Submission from the Committee of Casey Philharmonic Orchestra to

Creative State Strategy consultation

Monday 26 August 2024

To whom it may concern,

We are writing strongly encourage Creative Victoria to broaden its aims, purposes and supports for the creative arts within Victoria. In this, we urge Create Victoria to address two deep concerns: 1) the characterisation of all arts and creativity as ‘industry’; and 2) the equation of arts participation with purchasing a ticket to a professional event. Instead, we urge Create Victoria to focus on promoting broad participation in arts across the state, as much as creating pathways for livelihoods and sustainability of the professional sector—in similar fashion to the ways the state and federal governments support broad sports participation for its own sake, as well as elite sport.

The flawed characterisation of arts-as-industry, and targeting supports towards industry, robs communities of genuine opportunities to participate in the arts and creativity on their own merits. Instead, it turns the sole focus of arts onto generating money – livelihoods and profit. While these are important, they are a TINY part of what the arts are about and why they need to be supported for the good of all.

The health and wellbeing impacts of arts participation is not contentious – there is masses of evidence of the health and wellbeing impacts of arts participation. Arts therapies research and a large body of arts and health literature amply demonstrates the benefits for both physical and psycho-social health and wellbeing of active participation in all forms of art.

There is also a growing body of evidence that the arts provide really powerful spaces for not only reducing poverty (Kabanda 2018), but also growing the empathy that is fundamental to peaceful co-existence and even social cohesion in diverse societies (Ware and Ware 2020; Prentki 2024), healing trauma (Ljubinkovic 2010; Avila Perez 2025), re-imagining a better future and building aspirations (Appadurai 2004; Matarasso 2019; Sen 1999; Ware et al 2021), communicating important information (Impey 2002), and just plain building quality of life (Dunphy and Ware 2018).

Without recourse to the arts for such vitally important social processes, we reduce human life to the mundane and meaningless. Governments are responsible for equitably sharing the wealth of the taxpayers of this state, such that all benefit and have equitable access to the arts. We therefore cannot support professional or emerging-professional artists only, and relegate

community arts participation to buying tickets. There is an ethical dimension here that the Victorian Government is missing.

Falsely characterising arts solely as an ‘industry’ also directly discriminates against community arts compared to community sports. Community sport is supported for its own sake, as well as for producing the next generation of elite athletes. All levels of government provide untold millions of dollars to develop multiple sporting facilities in every suburb and town across the country, because the value of sport for societal and individual wellbeing is recognised. Indeed every town and suburb has multiple sporting clubs, whereas there are whole regions with one or no arts ensembles for lack of funding. For community sport, whether they generate income is irrelevant – they are seen as good for the health and wellbeing of the community, and as sources of social connection and cohesion.

Yet such investment is not applied to community arts, even though the arts provide a much wider range of health and wellbeing benefits, and statistics have LONG suggested far higher rates of community participation in artistic activities. According to a Creative Victoria publication, 97% of Victorians participate in the arts in some way (Source: https://creative.vic.gov.au/resources/audience-participation-survey). Sporting organisations can only dream of participation like this. One recent report reported a ‘goal of 47% of children aged 5–14 years participating in “at least two hours per week of organised sport outside of school hours”’ (emphasis added, source: https://www.uwa.edu.au/news/article/2024/july/sports-policy-focuses-on-the-grassroots-is-this-missing-from-arts-policies; see also Australian Sports Commission 2023).

By perpetuating false characterisations of all arts as an industry, or that arts as industry is the only arts worthy of financial support, we harm communities and vital community processes. The language of arts as ‘industry’ completely devalues community participation in the arts. The arts are not only a pursuit for elite and highly-trained professionals. They are for everyone. There are motherhood statements in the strategy discussion paper around community participation, but absolutely no realistic plans for delivering. We urge significant funding be dedicated in the new strategy to fund community arts – whether these activities lead to livelihood generation or not.

Furthermore, the discussion paper authors hint in their narrative that arts participation equals buying a ticket to a concert, show or exhibition. This is absolutely wrong. Arts participation is about actively taking part and contributing to the creative process – whether individual pursuits such as painting, writing or photography, or collective pursuits such as choirs, orchestras, Bollywood, Māori Haka, or other non-Western cultural activities. There is strong evidence that active participation in the arts is far more beneficial than passive participation – and thus should be given far higher priority in the allocation of our taxpayer funded programs. (Ware et al 2021; Ware et al forthcoming a and b)

Finally, a narrow focus on paid professionals in arts harms the very pipeline for growing and developing future elite artists, and directly contributes to reducing general wellbeing in the community, by denying equitable access to funding and other resources. If we don’t have community arts organisations and programmes providing places for young artists to experiment and grow, we won’t have elite artists either.

So we urge Create Victoria to stop only – or primarily – referring to arts as ‘industry’ and participation in arts as buying tickets, but to support community arts alongside professional arts. We urge Create Victoria to start genuinely supporting community arts on its own merits. Develop a strong core of the strategy that genuinely opens far more equitable investment into community arts for its own sake. Start investing genuinely in the active participation of community members, by investing in facilities and programmes, and cutting red tape.

Sincerely,

Dr Vicki Ware PhD (Ethnomusicology)

Artistic Director, Casey Philharmonic Orchestra

References

Appadurai A (2004) ‘The Capacity to Aspire: Culture and the Terms of Recognition’, in Rao V and Walton M (eds) Culture and Public Action, Stanford University Press, Stanford.

Australian Sports Commission (2023) Ausplay: National Sport and Physical Activity Participation Report, October 2023. Canberra: Australian Government. Source: https://www.clearinghouseforsport.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/1122754/AusPlay-National-Sport-and-Physical-Activity-Participation-Report-October-2023.pdf

Avila Perez, Ana (2025) Kinaesthetic Empathy: The Others in Me. In Ware, Vicki-Ann, Kirsten Sadeghi-Yekta, Tim Prentki, Wasim Al-Kurdi and Patrick Kabanda (2025) Handbook of Arts and Global Development. Abingdon: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003289838

Dunphy, Kim and Vicki-Ann Ware (2018) Dance and quality of life for indigenous communities in Australia. In Dance and the quality of life. Editor(s): Bond K, Gardner S. New York: Springer International Publishing.

Impey A (2002) ‘Culture, Conservation and Community Reconstruction: Explorations in Advocacy Ethnomusicology and Participatory Action Research in Northern KwaZulu Natal’, Yearbook for Traditional Music, 34:9–24. https://doi.org/10.2307/3649187

Kabanda P (2018) The Creative Wealth of Nations: Can the Arts Advance Development? Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Ljubinkovic, Ana (2010) ‘Healing Dimensions of Somali Poetry in Response to Military Humanitarian Intervention’, Journal of Poetry Therapy: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Practice, Theory, Research and Education, 23(3):131–155. https://doi.org/10.1080/08893675.2010.498208

Matarasso François (2019) A Restless Art: How Participation Won, and Why It Matters, Gulbenkian Foundation, London. https://arestlessart.com/writing/a-restless-art/

Prentki, Tim (2024) Global therapy: Advocating for a dramatherapeutic approach to formal education. Dramatherapy 44(1): 9-23.

Sen A (1999) Development as Freedom, Anchor Books, New York.

Ware, Vicki-Ann, Tim Prentki, Kirsten Sadeghi-Yekta, and Wasim Al Kurdi (forthcoming) Chapter 1 – Artful Development: Arts as Research Method? In Ware, Vicki-Ann, Tim Prentki, Kirsten Sadeghi-Yekta, and Wasim Al Kurdi eds, Arts-based Research in Global Development: Performing Knowledge. Abingdon: Routledge.

Ware, Vicki-Ann, Tim Prentki, Kirsten Sadeghi-Yekta, and Wasim Al Kurdi (forthcoming) Chapter 14 – The Art of Knowing. In Ware, Vicki-Ann, Tim Prentki, Kirsten Sadeghi-Yekta, and Wasim Al Kurdi eds, Arts-based Research in Global Development: Performing Knowledge. Abingdon: Routledge.

Ware, Vicki-Ann, Kirsten Sadeghi-Yekta, Tim Prentki, Wasim Al-Kurdi and Patrick Kabanda (2025) Introduction: Arts and Global Development – Uneasy Bedfellows? In Ware, Vicki-Ann, Kirsten Sadeghi-Yekta, Tim Prentki, Wasim Al-Kurdi and Patrick Kabanda (2025) Handbook of Arts and Global Development. Abingdon: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003289838

Ware, Vicki-Ann, Joanne Lauterjung and Shannon Harmer McSolvin (2021) ‘Arts-Based Adult Learning in Peacebuilding: A Potentially Significant Emerging Area for Development Practitioners?’, European Journal of Development Research, 34:1050–1075. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41287-021-00416-x

Ware V-A and Ware A (2020) ‘Strengthening Everyday Peace Formation via Community Development in Myanmar’s Rohingya-Rakhine Conflict’, in Crisp B and Taket A (eds) Sustaining Social Inclusion, Routledge, Abingdon.