As a follow up to Robert Merkel’s annotated list of the sustainability participants in the 2020 summit, we’re very pleased to post Ben Eltham’s annotated list of the summitteers who are participating in the “Towards a Creative Australia” discussion. Ben’s gone beyond the call of googling duty in providing as much information as possible in as succinct as possible a format – check out the links for information on each summit delegate which often transcends a Wiki entry. Hopefully this listing provides a useful guide for all those wondering who any of the culture and arts summit participants who aren’t Claudia Karvan or Hugh Jackman are! Some of the best and the brightest have been keeping a very low web profile, though, so any information that helps fill in the gaps would of course be most appreciated.
LP notes once again that it’s totally pathetic that there’s no detailed information on the official summit website about the background, qualifications and experience of the summitteers. While we’re more than happy to provide a public service and fill in the missing biographical data, we do wish to say that our scepticism about the commitment to inclusiveness and transparency that supposedly characterises this talkfest appears to have been vindicated once again. We’re not happy about that!
Ben writes:
I’ve given each participant one or more descriptors:
E = member of the establishment, prominent philanthropist, captain of industry etc.
S = screen including TV
VA = visual arts
M = music including opera and musicals
Th = theatre
D = dance
ABC = employed by ABC, or strongly associated with it
F = festivals
A+D = Architecture + Design
Com = Comedy
U = Universities
Lit = literature
NH = geology, paleontology and natural history
ATSI = Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Media = media executive
AA = arts administrator
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Matthew Lutton – talented young theatre director, here’s a profile on Arts Hub. Th.
Marshall McGuire – classical harpist who specializes in contemporary and baroque music. M.
Shelagh Magazda – Artistic Director of the Perth International Arts Festival F, AA.
Margaret Seares – Senior Deputy Vice Chancellor at The University of Western Australia. Academic specialist in the keyboard music of the 18th century. M, U.
Louise Adler – CEO and Publisher of Melbourne University Publishing. Board member of Melbourne International Arts Festival. Lit, U, AA, E.
Stephen Armstrong – most likely not the Melbourne painter but instead the experienced producer who has worked with various performing arts companies. Th.
Geraldine Barlow – visual arts curator, collections manager at Monash University Museum of Art. VA, U.
Jennifer Margaret Buckland – is not Googleable
Robert Connolly – film-maker, writer and director of The Bank and director of 3 Dollars. S.
Alison Croggon – theatre reviewer and blogger. Th..
Phoebe Rebecca Dunn – not Googleable under Phoebe Dunn; Rebecca Dunn is highly-rated digital compositor and special effects wizard. S.
Kristy Edmunds – outgoing Artistic Director of the Melbourne International Arts Festival. F, Th, AA.
Saul Eslake – chief economist at ANZ and part-time Chairman of the Tasmanian Arts Advisory Board. E.
Richard Gill – classical music conductor and educator, Artistic Director of OzOpera and Canberra Symphony Orchestra. M, E.
Corinne Grant – comedienne, TV personality. S, Com.
Andrew Kay – the sculptor? The photographer? No, he’s the Chair of Live Performance Australia, the peak body for the performing arts industry. AA.
Ana Kikkinos – screen director, best known for Head On and recently The Book of Revelations. S.
Ramona Koval – Radio National presenter. Lit, ABC.
Rachael Lucas – screen writer and director, best known for Bondi Tsunami. S.
Sue Maslin – screen producer and documentary maker, produced Japanese Story. S.
David McAllister – choreographer and dancer, Artistic Director of The Australian Ballet. D, AA.
Julian Meyrick – associate director and literary advisor of the Melbourne Theatre Company and a theatre director, historian and social scientist. Th, U.
Jan Minchin – visual arts curator, Director of Tolarno Galleries. VA.
Rupert Myer – scion of the Myer dynasty, arts patron, philanthropist and Chairman of the National Gallery of Australia, author of the Federal Government’s Visual Arts and Craft Enquiry. E, VA.
Sue Nattrass – arts administrator and consultant, Chair of Collections Council of Australia. AA, E.
David Pledger – theatre director and founder of Not Yet It’s Difficult. Th.
John Redmond – Dean, Monash University Faculty of Art and Design. U, A+D.
Astrid Wootton – visual arts curator, General Manager of Design Centre Tasmania. VA, A+D, AA.
JM Coetzee – novelist, Nobel Prize winner. Lit.
Barrie Kosky – theatre and opera director. Th, M.
Greg Mackie – arts administrator, Executive Director of Arts SA. Lit, AA.
Rose Myers – theatrical director, former Director of Arena Theatre Company. Th.
Katrina Sedgwick – festival director, Director of 2007 Adelaide Film Festival. S, F, AA.
Michael Bryce – designer and architect. Husband of Queensland Governor Quentin Bryce. A+D, VA, E, U.
Stuart Cunningham – academic and cultural industries policy expert. Chair of QUT’s ARC Centre of Excellence in Creative Industries. S, U.
Michael Gow – playwright and theatrical director. Artistic Director of Qld Theatre Company. Th, AA.
Scott Hocknall – paleontologist, former Young Australian of the Year. U, NH.
Cathy Hunt – arts consultant and administrator, author of A Sustainable Arts Sector: what will it take? AA..
Liza Lim – composer and member of ELISION Ensemble. M.
Anna Malgorzewicz – visual arts curator, Director of Musuem and Art Gallery of the NT. VA, AA.
Neil Armfield – theatrical, screen and opera director. S, Th, AA.
Geoffrey Atherden – screen writer, best known for Mother and Son. ABC, S, Lit.
Larissa Berhendt – Professor of Law and and Director of Research at the Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning at the University of Technology, Sydney. U, ATSI.
Shaun Michael Brown – SBS Managing Director. Media, E.
Letecia Caceras – emerging director and dramaturg. Th.
Kate Champion – dancer and choreographer, Director of Force Majeure movement collective. D, AA.
Andrew Denton – TV personality, screen producer, comedian. S, Media, Com.
Rachel Dixon – screen and multimedia producer, arts administrator, Chair of MetroScreen. S, AA.
Khoa Do – actor, writer and director who received the Young Australian of the Year award in 2005. S.
Jo Dyer – screen producer, arts administrator, Executive Manager of Sydney Theatre and Major Projects Manager of Sydney Theatre Company. Th, AA.
Robyn Ewing – Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney. U.
Anna Funder – writer and historian, author of the highly-rated Stasiland. Lit.
Peter Goldsworthy – writer. Former Chair of Australia Council Literature Board. Lit.
David Gonski – businessman, philanthropist, former Chair of the Austraila Council. AA, E.
Rachel Healy – theatrical producer, arts administrator, Director of Performing Arts, Sydney Opera House.Th, AA.
Frank Howarth – geologist, museum administrator, Director of the Australian Museum. NH, AA.
Hugh Jackman – actor, Hollywood celebrity. S.
Sandra Levy – screen producer, high-profile TV executive. S, Media.
Fergus Lineham – Sydney Festival director. F, M, AA.
Liz Ann McGregor – visual arts curator, musuem administrator, Director of the MCA. VA, AA.
Nick Marchand – theatrical director, Artistic Director of Griffin Theatre. Th, AA.
Hal McElroy – screen producer, ubiquitous maker of Australian TV drama. S, Media.
Enda Murray – documentary film-maker. S.
Alison Page – interior designer, TV personality (“The New Inventors”). A+D, S
Marion Potts – theatrical director, arts administrator, Artistic Director of Bell Shakespeare Company’s Mind’s Eye. Th.
Ian Robertson – is hard to track down but could well be this printmaker with works in the NGA. VA.
Mark Scott – media executive, Managing Director of the ABC. Media, E.
James Strong – businessman, philanthropist, current Chair of the Australia Council. AA, E.
Mary Valentine – arts administrator and consultant, former Managing Director of the Sydney Symphony. M, AA.
Kim Williams – media executive, CEO of Foxtel. S, Media, E.
Ron Radford – visual arts curator, museum administrator, Director of the NGA. VA, AA.
James Baker – not the former US Defence Secretary, but most likely this Queensland journalist, political staffer and 2007 Senate candidate. Other.
Daryl Buckley – musician, composer, Artistic Director of ELISION Ensemble. M, AA.
Bob Campbell – this is a tough one. Is he a leading New Zealand wine expert? Dianne Fossey’s cinematographer? CEO of Bananas NSW? You tell us …
Karen Casey – Indigenous visual artist. VA, ATSI.
Joel Edgerton – actor and screen producer. Was in Star Wars. S.
Wesley Enoch – theatrical director and playwright. Th, AA, ATSI.
Paul Grabowsky – pianist, composer and arts administrator. Former head of ABC arts, incoming Artistic Director of Adelaide Festival. M, Th, ABC, F, AA.
Anna Haebich – academic, visual arts curator, Director of Griffith University Centre for Public Culture and Ideas. U, VA, AA, ATSI
Marieke Hardy – screen writer, screen producer, actor, comedienne. S, Lit, ABC, Com..
Sam Haren – theatrical director, academic at Flinders University Drama School. Th, U.
Nick Jose – writer, President of Sydney PEN. Lit.
Claudia Karvan – ubiquitous Australian screen actress. Also was in Star Wars. S.
Catherine Martin – production designer, screen producer, set designer. S.
Callum Morton – emerging visual artist. Recently exhibited at Venice Biennale. VA.
Rhys Muldoon – screen actor. S.
Lena Nahlous – community arts producer, arts administrator, Director, Information and Cultural Exchange (Sydney). CCD, AA.
Margot Neale – visual arts curator, museum administrator, Senior Curator on Indigenous matters at the National Museum of Australia. VA, ATSI, AA.
Helen O’Neil – arts administrator and lobbyist, Executive Director of performing arts peak body AMPAG. Th, D, M, AA.
Stephen Page – choreographer, Artistic Director of Bangarra Dance Company. D, ATSI, AA.
Charles Parkinson – theatrical director, Artistic Director of IS Theatre in Tasmania. Th, AA.
Rachel Perkins – screen producer and director, best known for directing Radiance and One Night The Moon. S, ATSI.
John Polson – actor, screen producer and director, arts administrator, founder of TropFest. S, AA.
Ivan Sen – screen director and documentary maker. S, ATSI.
Brett Sheehy – festival director, current Artistic Director of Adelaide Festival, former Director of Sydney Festival. F, AA.
Adam Simpson – not the AFL footballer but the Adelaide-based entertainment lawyer and Convenor of the Contemporary Music Working Group. M.
David Throsby – cultural economist and arts policy expert, Professor of Economics at Macquarie University. U.
Richard Tognetti – musician, composer, conductor, arts administrator. Artistic Director of the Australian Chamber Orchestra. M, AA.
Australia’s biggest cultural export by dollar value, and arguably by global impact too, is contemporary music, closely followed by computer game design and then by comedians. Yet I don’t see any rock/pop/dance musos or producers or game designers listed there. Or even at least one decent stand up comic as rapporteur.
On the other hand, Saul Eslake is a good call when it comes to marrying the talent with the money. A very shrewd arts patron/fixer behind the scenes.
But overall, I’d rather much see presented someone like Kylie or Angus Young or hell, even David Thrussell, all successful export-oriented businesspeople managing high profile IP-based creative brands in volatile international markets rather than a large chunk of the media and academic mediators selected so far.
But now I think about it, this summit will provide serious creative input for our emerging new generation of satirists and creative shitstirrers.
There does seem to be a serious growth in alterno summits for starters.
Please do not dismiss Hugh Jackman as simply “actor, Hollywood celebrity”. In addition to acting in movies, Jackman is an award-winning actor in musical theatre (Australia, London, and Broadway). He is also a screen producer, with a goal of bringing more film work to Australia, including a large-budget movie currently filming in Sydney.
Bob Campbell is a senior television executive.
The telling omission is the dearth of games people, despite games being explicitly assigned to this category. In some ways this might be a blessing, because it’s a field where the public voices are often not the experts at all.
On the other hand, the omission can be seen as a portent of future failures in the Rudd government’s management of the technology industries. The composition of the innovation and skills panels bears this out.
Lee, I certainly wasn’t intending to dismiss High Jackman’s stage career. Or his screen production credentials. A glance at his IMDB page shows the breadth of his activities.
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Tony, thanks for the info regarding Bob Campbell. I too was astonished to see the neglect of game design and interactive digital media.
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There are other areas which appear to have been ignored: new media arts, community cultural development, regional arts, and perhaps most surprisingly, publishing.
Nabs: Corinne Grant is a stand-up comedian, though “decent” I’ll leave for others to decide (I haven’t seen her live).
On the popular music issue, seeing this is a manager-fest, why not Michael Gudinski or Ken West? Or Molly Meldrum? Anyone that can turn Peter Andre into a star clearly has some useful skills…
I agree that games development is a glaring omission. How many more years in the wilderness before journalists, academics and politicians start really paying attention?
I’m glad to see Ivan Sen on there, as I know he holds some unorthodox views on film and cultural politics.
Echo nabs and the startling omission of the video games industry. Lots of highbrow (i.e. unwatched/unwatchable) capital C Kulcha there.
Why not Dave Graney?
Or Tim Rogers?
Sure, they’d be hard to keep sober, but what the hey… no rock musicians at all? Fucking crazy!
I feel disenfranchised.
Again.
perhaps the view was that with a rock musician as Minister, they didn’t need any more … I like the Dave Graney suggestion
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To have only one publisher is a really strange decision – publishing remains Australia’s biggest cultural industry, bigger than either film or music
Where’s Missy?
Stuart Cunningham knows about about the games industry – because ACID (Australian Centre for Interactive Design) is hosted by Creative Industries @ QUT.
But, yep, it’s about culture in the trad sense rather than creativity, it seems.
I’d love to see Tim Rogers here. Along with Tex Morton. They’d really fire the place along. Though I’d rather see them as roving co-chairs, firing the place along and offering some really goos drugs when the energy gets low.
I don’t understand why there aren’t specific games companies there. Thre’s enough of them around. But if you dig a little deeper, you’ll find some of the screen people involved are doing work in web based or new media productions.
Actually, Dave Graney would pretty much cover the comedy angle too – he’s WAY funnier in person than any comedian I’ve ever met.
Ditto the surprise about no-one from the Interactive Entertainment fields. There’s also a surprising shortage of Arts educators (a shortage reflected in Ben’s categories) with the exception of Margaret Seares (who’s an DVC), John Redmond and Sam Haren (who I think is still completing his PhD). I’d assume a bunch of them hold adjunct appointments in various schools, but other than the three above I don’t see anyone who’s a significant arts educator. No one I can see from any of the Arts Ed peak bodies (ACUADS, ASPERA et al). Design gets short shift as well.
d
Maybe in terms of the selection it did matter what Cate Blanchett’s view of the arts/culture field is.
Kristy Edmunds – outgoing Artistic Director of the Melbourne International Arts Festival. F, Th, AA.
Eff Th AA indeed
hehe – fnaar fnarr – smirk – snorkle
That’s a bit of snark about the lack of CVs on the website. Collecting and editing a thousand CVs takes time, and the list was only settled on Thursday. Give the poor bloody public servants a few days, mate.
I don’t know, DD, it only took me a few hours and I’m one guy with a laptop … all the submissions asked for biographical details, so it shouldn’t have been difficult to include a one line summary with the names.
I wonder if Kim’s right about the Blanchett factor … there are an awful lot of screen actors and theatre directors in the list.
DD: It would have been trivial to ask the nominees themselves to provide a 100-word blurb which could have been put on the website.
Given that the resources of the DPMC are orders of magnitude greater than those available to Larvatus Prodeo, we’ve managed to collect the basics on nearly 20% in a couple of days, and that many of the nominees must have been identified a while ago, I don’t think we’re being unreasonable.
May I add that Hugh Jackman has also been very successful in hosting shows or events on television ( America and Australia)? He has been awarded an EMMY ( American television’s highest award) for his work in hosting Broadway’s TONY awards. He is one of Australia’s multi-talented performing arts personalities whose work have been recognized outside Australia.
We want some creativity? It’s time ta be creative? How doz ya do stuff wot’s ceaive Baz?
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Well yuz getz a bunch a people together? On a committee? And yas tawks about it?
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It’s the ‘Strayan way.
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BORING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Interesting the list. One question. Why so many ‘artsa administrators’ and no impressarios?
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Oh Mr. Strine. I see yer problem right here. Yer creativity engine’s not gonna go very far with this lack o’ horsepower. This kinda car just can’t compete. The serious contenders’re always gonna buy a Yank Tank over this junk heap any day.
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Ozzie kulcha. Coming to a 10 for a $1 bin near you.
Just for the record I was NOT deriding Hugh Jackman’s multi-talented abilities … I was just figuring that most of you knew who he was …
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I support internationally successful artists like Jackman attending the summit. However it would be nice to see some young and emerging artists working in the suburbs as well …
fine @#12 Tex Morton is long dead. Perhaps you mean Tex Perkins.
Me I feel disenfranchised by not having Chad Morgan on the list.
They should have AC/DC for the car industry – enduring Australian B(r)and well known overseas – competes well against bigger models – 4 cylinder 4 to the floor metal – haven’t changed look, feel or speed of model for over two decades and yet it still sells well – composed of largely foreign parts assembled in Oz – appeals to wide demographic.
Here’s my take. (I should be a Lit too, btw, unless around 12 published books count for nothing – I was a poet and a novelist long before I was a theatre blogger and have legitmate runs on the board there). I think it’s a very interesting bunch, and surprisingly diverse – the fact that I was invited, without being in the least aware that I was in the running, should tell you something. By my count, which might have missed one or two, there are seven Establishment types. They should be there, but they’re by no means dominant. It’s slanted towards a certain generation of artists, ie, those about 40, who have emerged in the past decade from long years under the baby boomers and have been around long enough to have done the hard yards, and there are some young artists there too. And of the names I know something about, a high proportion are people I respect highly.
There are entrepeneurial brains (Daryl Buckley. AD of Elision Music Ensemble and Stephen Armstrong, EP of Malthouse Theatre, formerly at the STC) who are well worth respecting, and a scattering of some of the biggest talents and minds in the performing arts. You need people like festival directors, because they are probably the most informed people about what is actually happening in the arts, since they probably see more than even critics do, and across all art forms. Kristy Edmunds is one of the brightest minds working in the arts in this country, and has a huge international perspective (and reputation) – and as well as being AD of MIAF is also incoming Head of Performing Arts at the VCA. Even without familiarity with the background of others, I can see that the mix covers design and architecture, indigenous art, visual arts, museums and film from a variety of perspectives.
Yes, it’s heavy on the performing arts. I don’t think that’s such a bad thing, the performing arts being a place where all arts intersect, and also an art that requires fiscal practicality, but I do think that’s a legitimate criticism. I think there could be more writers and more representation from the literary world. Yes, if we’re to talk about gaming, it would be handy to have one or two people who know about it, and I can’t work out who they are; to be honest I don’t know why topics like Web 2.0 and gaming are included there, there’s an air of them just being shoved in. But equally, those who think innovation belongs solely to technology and is not also the province of “traditional” art forms don’t know what they’re talking about, and miss the fact that the list includes some radical minds.
Myself, I think everything depends on how well it’s organised, how productive the discussions are (and then what the government does with what emerges). A certain scepticism is in order. But snark and sneer is not scepticism, just easy.
Hmmm, the empire strikes back.
*Puts hand up* I have “Attempts at being”, Alison. I knew of your poetry long before I discovered blogs.
Alison I think we’re in agreement on most of these issues.
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I think festival directors are extremely valuable people to have on this kind of panel because their job is to research and present art across a wide range of practices. And ditto to your praise for Daryl Buckley, Kristy Edmunds, Stephen Armstrong and so on.
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Having said that: writing off gaming and the world wide web as being largely peripheral to this topic is, I think, a grave misjudgment. The web is surely one of the most vital artistic mediums (or cluster of converging media, really) in contemporary culture, and if the performing arts are indeed the place where all the arts intersect (and I’m not sure I completely agree with you about that), then surely this is also true of interatcive digital media.
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And I certainly wasn’t arguing that innovation can’t happen in the “traditional” art forms. It can also happen in new artforms. But these haven’t been represented.
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Even within the artforms represented here, there is a real bias towards the high arts. We have Richard Tognetti and Richard Gill but no rock, folk, roots or electronic musicians. We have Mark Scott and Kim Williams but no representatives of community radio or TV. We have a large number of actors and screen producers, but only one community cultural development practitioner. We have a geologist and a paleontologist but no industrial designers. We have essentially only a single representative of the publishing industry.
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It’s fair to conclude that this is a fairly skewed selection. Perhaps any list of 100 from such a massively diverse spectrum would be.
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Even so, I am really disappointed at how conservative this list is. It’s meant to be about a “creative Australia” remember, not just an artistic Australia.
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Finally, apologies again for leaving off the “Lit” from your descriptors, I am indeed aware of your writing but somehow an “E” and a “Lit” got mixed up in my spreadsheet. But thanks for taking the time to post at LP
The debates about “Creative Industries” are relevant here – which is what I think Ben is alluding to.
Please forgive my cyncism. But I’d like to see this list cross-referenced with ALP membership lists.
I doubt you’d find much overlap at all. Hardly anyone in Australia is a member of a political party. Despite all the stuff about “luvvies”, I strongly suspect that people working in the arts are very unlikely to be Labor party members.
Now that you mention it what has become of JG?
He seems to have run out of puff.
You’re one of an elite crowd, Su! And thanks. Hi Ben – no problems, my CV confuses even me. I don’t mean at all to write off gaming or creative technologies. I am myself an enthusiastic amateur gamer. Going back to D&D days, in fact, when I was the only gel. I fear I was responding hastily to the snotty write offs of so-called traditional culture, meaning dance, theatre, literature, visual art etc, as places where real creativity and innovation don’t take place, or that “ordinary” people aren’t interested in art (a recent survey showed that more Australians involve themselves with the arts than with sport – and what’s the biggest tourist attraction in Britain? The Tate Modern…) And I guess I was also reacting to the placement of these arts in opposition to technological innovation, when so often these things go hand in hand. Look at the work of Chunky Move, or how poetry has embraced the internet. Yes, there are always conservative arts, but Australia is jumping with forward looking artists. I didn’t mean that gaming or Web 2.0 (and I do have a fairly big personal interest in the latter) shouldn’t be part of the discussion, even if it sounded like it, but that I thought they’d rather been hastily shoved in there. I may be mistaken there. I guess all will become clear when an agenda is produced. Also, artists don’t generally join political parties. There are explicitly political groups like Melbourne Workers Theatre and others, but they’re most certainly a minority – artists tend not to work very well with ideologies of any kind.
Maybe I ought to clarify my final statement… the question of artists’ political affiliations is very vexed. And a fair generalisation is that most of them aren’t joiners. And – and this is a purely personal judgment – in my view the best artists are too individualistic to bow easily to any crudely political agenda, even if they want to, and those who do tend to be not very interesting. The history of artists with the Left is actually as disastrous as it is with the Right, and in any extreme regime of whatever stripe the position of artists is without exception parlous. At the same time, I don’t believe art is apolitical. But that’s a very long essay.
Kim – I am indeed alluding to the creative industries debate. And possibly the two best qualified people in Australia to talk about these issues will be on the panel – Stuart Cunningham and David Throsby.
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Alison – sorry to imply you were anti-gaming. Yes, I agree – it’s endlessly tedious to see the high arts / low arts debate constantly regurgitated. Just as annoying as seeing the arts in general denigrated ass “elite” and “out of touch.”
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Creativity is a forbiddingly large idea, but even so I think we can aspire to a polyglot diversity closer to the actual make-up of our nation. I’d like to see more hairdressers, breakdancers and preschool teachers, and fewer senior media executives, journalists and economists. One day.
You can still find Mr Greenfield at Catallaxy occasionally if you’re in the mood.
The 2020 thing was never billed as an attempt to be representative, Ben.
The agenda is
* Future directions for Australia’s principal arts bodies
* Future directions for the ABC, SBS, Australia Television and Radio Australia
* How best to develop a globally innovative and competitive film industry
* How to encourage participation in emerging global industries such as game design, the internet 2.0, graphics-rich applications and animation
* How we build on the creative sector’s potential as a major Australian export industry.
For this agenda we don’t need representative practitioners – we need adminstrators; producers etc.
Creativity, mercifully, is not on the agenda.
Not so, wbb.
Glyn Davis last Friday:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/2020-invitation-list-reveals-excellent-crosssection-but-ofcourse-not-all-agree/2008/03/28/1206207412974.html
There are, of course, a lot more university professors than electricians, but that’s the claim that’s being made.
Ben, yes I knew you were, I was just clarifying that in response to some other comments from people who didn’t perhaps see where you were coming from.
Wbb, there’s a lot of literature on innovation which suggests creativity – as such – is a very useful value which can be inculcated through (among other things) breaking down barriers which tend to isolate it to those working in the arts. I also note from your list of objectives that, as pointed out earlier, games and interactive new media are already up there in the top of the export table, yet, as I said, there’s a fairly trad arts focus. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not seeking to revive any debates or distictions there either, but I would like to observe that these sectors have largely achieved success commercially without significant state support, and there may be lessons that could be applied cross-sectorally.
Again, as Mark argued in his New Matilda article, what will be key will be the structuring of the debates. Certainly the trend in cultural policy has been towards a much broader understanding of what’s under that heading – and to encompass industry and economic development and culture as not add-ons but integral sides of the same coin.
OK. And a stupid claim it is too, Kim. Davis is beating a retreat from the best & brightest headline which was always bound to go down like a lead balloon in Australia. His statement is a charade. But being forced to correct my statement we can say: this 2020 thing was never meant to be representative.
Yes, I’d agree with that, wbb. And the “best and brightest” phrase was the epitome of dumb. I think it’s also over-compensation for the gender imbalance of the chairs.
Just want to say I appreciate the work that Ben & Robert have done on these lists – you put the pollies and staffers to shame!
Amen to that!
Defer to others on the value of this selection by Ruddster machine. Only to add that Corinne Grant was notable post Glasshouse show demise for
1. Compere for Anti Work Choices rally at the MCG in 2007 from memory or maybe late 06.
2. Similarly compere of anti Howard Govt education rally at sandstone Sydney Uni in May 07 – I know well because that day the uni security gave me a ‘permanent’ eviction notice from campus even when I flashed my solicitor’s card, to run interference on my community media reportage (methinks anyway), later reversed after weight from the NSW Ombudsman.
This last matter is instructive because no one except the Ombudsman offered any help/symapthy when it mattered to reverse the fraudulent uni ban notice except one senior ABC journo you hear every day. Not the Student union, not MEAA, not News Ltd etc Right to Know coalition, not anyone else in the community media sector.
And Corinne Grant? She delicately stepped around the mob of uniform goons standing over and menacing me too when I did NOTHING wrong except support democracy. Oh what a frightend bunch of Australian sheep under Howard, and now Rudd? I’ll not be forgetting that reality for quite a long time.
The whole saga is here: http://www.sydneyalternativemedia.com/blog/index.blog/1793977/nsw-ombudsman-helps-protect-community-media-5th-estate-free-speech-on-uni-campus/
and pics here
http://www.sydneyalternativemedia.com/blog/index.blog/1684729/student-public-education-rally-sam-reporter-banned-indefinitely-from-sydney-university-campus-for-reporting-event/
I agree with the earlier comments about there being no computer and videogames people represented. It augurs extremely poorly for the years ahead. The potential is and was there for Australia to capture a key crossroads in the cultural story of games, but if this is what can be expected, then I guess not.
Mark B. mentions Stuart Cunningham being there as a games person. I would rather think he has a lot under his remit and that I doubt he would have the time or scope to introduce games-specific discussions.
Hopes not held high, I’m afraid.
Re: Helen O’Neill. It’s worth mentioning that AMPAG stands for Australian Major Performing Arts Group. This is the peak body that represents the interests of these companies. Does this qualify as a captain of industry? It would in my book.
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Alison Croggan said
I absolutely have to disagree. Let’s analyse the representation from the music sector. It gets 8 out of 100 seats.
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1. Six of the eight are classical musicians/composers or classical music administrators (Seares, Tognetti, McGuire, Lim, Buckley, Vallentine)
2. Two of the eight are married to each other and work in the same contemporary classical music ensemble
3. There is one jazz person (Grabowsky). He looks like he is there because he is part of the group of festival directors who seem to be there in an ex-officio arrangement.
4. Adam Simpson is indeed a member of the Contemporary Music Working Group, but is an arts lawyer, meaning that the only contemporary music representation is from a non-practitioner.
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Now for a quick reality check! Looking at ARIA sales figures, contemporary music accounts for about 96% of all music sales. Classical music for less than 2%. Moving over to the ABS figures – Two and a half times the number of people attended contemporary music performances than Classical Music, Opera and Musicals combined (and most of the latter figures are attendance at musicals). To justify the above list you’d have to be suggesting that contemporary music was not a site for arts practice. This position would be neanderthal beyond belief, as any broad and informed listener would tell you. although one member (Gill) has a reputation for regular conservative rants which attack popular music, accusing its inclusion in music education programs as a sign of ‘dumbing down’ the curriculum and posing the rather shaky proposition that western classical music is inherently more worthwhile.
This is a pretty clear case that the representation is very skewed in music toward a particular niche genre which also happens to hold the most institutional power. Innovation in music happens in all places except the above… Even the most cursory scholarly analysis of the field would lead you to this conclusion. So I cannot seriously listen to an argument that the above list is diverse and keep a straight face.
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I also like to echo the criticisms around the incredible lack of expertise in digital media areas. Not one artist working with emerging technologies. Not room for one amongst the one hundred? Hard to imagine, considering that most of the summit questions are around innovation and emerging digital contexts.
Through a strange set of circumstances, I received an 11th hour call up to the summit. I am trying to collate as much input as i can from the people outside those represented at the summit. I’ve gone through the thread here and taken some notes but if anyone wants to contribute more actively I’ll be hosting a bit of a discussion over at my (brand new!) web site through the week.
The link is: http://www.marcuswestbury.net/2008/04/11/2020-summit-call-up-any-ideas/
Please feel free to throw some ideas around. I have a strange feeling that i may be playing the role as a contestant on 1 v. 100, but we’ll see.