Community Cultural Development in the Australian Context

 

Liliana E. Correa

lilianaec_27@yahoo.com.au

On a Personal Note

To begin with, my motivation to write about Community Cultural Development work and present a paper at Nuestros Medios/Our Media Conference, comes from reflecting about my participation in two very different projects involving two different community groups. In both projects we used new technology, video and photography to assist the groups explore their issues of concern.

In 2004 thanks to the support from the University of Technology Sydney Centre for Popular Education, Miriam Bevis and I designed a photo-voice project with a group of women primary carers from Tregear Public School 1 . We worked with artist/photographer Kathy Kirkpatrick and in eight weeks witnessed through the eyes of cameras (digital, manual and disposable), the possibility of change. The outcome was celebrated amongst friends, neighbours and family. A less tangible but permanent outcome was the memory that was left in all of us, a sense of: ‘I can do this and much, much more’. In spite of its short duration, I considered this project a success from beginning to end. The second project required facilitating the production of an educational DVD for parents with children 0-8 years old. Initially I felt inspired, challenged and excited by the enormous potential that this project presented to us as artists and educators.

However two main issues arose from the funding bodies regarding financial restraint and their strong editorial inputs, which I believed compromised the project’s original stated outcomes. First, funding restrictions required that I leave the project before its completion thus preventing any further production, educational and artistic inputs. Second, content-rich material that should have been used, was discarded on advice by the funding body to the detriment of the final educational DVD. As I watched the final product a strong sense of frustration and disillusion clouded my initial enthusiasm. From my personal perspective this particular project’s success resided in the consultative process where there was a free and generous exchange of ideas, insights and learning between all participants including the production and artist team.

Nevertheless both projects also make me wonder about the capacity within any community to welcome consultations and engage in project developments when the objective is in benefit to all members. Every community group I had the opportunity to work with had been inclusive and responsible. However those who control the sources of funding and in some cases artists, cannot say the same and workers whose focus is primarily on bureaucratic and funding outcomes as ends in themselves, forgot the Community Cultural Development principles and community benefit.

Working as a Community Arts Worker and Educator crossing borders and in constant challenge, brings me back to the same question – that of sustainability, self-nurturance and regeneration. Regardless of the working medium, community geographical location or whether the artists are endogenous or in transit to the particular community, the principal aim to produce high quality and innovative work is a constant. Throughout my years of residency in this country and while taking part in a number of cultural and political organizations, I witnessed changes and reflected upon the many coming and goings of projects, workers and cultural and community organisations.

I was fortunate to meet and work with a number of culturally diverse and highly qualified practitioners in many different community settings. Sometimes projects led to celebrations and other times to disillusion. When disillusion occurred it came as a consequence of lack of funding, support and cultural understanding.

Recounting history

In recent Australian 20th Century history, the social and political struggles of successive generations have help to shape the nature of the community’s cultural response. In the 1960’s and 1970’s, the Trade Union movement, Vietnam War, Feminist and Indigenous struggles, helped shaped the community arts movement in its many responses to the events. Prior to the above during the early years of the Depression, The New Theatre and the first ever Labor Film Unit was created as a critique to their contemporary social, economic and industrial conditions.

Milner (2003) writes:

1953-1958 The Film Unit was the only film unit that existed within the Australian Trade Union. With the support of the Waterside Workers’ Federation the Sydney Wharfies created the Nations’ first ever labor film unit. The Unit had three members: Norma Disher, Keath Gaw and Jock Levy. They were all active in Sydney’s Theatre and they were all members of the Communist Party of Australia. (p.5)

During this period unions played a significant role in contributing to Australian cultural life as Hughes (1999) explains in his article on community arts in Australia.

The availability of funding for artists to work with a diverse range of communities (including workers) has encouraged a dialogue about how to best do this. It also enabled a community theatre movement to thrive since 1972. There were many small, professional, community theatre companies that did Art And Working Life projects in association with trade unions. There were also three companies, which specialized in making theatre for and with working people: Junction in Adelaide, Sidetrack in Sydney and the Melbourne Workers Theatre. However, this work was always only a part of their professional focus, and they have all re-oriented their more recent work towards emphasizing their theatrical excellence. There were also enormous ranges of Art And Working Life projects in the visual arts. One of the dominant themes of this work was the design and (re) creation of many trade union banners that were carried in parades and protests. (http://www.wwcd.org/action/Australia)

By 1996 Australians voted for Howard, a conservative Liberal Government that for the last 10 years has managed to interfere with its neo-liberal policies at about all the levels of the political and cultural life of this country – supporting unreasonable wars, deregulating unions, neglecting the rights of children in detention centres and continuing to ignore indigenous demands.

These policies have had enormous repercussions across all sectors and in particular, reflected in lack of support for Community Cultural Development projects. Nevertheless Australians have a strong and committed social justice history that should not be forgotten as one can read Sandy Kirby’s article and reflect upon the achievements of the past. In her article An Historical Perspective on the Community Arts Movement, Kirby (1991) gives us a comprehensive recount of the many events that marked each decade since the late 1800’s when Australians gained the Eight Hour Day and this country played a lead role promoting Trade Unionism and Democratic reforms.

By 1930 there ware Mechanic’s Institutes and Schools of Art and the Workers’ Education Association. During the Depression The Workers Art Club organized educational cultural, political and social activities. Out of the WAC came the Writers League and the New Theatre with subsequent offshoot, The Water Side Workers Federation Film Unit.

1945 SORA was formed, radical group dedicated to promoting art among the working class. (…) Organized classes, lecturers, film night’s exhibitions and a lending library of books and prints. It advocated increased accessibility for workers to cultural events and institutions like the Art Gallery of NSW, as well as expanded government, trade union and corporate patronage so that artists could have a greater public role in the postwar era of reconstruction. (p.27)

By the late 1960’s and 1970’s, the ACTU had supported a number of youth activities as part of Youth Cultural Week, Kirby explains that it is during this period that trade unions promoted cultural activities amongst its workers. Exhibitions, concerts and performances toured factories and workplaces.

The emphasis from consumption to participation has been a major feature of the community arts movement gathering momentum during the 1980’s.  Since the establishment of the Community Arts Development Committee in the Australia Council for the Arts in July 1973, many community arts programs proliferated.

According to Hawkins (1991) in his paper Reading Community Arts Policy: From Nimbin to the Gay Mardi Gras:

Despite nostalgic claims that community art is the oldest and most essential form of cultural practice, the term had no real currency in Australia until it was invoked in Commonwealth cultural policy in the early 1970’s. (…) Community arts are an official invention. (p. 45)

Whether the term in itself was a creation in part of the Whitlam Government and its cultural policy at the time, or whether Community arts existed without clear denominations, the practices of many artists and workers produced work regardless of sponsorships and Government funding. Over the years cultural and educational community projects developed in many diverse communities from remote to urban centers. Cultural workers, project workers, educators, community workers, artists and community members from a diversity of cultural backgrounds have worked developing innovative projects utilizing the many alternative tools that art has to offer.

From performing and visual arts to new technologies, Australia has had, and still produces, an enormous number of innovative projects with extraordinary people. The great influx of migrants and refugees settling in the Western Suburbs of Sydney gave this region a particular profile, one that has been distorted by adverse main media representations in accordance with the political hegemony. It is in these regions, and away from major urban cultural centres, that community arts face its challenges and regenerates itself with innovation and continuing cultural production.

In 1989, Colleen Chesterman and Jane Schwager produced a report for the Australia Council about arts development in Western Sydney as part of a strategic planning and development process, in order to redress inequities in the arts support in the region. The report, entitled The Arts Development in Western Sydney, places emphasis on the need for support in terms of access to arts programs and activities, and demystifies the idea of Western Sydney as a ‘cultural desert’. By then the so called ‘cultural desert’ situated in the peripheries of the dominant white Metropolis, was in fact the home of those minority groups responding to the name of NEBS: non English Speaking Background, CALD: Culturally and Linguistic Diverse, migrants, exiles and refugees.  Over the last 15 or more years Government agencies have assigned particular emphasis to supporting cultural development in the Western Suburbs of Sydney. Somehow, contradictory perspectives in relation to representation and allocation of funding gave the sector opportunities to utilise these to the benefit of projects’ development.

On the other hand, different issues surfaced associated with the nature and characteristics of government funding. One of these is dependency on particular one-off funding allocations and a consequence is, for example, lack of continuity and the associaqted consequences of engaging artists only for short-term exercises. These short-term contracts, with particular conditions that must be addressed within the outcome of a given project, present us with questions of ethics and commitment. These are issues amongst others that must be discussed in order to explore alternatives. These are closely linked to funding and support from existing infrastructures and are also connected to how we see ourselves as taking part of society as large – the idea of the artist and the gig where artists see collaborations as external to their own practice, versus the concept of organic artists such as those belonging to the communities where art and culture is built.

Pilipino artist and worker Ramilo 2, (Artworks 3 2005) believes that

Quality community arts practice is about the democratization of the means of cultural and artistic production (…) Community arts must be created, controlled, critique, supported, developed, etc by communities where arts live. I believe artists should be endogenous to the communities where art is made.

This concept is perhaps another important issue of discussion. One can perhaps recount a number of successful projects where artists were guests of the community they were working with and others, to the contrary, where success resided in the fact that artists and production were intrinsically part of the community.

It is true to say that for many culturally diverse groups art and artistic production is not seen as something that has to be ‘imported’ from the outside, since for such community groups, artistic production and its artists – the dancer, the story teller, the musician, the painter and so on – are endogenous to their communities.

Identity, equality of access and representation are intrinsically related to the main topic of discussion concerning Nuestros Medios/Our Media Conference 06: Sustainable Futures: Roles and Challenges for Community, Alternative and Citizens’ Media.

 

So … what do you do?

Community Cultural Development some possible definitions

In January 2006, Deborah Mills prepared a discussion paper for the Australia Council‘s Scoping Study Reference Group titled Cultural Development and Arts in everyday life. This paper contains extensive information based on her research encompassing a number of different practitioners, geographical areas and practices. The analysis and reflections presented in this paper are relevant and current to today’s questionings regarding ethical practices, funding distribution and infrastructure support, as well as self sustainability and methodologies in the field of Community Cultural Development in Australia, posing relevant and current questionings in regards to government policy.

Mills (2006) brings us a definition used by the Community Cultural Development Board (previously called The Arts Board) of the Australia Council for the Arts.  Community Cultural Development can be considered as:

• An exchange of skills and experience between professional artists and members of a community;
• The development of work by professional artists which is informed by members of a community and which will often deal with an issue of relevance or concern to that community;
• The active participation of members of a community in artistic practice;
• Social change through art; and/or
• Social change through collaborative arts and cultural development activity.

Mills, also explains how these definitions and the actual practices in such a relatively new field are contested and challenged not just by the Board itself but also by artists and those practicing cultural workers.

There is an ongoing discussion amongst practitioners regarding usage of terminology, spoken and written language and accessibility in particular when one works with culturally and linguistically diverse communities and artists.

Definitions and understandings of a CCD practice are fluid and resist being framed by any particular Theory of practice.

Community cultural development does not have a formally agreed theory or code of practice, but is based on a framework of understanding that is loosely agreed on by those working in and with the sector. While these ideas are not overtly stated or even acknowledged, it can be argued that they still operate to shape the work of community cultural development. (…) It is a unique practice that works creatively with communities on their own ground, on their own issues, through cultural practice.(http://www.CCD.net)

Community cultural development requires a particular set of skills as many practitioners are artists and others take the role of producers, educators and organizers. The aims of CCD programs and projects are to facilitate, change and address issues of concern through the implementation of alternative and creative methodologies – today media and new technologies play a major part. One important aim is to achieve sustainable solutions. A particular project will succeed if support and active participation of local leaders, community organizations and community members is actively engaged.

Projects and their artistic outcomes are not major, but perhaps desired objectives, unlike those of communities and their wellbeing. Essentially this work involves a continuum of learning that will impact in the community, not just for the duration of a given project, but will remain within its community as an asset.

In Cultural Development and Arts in everyday life, Mills (2006) referring to Jon Hawks’ (2001) Fourth Pillar of Sustainability, explains:

Hawks argues for culture as the fourth pillar of sustainability along with social equity, environmental responsibility and economic viability each and all contributing equally to a sustainable and healthy society.

What Hawks is suggesting is a cultural development model, which will simultaneously function as a means of ensuring sustainable economic and social development through cultural development.

He argues that unless there is a re-conceptualization of both the cultural policy task and objective, public cultural policies will fail; they will remain marginalized and make it all too easy to sideline cultural questions until after the more ‘urgent’ (i.e. economic) matters have been dealt with.

For the success of this work and in order to achieve real sustainable solutions, there must be a shift from established ‘margins’ into active components of a larger cultural and political discourse. Government agendas must acknowledge, support and consult with those who makes up the fabric of culture: the artists, the communities, the cultural workers, the educators and so forth.

The relationship between community/alternative media and community arts is one of continued collaboration. Generally, though not always, many community media projects were gestated within the community cultural development frameworks. Such projects were initiated by community arts workers, artists and communities with the support of organizations such as Migrant Resource Centers, Women’s Health Centers, Youth Centers and Public Schools.

One of these examples is The Multimedia Van project from The Liverpool Migrant Resource Centre.

The LMRC Multimedia Van Project by Khaled Sabsabi

The Multimedia Van was a community cultural development project initiated by Khaled Sabsabi while working at the Liverpool Migrant Resource Centre in his role as a Non English Speaking Background (NESB) Outreach Community Development Worker, in 2001. At the time, Gorkem Acaroglu was also working at the centre and in her role as Community Cultural Development Worker wrote a submission to The Australia Council for the Arts to support this project. It is important to mention that Articulate and the Artists Cooperative were also projects gestated at the centre and closely linked to the work that the Van developed over years.

Throughout the many years of outreach work, community and service providers’ consultations in the Liverpool Local Government Area, there was a clearly identified need for a multimedia arts and training facility to be established in the area. For over 17 years I have conceptually and practically developed ideas and providing training utilising multimedia within the Community Cultural Development (CCD) framework. I began working in the late 80’s and have always utilised art making as a principal component for participatory engagement in communities. Much of my early inspiration was directly influenced by the hip-hop movement as an effective form and tool to communicate with youth, using a familiar language and culture. This was an entry point for ways to deal with issues and to engage in positive action and social change.

From 1994-1999 in my role as a Youth worker for Cell Block Youth Health Service, I collaborated on the idea of developing a holistic health model in relation to harm minimization 5, my role at Cellblock at the time was Artist and Health promotion worker.

After moving from Cellblock to LMRC in 1999, the 2168 Hip Hop Project developed and became a reference project for what was to come later with the Multimedia Van and the many subsequent projects involving multimedia and technology in particular with young people within South West Sydney.

2168 area encompasses eight suburbs that share the same postcode including the suburbs of Ashcroft, Busby, Cartwright, Green Valley, Heckenberg, Hinchinbrook, Miller and Sadleir. Also at the time they shared similar socio-economic indicators and were considered as isolated and disadvantaged areas with low income, English language proficiency issues, public housing issues, lack of efficient public transport and so forth. Miller Youth Centre was identified as a partner service for the 2168 project being a service with enormous potential and extreme needs working in isolation. By developing the 2168 Hip Hop project the intention was to bring exposure to 2168 area in particular to those issues affecting the young people in the area as well as support for those under resourced service providers.

 As a consequence to the success of 2168 Hip Hop project, Gorkem and I worked in collaboration developing the concept and preparing funding application for a media training facility. Once the funds were secured we realised that the success would be maximised by having a mobile multimedia van that could access communities who were limited by geographical isolation and restricted by lack of public transport infrastructure.

At the time the only media training facilities were either institutionalised or so called ‘main stream and or alternative’ located within inner Sydney and not easily accessible for communities in the South West fringes. Once the Van was equipped and ready we launched it and publicised its services through mainstream media so all communities would be aware that training was available and affordable in the area and it was going to be run by local artists and practitioners utilising culturally appropriate methods.

The main target was young people, communities and service providers such as Youth Centres. Eventually through the work with the Van and local artists and young people, TAFE became one of our partners. The Van was made available for hire to community organisations, service providers, Councils, schools and community groups. By this stage the Van provided services not only to young people but in general to people from non-English speaking background residing in Sydney's West.

The Multimedia Van was fully equipped with digital video cameras, lighting kits, sound recording equipment, a sound mixer, scanners and two computers for graphic design, animation and web design as well as digital video editing, transfer and sound production.

The objectives of the Van were varied and included the following aims and objectives:

• To provide pathways for local artists into professional employment and self-development.
• To be modelled as a successful pilot program for other services to utilize and further the media access idea by lobbying for other media projects and infrastructure to be built.
• To achieve sustainability in the communities through the transference of skills with culturally appropriate trainers and mentors.
• To provide an accessible resource that is easy and friendly to use, that is affordable and that utilizes a hands-on approach to involve and engage people in community cultural projects.

The Multimedia Van projects ranged from radio training such as the “Green Valley Radio training Project” to video and sound production as in the case of the Warwick Farm Video Project and the “Bring it On Video project” to Media Training Camps as in Lake Macquarie project.

Many of the young people involved from its conception have been working in the community and in mainstream media in a variety of roles and producing their own material.

Some examples of other similar projects inspired by the Van included:

The MMRC 6 month project “Campbelltown Another Hip Hop project” and the “Miller MAD Music” studio program, successfully lobbied and were each awarded funding, approximately twice the amount of funds used to initially set up the Van. In this way further expanding the concept of media training infrastructure within 2168 area. Another current and ongoing project is the Refill project, a $270,000 staged over a three year period from 2006-2009, which aims to work with young people in 2168 area who have fallen through the schooling system. The majority of these young people are from Indigenous and Arabic backgrounds, aged between 12 and 15 years of age and are living in housing estates. The projectaims to assist in the development of the career opportunities of young people by developing their job prospects and enhancing their life’s experience through a mentoring project.

This project was initiated by Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre through the Cultural Development Network Inc, Generations national program in which five Councils will, through the arts, nurture active participation within their communities in response to major local challenges. The program promotes a union of thinking, action and investment in community planning, local democracy, and community cultural development. It will forge closer relationships between the arts and local government sectors, and seeks to demonstrate the links between cultural vitality and community sustainability. Refill will create teams of both mentor and emerging artists who engage in an arts lead practise that produces tangible social outcomes including employment, further education and health whilst also recognising the unique potential and makeup of the diverse community. This will include the presentation of music, visual arts, craft and multimedia work.

From Local to Global

In 2001-2003 I received a CCD Fellowship from the Australia council for the Arts and began travelling and working in the Middle East with artists, musicians and communities in countries such as Lebanon and Syria. After many visits in and out of the Middle East and Australia working with many organisations and people such as Beirut Theatre, IAA International Arts Academy and alternative radio stations such as the Peoples Radio, I was inspired to come back to Australia in 2004-2005 and along with two other friends and colleagues, Farzin Yekta and Rose Nakad decided to pursued the CCD studio building and training idea further beyond the shores of Australia. The idea was simple: to adopt our CCD way of working and to develop and work with at-risk youth in Lebanon. After initial and unsuccessful funding applications made to the Australia Council for the Arts, the collective decided to go and see if other possibilities existed. Contact with a Palestinian NGO based in Beirut ALJANA, Arab Resource Centre for Popular Arts was made and this is where funding possibilities were sought.

The funding was finally secured from Oxfam Québec and ALJANA auspice the funds. The project idea was to go South, North and to the middle of Lebanon, to the Palestinian refugee camps, and to pick up interested young adults from across the different regions to represent the different communities, and to bring them to Beirut central to the be trained in media studio technologies.

Rose Nakad spearheaded this process over a  nine month period.

In late 2005 the project began. The participants were involved in the studio building process from the start, meaning that they themselves put the studio together, and this included sound insulation techniques and methods for walls and ceiling. They were also involved in the building of shelving and the installation of all IT equipment, hardware and software. This process was and important part of the training as the knowledge and skills attained could be taken back and utilized by their community.

There were 12 young people who went through the intensive workshop processes for two and a half months, eight hours a day, seven days-a-week. This process not only covered the building studio aspect but also included hands-on training, understanding and working with the equipment. This project remains ongoing today even after the recent crisis that happened in Lebanon.

Funding sources and support for projects developments

Some examples by Jonathan Nanlohy

There are a number of community organizations located within the metropolitan area, regional, rural and remote locations, receiving funding from a variety of sources including Local Government, State Government, Federal Government as well as other sources such as philanthropic societies and international agencies. The community organisations focus can be singular or diverse and may be built to respond to of one or a combination of some of the following key areas: Education and Training, Health, Disability, Indigenous, Youth, Aged, Children and others specifically related to arts practice.

Many alternative media and community media developed within the Community Cultural Development framework. One of the main funding sources in this field come from the Australia Council for the Arts, the Ministry for the Arts, while some Local Councils will have a small grants scheme for local artists and cultural practitioners to develop projects.  Funding can also be accessed through a number of other sources that are not specifically defined as funding for arts or community cultural development funding.

The Australia Council is the federal government's arts funding and advisory body and is structured into a number of different funds: the Theatre Fund, the Music Fund, and the Literature Fund. Originally the organisation targeted funding to CCD practice through the Community Cultural Development Board. In 2006 the Board went through major restructuring and today is within the framework for Community Partnerships.

As a community and cultural development worker based mainly in migrant resource centres and local government for approximately 15 years, I have been involved in working with artists and community groups from small and emerging and mostly refugee communities – e.g. Kurdish, Somali, Sudanese, Liberian, Sierra Leone, Bosnian, Tamil, Afghan, Burmese – who were settling in western Sydney. This work involved working with experienced and emerging artists to develop their practice or working with community groups seeking to sustain their cultural identity through cultural practices.  The need for funding to develop and resource CCD projects was and continues to be, a key consideration in the planning and delivery of any CCD or arts based project working with those artists and communities.

Also as a musician and writer I have first hand experience seeking funding and resources to develop my own work and collaborative projects from a variety of arts sector and non-sector sources. This enhanced my abilities to work in a fluid manner with various levels of cultural, community, artistic, industry and bureaucratic interactions.

The securing of funding can be approached from a variety of sources as well as identifying resources and funding available through project partnerships with other government and Non Government Organizations (NGO). CCD specific funding in Australia is available from a wide range of federal, state and recently local government sources. Funding and grants are available for a range of purposes including, but not exclusively, institutional support, the development of infrastructure, art forms (music, literature, and performing arts), community partnerships, artistic development, fellowships, touring, marketing and promotion, exhibitions, equipment, recording.

CCD funding can also be deliberately targeted to certain defined groups facing access barriers and are labelled CALDB communities, emerging communities, Indigenous communities, young people etc. However for example, a mainstream organisation can merely use an ‘access target’ on a funding application without actually including the targeted group to obtain funding for their intended project. This means that ‘access’ becomes a bureaucratic exercise rather than an empowering and inclusive practice with the community target group to be ‘accessed’.

 Information about CCD funding sources is easily accessed through the Internet searches for arts and culture funding http://www2.communitybuilders.nsw.gov.au/funding/programs/browse.html?category=arts_culture. Another link is: http:// www.grantslink.gov.au 

Information regarding aims, objectives, eligibility, funding round opening and closing dates etc can be read here though all information regarding funding is predominantly provided in English only.

Regular CCD funding rounds are currently available through: 

• The Australia Council- http://www.ozco.gov.au
• Arts NSW- http://www.arts.nsw.gov.au

There are also other schemes which will fund CCD projects as a strategy for community development including:

• Western Sydney Area Assistance Scheme (WSAAS)
• Community Relations Commission – Community Grants
• Community Development Support and Expenditure scheme (CDSE)
• Various local government community grants and
• Local government cultural development grants

In my experience, proposals for CCD projects and CCD strategies to other government departments require adopting the relevant departmental discourse, refashioning the funding proposal to suit the project, positioning the proposal within the strategic and planning frameworks of the funding body and finally doing as much networking and ‘shmoozing’ as possible so that the key stakeholders and influencers in the funding approval process are at least aware and at best supportive of your proposal.

Conclusion

From its beginnings this close association with progressive cultural and political movements impregnated the work produced in the sector with the idiosyncrasies associated with the political struggle. Community Development, Community Education and Adult Education and Community Cultural Development are very separate practices and intrinsically linked by one common objective: the concept of empowerment and self determination of those considered by the current hegemonic powers in the periphery of decision making and control positions. It is not our intention to present an exhaustive historical and political view of Community Arts and Community Cultural Development.

As practitioners and educators we are sharing some of our experiences with the intention of opening up a space for reflection and discussion, seeking new ways towards self-sustaining community projects, promoting cross-media and cross- collaborations amongst practitioners and organizations towards social change an a continuum of cultural explorations and productions.

Bibliography and reference guide

Binns, V. (Ed) (1991) Community and the Arts: History, Theory and Practice –Australian Perspectives. Sydney: Pluto Press

Chesterman, C & Schwager, J. (1989) The Arts Development in Western Sydney a report commission by The Australia Council for the Arts. Sydney: Australian Council for the Arts.

Hawkins, G.  (1991) ‘ Reading Community Arts Policy: From Nimbin to the Gay Mardi Gras’ in Binn, V. (1991) Community and the Arts: History, Theory and Practice. Sydney: Pluto Press, pp19-29

Hawks J. (2001) Fourth Pillar of Sustainability: Culture’s Essential Role in Public Planning. Australia: Common Ground.

Kirby, S. (1991) ‘A historical perspective on The Community Arts Movement’ Chap 1 in Binn, V. (1991) Community and the Arts: History, Theory and Practice. Sydney: Pluto Press. pp19-29.

Mills, D. (2006) Cultural Development and the Arts in Everyday life. Commission by the Australia Council Scoping Study Reference group. Sydney: The Australian Council for the Arts.

Mills, L. (2003) Fighting Films: A history of the Waterside Workers Federation Film Unit. Australia: Pluto Press.

Examples of related websites

Australia Council

http://www.ozco.gov.au/

Community Cultural Development Fund (CCDF)

This Australia Council program is described further in CCDF's home page http://www.ozco.gov.au/ccd/index.htm

Community Environment Art & Design(CEAD)

The CCD page focuses specifically on CEAD program described above

http://www.ozco.gov.au/grants/ccd.htm#CEAD

Arts Organizations in Australia

See the Australia Council's Web listing of Australian arts groups

http://www.ozco.gov.au/artsorgs/

Community Arts Networks in Australia

The Australia Council Web site includes a listing of Australia's several community arts networks http://www.ozco.gov.au/artsorgs/#communityarts

Community Arts Network of SA278 Halifax Street, Adelaide, South Australia, 5000

Webster's World of Cultural Democracy icd@wwcd.org

The World Wide Web center of The Institute for Cultural Democracy http://ww.wwcd.org/action/Australia.html#Aus Community Cultural Definition [retrieved in February 2006 from http://www.ccd.net]

Some Australian examples of Community Cultural Development Networks are

Kultour – a National Multicultural Arts Touring Network. Its objectives are to tour multicultural artistic work and expand audiences for that work.

Arts Access Australia – Arts Access Australia (formerly the DADAA national Network) has been in operation for over 10 years and grew out of an informal coalition between state/territory arts and disability organizations.

National Arts and Culture Alliance http://www.naca.org.au – NACA is a national coalition of individuals, organizations, agencies and community groups.

Biography:

Liliana E. Correa is a community cultural development worker. She trained in Cultural Action and Popular theatre with the Philippines Australian Cultural Interaction Network and in Cuba with Teatro de los Elementos as part of her Australia Council for the Arts professional development grant. She was involved with the Multicultural Theatre Alliance, writing, directing and performing in a number of productions. As a trainee took active participation in the first International Popular Theatre Exchange and collaborated with Indigenous artists co-curating the Latin American component of Wiyana-Perisferia, a satellite exhibition for the 9th Biennale of Sydney. Liliana graduated from Western Sydney with a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Theory and Practice and completed a Master of Adult Education from the University of Technology

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