Community Arts
Issue 10:3 | September 1990
Yes but what IS community arts? A strategy for social reform? A way of life? A political movement? A victory for the margins? A type of social welfare? A radical challenge to the art institution? A model for a new culture?
In this issue
Cultural Lifestyle as a Taxpayer: 1990 the new era for self responsibility
Polemic for 1990 (in two parts) Part 1 Odours of redundancy Facts and Foibles part 2 Alternatives as suggested in Polemic No 1 Culture tax and Ôknow howÕ
Why do Angels fly Anti-clockwise?
Community arts has been eminently successful with an impressive list of achievements for a field not more than fifteen years old.
Through the Looking Glass: Community art at the Strathmont Centre
Every human being is an artist wrote Joseph Beuys who believed the creativity and its potentially concomitant powers of self determination and freedom are inherent in all people and the most worthy occupation for them.
Community Arts: the Seventies Fad that never went away
The category Ôcommunity artsÕ had no real currency in Australia until it appeared in federal arts policy as a separate funding programme in 1973.
Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras
Over the last 12 years the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras has slowly evolved into a community arts success story. From its beginnings on Stonewall Day in 1978 to the multi functional arts organisation it is now, Mardi Gras continues to develop the culture of gay and lesbian communities who own and manage it.
Reflections on Experience
A conversation for Artlink between Kay Lawrence, Ann Newmarch and Cedar Prest, three South Australian based professional artists who have worked extensively with communities. May 3 1990
Australian Labour Based Art in an International Context.
Artwork produced in conjunction with the labour movement (in common with much community based work) receives little public attention.
Now we are 10 Redback Graphix 10 year anniversary touring exhibition
Redback Graphix was formed in 1979 not as a co-operative or a community based access workshop but as a fully fledged business.
Towards the Yapa Way
Much arts activity in Aboriginal communities revolves around, and is driven by, the forces of the international art market. Looks at the artist in residency programme in the community of Lajamanu in the Northern Territory.
WhatÕs wrong with the Lounge Room? Community arts and Public TV
Television is one of the fundamental cultural realities of our time. Any attempt to deal with Australian cultural life has to come to grips with this phenomenon. Yet to a great extent this has not happened with arts commentators.
Curbin the Urban
An environmental arts project in inner Melbourne, Victoria. Cartoonist Judy Horacek has been employed to create cartoons about the environmental concerns of local residents ranging from the destruction of rain-forests to the dilemma of cremation or burial.
Music by any other name would be as sweet.
If all the arguments about community music that have raged around Australia for the past 15 years or so were laid end to end, they would stretch from the Sydney Opera House to the Hobart Casino, from the Boggabrai Light Opera Company to the Geraldton Recorder Group, from the Rockhampton Youth Orchestra to the Busselton Trade Union Choir and back, forming a veritable spider web tapestry of case histories that neither prove nor disprove any one definition of what community music is or is not.
Community Arts -- Collaborative Design
Written with Michelle Howard Looks at the new Box Hill Community Arts Centre designed by Greg Burgess and Peter Ryan of Greg Burgess and Associates.
Photo Access
Photo Access is a community organisation located close to central Canberra. It offers low cost access to photographic darkroom facilities, course, information and exhibition space.
Gasworks
The Gasworks is located in an 8 acre park on the edge of the sea in South Melbourne. In 1985 the City of South Melbourne adopted a plan to transform the polluted industrial wasteland into a Park and convert the building surrounding its perimeter into artistsÕ studios, workshops, perfomance and exhibition spaces.
Realising Potential in Writing
There is considerable potential for writing-in-the-community and community theatre writing. However, that potential may only be fully achieved if there is a re-evaluation of the aesthetics, processes and products of such writing. The re-evaluation should be based on the assumption that the product should have substance rather than flopsy-bunny triviality. The community arts are worse than useless if they do not have a functional as well as an artistic aspect.
The Evolution of Urban Art
A seven metre alien and a five metre cloaked warrior were two of the sensational pieces in Western AustraliaÕs first gallery showing of Urban Art. The display at Curtin UniversityÕs Erica Underwood Gallery, July 10 - 27 1990 showed the works of ten of the City of GosnellsÕ talented aerosol artists and was yet another development in the City of Gosnells unique Urban Arts programme that is being used as a model around Australia.
Excuse me but we are still out here...
Billboard spaces is part of an on-going initiative from the Festival of Arts 1990 (Adelaide) hoping to expand the idea of suburban street activity.
Teenage Roadshows Journeys of Discovery
Looks at the work of Gil Weaver and the Teenage Roadshows and what started for one individual as a rescue mission for deprived urban kids in 1972 has become one of the few arts educational enterprises for people living in outback Australia. Great photos of the kids and their artworks.
Interview with Deborah Mills, director of the Community Development Cultural Unit
Interview with Deborah Mills, director of the Community Development Cultural Unit. ÒI cannot really predict where community arts is going to go... butÓ
Powerhouse Regional Arts Centre
At Casula railway station just outside Liverpool NSW stands an old but sturdy former power station which is steadily taking on its new life as a community arts centre. John SkennerÕs architectural plans have resulted from extensive community and council consultation.
State of the Arts in Community Arts - a special 16 page directory to national resources.
State of the Arts in Community Arts - a special 16 page directory to national resources. Comprehensive and clear listing of national organisations and agencies.
Legitimate at last
Humourous look at the legitimising of Ôcommunity artsÕ.
People and places
In Hastings Victoria, a performance artist and a conservationist worked with school children and the community to raise their consciousness of the necessity to protect the seagrass in the area against destruction from industrial development. Three years after the start of the Seagrass Project, the community voted into council a large contingent of environmentally conscious representatives.
Belles Lettres: Voices from Homes of Violence
Belles Lettres is a collection of writing and visual images by participants in a women's writing project held under the umbrella of Women's Refuge and the Incest Centre in the ACT (Australian Capital Territory).
The Arts Council at a Cultural Frontier
The environmental movement has given weight to a genuine desire for people to re-associate with the bush and discover values beyond the limitations of a suburban Brick Wall Dreaming.
Savage Lives
Savage Lives began in June 1989 when 3 artists Leigh Hobba, Ray Arnold and John Dale took up residence in a minerÕs house in Savage River, Tasmania.
Anita Aarons on Aesthetic Aerobics
Anita Aarons said this fell off the back of a bus while in Bali.
From a Cardboard Box to Knox
Community arts in Victoria in 1990. Looks at the Oakleigh Community railway project and details of Austin Hospital Textile mural. Great colour photos.
Community Arts Resource Centre
The Community Arts resource Centre is an information resource/referral centre with a specialised library collection.
Prospect Public Spaces Study Group
Prospect Public Spaces Study Group are Prospect residents with interest and skills in the arts. It meets regularly to consider the built environment in Prospect, a suburb of Adelaide in South Australia.
The Spray Can, Community Art and Young People
Written with Lorena Felicetti. The aim of the project (located in Melbourne Victoria), was to establish an on-going Aerosol Art Workshop for young artists. An artist will be employed to establish the project and develop a mural project. Looks at works at the Preston Technical College Wall --colour photos
The Poster, the Gringa and 6 Languages
Positive Visions was a community poster project that challenged two stereo types seeking to counteract both of these stereotypes engaging migrant women in a collaborative process to create a series of posters highlighting solutions rather than problems. Great colour photos.
Mural on a truck
Carol Ruff, nationally known muralist whose work can be seen from Alice Springs to Townsville and Melbourne to Port Moresby, didnÕt know what a sullage truck was until she was approached by the community arts officer at Warringah Shire Council.
Shoulder to Shoulder -- neither absent nor silent
Artists against racism project known in its public format as Òshoulder to shoulderÓ, the project re-examines, revalues and recontextualises participantsÕ past experiences while simultaneously offering a positive affirmation of the future, beyond individual and collective pain and injustice.
The Arts in your Community: Why and How
An examination of some of the issues inhibiting the development of the arts in local government.
Challenge for a new force
The Local Government and Arts Task Force (South Australia) was set up to examine and clearly articulate the relative roles for each sphere of government in the funding and support of local arts and cultural development.
Extending Parameters
Extending Parameters Research Forum Brisbane, Queensland (February 21-23 1990), and the National Ideas Summit in Canberra February, 1990.
A Brief History of an Arts Practice in community contexts
To construct a brief history of Vivienne BinnsÕ art practice and reflections, what follows is a series of quotations from previous interviews and lectures. Her formal art traiing is included as it is an important element in the way Vivienne sees her art practice strategically relating to high culture and excellence, low culture, community and feminism
Community Art as Feminist Challenge: Vivienne Binns
Looks at the community art practice of Vivienne Binns. Great colour photos
Public Art
David Humphries and Rodney Monk are artists with a vision. Directors of Public Art Projects they have recently completed a 2 year posting as artistic directors on Skygarden a multi million dollar retail and office development.