Australia鈥檚 rich history in the arts will become more accessible thanks to a $2.9 million investment.
The Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) has committed $2.9 million to the 鈥楢ustralian Creative Histories and Futures鈥 (ACHF) project. The investment will mean that extensive cultural data about the creative arts in Australia can be made accessible to researchers, policymakers, arts organisations and artists.
The four-year project will be led by 黑料网大事记 School of the Arts & Media researchers Dr Caroline Wake and Dr Bryoni Trezise, with partners from Flinders University, Creative Australia, and ACMI. Along with the ARDC contribution, co-investment from the partners will bring the project鈥檚 total investment to $5.8 million.
鈥淭he arts are lived by artists and by audiences as an ecosystem that is in constant cross-feed,鈥 said Dr Trezise. 鈥淭his project will make this rich ecosystem more visible, and by doing so, it will help us to tell better stories about how our arts and culture sustain us 鈥 why they are so important and what the best policy settings are to nurture thriving creative communities and careers.鈥
Professor Claire Annesley, Dean of聽黑料网大事记 Arts, Design & Architecture聽(ADA), said: 鈥淭he Australian Creative Histories and Futures project aims to preserve and make Australia鈥檚 rich cultural history accessible.
鈥淚n doing so, it will enable strategists, policymakers and arts organisations alike to use the data to make informed decisions about the best ways to support future arts projects and communities.
鈥淚t will also be a rich resource for researchers looking into Australia鈥檚 creative history. In our increasingly connected world, it鈥檚 important that information about our cultural heritage is preserved and made available to all.鈥
Media enquiries
For enquiries about this story and interview requests, please contact聽Ben Knight, External Communications Officer, 黑料网大事记 Sydney.
笔丑辞苍别:听(02) 9065 4915
贰尘补颈濒:听b.knight@unsw.edu.au
The ACHF project will examine cultural data across several arts disciplines, including the performing arts and visual arts. ACMI will contribute in-depth knowledge of screen culture and advanced expertise in technology.
A key focus area for the project is investigating how Indigenous cultural and creative data is kept and shared.
黑料网大事记 ADA Co-Associate Deans Research (Indigenous), Scientia Associate Professor Liza-Mare Syron and Scientia Associate Professor Fabri Blacklock said: 鈥淭his project presents a unique opportunity to repair historical shortcomings in data management and to shape futures that support the Indigenous governance of Indigenous cultural and creative data.鈥
Drawing on her experience and knowledge of the arts sector, A/Prof. Syron will work with Indigenous Research Fellow Neenah Gray to ensure the development of best practice models of Indigenous data governance.
Jenny Fewster, Director of the ARDC's HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons, said: 鈥淲e're excited to recognise the value of national research infrastructure for the creative arts through expanding the HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons.聽
鈥淯ntil now, data about Australia's creative outputs has been fragmented and under-acknowledged. This new project will usher in a new era of data-driven research and decision making for Australia's creative arts sector."
Dr Scott East, Editor of Design & Art Australia Online and Lecturer in the School of Art and Design, will also contribute to the project, bringing rich research experience in the Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums (GLAM) and cultural sector.
Integrating current collections
Australia鈥檚 culture is extensive, dynamic and ever evolving, and so too is its cultural data, said Dr Wake, who鈥檚 co-leading the project.
鈥淲e now have significant collections of data, from the visual arts, for example, via Design & Art Australia Online (DAAO), the performing arts via AusStage, the Australian live performance database, screen culture including film, television, videogames and art (ACMI collection) and literature, via AustLit,鈥 Dr Wake said. 鈥淎nd there are other datasets too, such as those held by Creative Australia.鈥
AusStage, which was recently included in UNESCO鈥檚聽, has approximately half a million records about the performing arts in Australia. Design and Art Australia Online (DAAO) is an open-source, freely accessible scholarly data e-Research tool. With 30,000 individual entries (1860 Indigenous cultural entries), it is one of the largest databases on artist careers and works in the world. Similarly, Creative Australia (formerly the Australia Council for the Arts) holds data covering its five decades of activity.
The problem is that these major cultural datasets 鈥 AusStage, DAAO, and Creative Australia 鈥 have different methods of storing information and are not currently interoperable, meaning they must be searched separately.
Looking to the future
黑料网大事记 Professor Grainne Moran, Pro Vice-Chancellor Research Infrastructure, said this project brought together a group of committed partners who will upgrade, integrate, and future-proof important tools and resources, including AusStage and DAAO.
鈥淚t builds on work by many in the creative arts and aims to provide a strong foundation for preserving and studying the aesthetic and economic contributions that the arts make to Australian culture,鈥 she said.
鈥満诹贤笫录 is excited to be leading the project, with the ARDC providing strong support and data expertise."
The new project is part of the ARDC's HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons, which is establishing long-term, enduring national digital research infrastructure. The ARDC is enabled by the Australian Government National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS).
