Generations

artistic advisor - Community Sustainability and Cultural Vitality in local government - City of Greater Geelong, City of La Trobe, City of Wangaratta, Victoria, City of Liverpool,Western Sydney, Charters Towers Regional Council, North Queenland - Cultural Development Network, Melbourne.

GENERATIONS - building civic engagement through the arts in five communities across Australia 2006-2009.

The Generations project began in 2006. I was part of a panel of seven artists invited by the Cultural Development Network to meet with CEOs and managers from a number of local government municipalities to respond to questions of how the arts might solve some of the big issues in each local government area. From here the project grew under the management of the Cultural Development Network. Early on, I was invited to be Artistic Advisor on the national project. The key aim over the next three years was to explore links between engagement in community based arts activities and active civic engagement. It was thought that demonstration of these links could have significant effects on the development of public policy and the targeting of resources to community-based arts projects.

Over the three years of my engagement as Artistic Advisor, with John Smithies, Director of CDN, and Pia Smith research assistant to Dr Martin Mulligan of the Globalism Research Centre, regular visits were made to each of the 5 local government municipalities - City of Wangaratta, City of LaTrobe, and City of Greater Geelong in Victoria; and City of Liverpool in Western Sydney, NSW; and Charters Towers Regional Council in Far North Queensland.

The findings of the GENERATIONS research project were published in 2010:Art, Governance and the Turn to Community: Putting Art at the Heart of Local Government:_Martin Mulligan and Pia Smith, Globalism Research Centre.

As a culmination of the three-year project a national conference was held in Melbourne that attracted international speakers and over 400 delegates.

Have a look at what took place at the conference by clicking on the title:
REGENERATING COMMUNITY CONFERENCE SEPT 2 - 4, 2009. RMIT UNIVERSITY, MELBOURNE