between citizens’ rights of cultural expression and the role and responsibilities of government. Jordi Pascual from Spain elaborates UNESCO’s declaration of cultural rights in relation to the work of local government. Dr. Kevin Johnson and Kevin O’Connor provide detailed arguments for the value of cultural development in local government and give some advice for local government in Australia on developing relevant policies. Nancy Duxbury from Canada discusses measurement of cultural development, mostly in relationship to local government, through the emerging practice of cultural indicators and their relationship to community indicators. Kirsten Davies connects the environment, civic and cultural dimensions of local government work in her article about the model of Intergenerational Democracy. Jeff Stewart raises some challenges for local government when the values of graffiti artists, and the right to freedom of expression they claim, clash with those of residents and other community stakeholders.

The next series of articles explore the relationship between cultural and human rights and the relative values ascribed to these. Max Wyman from Canada expresses concerns about the low value usually ascribed to the cultural dimension of public policy, and proposes two strategic activities to address these; radical changes in education and increased advocacy by arts practitioners. Lisiunia Romanienko explores repression of sexuality in Poland by communism and the Catholic Church, and the contesting of this repression by aesthetic communities. Anmol Vellani adds a business development dimension through discussion about arts entrepreneurship in India. His article describes entrepreneurs who have been able to set up successful arts businesses without compromising the quality of outcome for artists or negatively impacting traditional cultures. Nil Sismanyazici-Navaie and Emine Etili-Serter also discuss social entrepreneurship in developing countries in their article examining the contribution of the arts to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

The final series of articles are all from Australian authors. These examine the relationship between creativity and cultural expression and health and wellbeing, as well as the ability of local communities to keep pace with change. Isabel Jackson discusses the important social issue of reconciliation between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians, through an examination of the role of community festivals, while Raelene Marshall critiques the model of community cultural development that she believes is currently prevalent in Australia. And finally, moving from macro to micro communities, Maud Clark and Catherine Dinkelmann discuss the benefits of creative expression with two communities – rural young people experiencing disadvantage and disconnection from education, and residents of a nursing home. Editorial by Kim Dunphy.

E-journal contents flyer

Book: Fourth Pillar of Sustainability

Our most important research work is published as the Fourth Pillar of Sustainability, the monograph by Jon Hawkes published in 2001. The Fourth Pillar provides a clear definition of culture, analyses its function within the emerging new planning paradigms and proposes practical measures for the integration of a cultural perspective into the public sphere. The key conclusion of this work is that a whole-of government cultural framework, operating in parallel with social, environmental and economic frameworks, is essential for the achievement of a sustainable and healthy society. Cultural vitality is as essential to a healthy and sustainable society as social equity, environmental responsibility and economic vitality. In order for public planning to be more effective, its methodology should include an integrated framework of cultural evaluation along similar lines to those being developed for social, environmental and economic impact assessment.

This ‘groundbreaking and thought-provoking work ... stresses the belief that the way a society governs itself cannot be fully democratic without there being clear avenues for the expression of community values, and advocates the need to reintroduce the notion of culture into the language of politicians and policy makers. With this in mind, the author explores the different ways in which culture affects and relates to patterns of human activities, illustrates practical ways in which culture can be applied to public policy as well as featuring examples of models that can be drawn upon from around the world.’, UK-based Centre for Creative Communities.

"The Australian researcher Jon Hawkes has formulated the need to structure a new ‘pillar’ for sustainability. His document The Fourth Pillar of Sustainability: Culture’s essential role in public planning is recognised as a masterpiece for local policy making in many European cities. We, the cultural actors and agents, know better than anybody that the circle of development cannot be squared without the fourth pillar: culture. The framework proposed by Jon Hawkes is extremely powerful."
- Jordi Pascual, Coordinator, United Cities and Local Governments’ Group on Culture, Barcelona City Council Institute for Culture - Cultural Policies, Human Development and Institutional Innovation: or why we need an Agenda 21 for culture. Expanding Cultures conference, 2007

Through a series of public discussions, the Cultural Development Network has begun to develop a charter for community cultural development, to identify the principles and practices that might be described as ‘lead practice’. An effective charter could contribute to ever increasing quality, diversity and breadth of community based arts activities in Victoria and beyond.

Book: Public Art Public Housing, 2004
North Richmond Community Health Centre, Department of Human Services Neighbourhood Renewal Unit, and the Cultural Development Network.

This book celebrates the creative collaborative work of residents, artists and organisations on public housing estates across Victoria since 1999. Public Art Public Housing beautifully and vibrantly reflects the creativity of its subjects: energy and excitement leaps off every page. This spectacular publication, written by Graham Pitts and designed by Lin Tobias, was produced as the climax of the Public Housing and Arts project, a collaboration between the North Richmond Community Health Centre, (lead partner), Department of Human Services Neighbourhood Renewal Unit, and the Cultural Development Network. The project began with a successful forum and culminated in an on-line exhibition that supports and amplifies the ideas and projects documented in the book.

The request a copy of this free book, please e-mail CDN with your address.

Public Art Public Housing website

Discussion paper: Strengthening Communities Through the Arts,
Judy Spokes, August 2005
CDN Director Judy Spokes wrote this position paper to stimulate discussion among policy makers and practitioners in the arts, community development and local government sectors about the possibilities of a closer integration of their efforts towards strengthening communities in Victoria.
Download paper (PDF)