Governance disclosure on the internet : the case of Australian State Government Departments

This paper examines corporate governance disclosures on the websites of Australian state government departments. The study focuses on the nature and extent of governance information and the ease of finding this information directly on department websites and also in annual reports which are downloadable from websites. Our sample comprises six departments from each of the six states in Australia, giving a sample size of 36 departments. Our findings indicate considerable variability in both the level of disclosure and the accessibility of the information disclosed. The study also highlights a lack of consensus regarding the meaning of governance and what governance comprises, together with the need for a more structured approach to communicating governance information to stakeholders.

Multicultural arts education : attitudes and perceptions of Australian tertiary students

Through social interaction the Arts connects communities and brings people together where both contemporary and traditional arts can be preserved, protected and promoted. In multicultural Australia, the Arts provides a space in teaching and learning that enables students the opportunity to engage, create and imagine both individually and collectively. The ‘Arts’ in the wider community fosters empathy, acceptance and appreciation of difference where diversity is celebrated between people of different cultures, languages, religions, and ethnicities. Through a discussion of multiculturalism, teacher education and multicultural education, I argue that the Arts can be seen as an agent of social change, a powerful dais to alter perceptions, attitudes and beliefs. This paper situates itself in Melbourne (Australia) through the lens of celebrating our rich multicultural arts. Through questionnaire data collected in October 2010 from Arts Education final year students at Deakin University, I present a snapshot of their understandings of multiculturalism: what they value, believe and understand as agents of change in education. By experiencing multicultural arts, both new and different hybrid art forms can be explored in schools and the wider society. Through such connections, the Arts can foster a positive experience that promotes diversity and enhances intercultural and cross-cultural understanding in our multicultural Australian society.

The state of Australia's performing arts centres, and what it tells us about the state of the Australian arts

 In December 2010 the Albany entertainment centre opened in its harbour-side city, at the bottom of southern Western Australian. Featuring a bold, angular design by architects Cox Howlett and Bailey Woodland, the complex contains a 620-seat theatre and a 200-seat studio. Needless to say, these spaces are described by the centre as 'state of the art'.

The relationship between pre-sale price estimates and the hammer price for Australian paintings sold at auction

Realized price for paintings auctioned can systematically differ from prior estimates. We need to understand why experts get it wrong. This paper uses an econometric approach to investigate how pre-sales price estimates are formed and the impact that they have in determining auction prices for Australian paintings.

Appropriation in the name of art: is a quotation exception the answer?

The Australian Law Reform Commission is at present considering the scope of exceptions to copyright infringement. Its consideration will no doubt be influenced to some degree by the outcome in EMI Songs Australia Pty Ltd v Larrikin Music Publishing Pty Ltd (2011) 191 FCR 444; (2011) 90 IPR 50 which concerned the quotation of a musical phrase in a later musical work. This article addresses the problem of creative appropriations and the extent to which a quotation exception, consistent with Art 10 of the Berne Convention, should be incorporated into Australian law. In doing so it considers the practical application of such a quotation exception in European jurisdictions (most notably Germany) and suggests the form in which such an exception might be incorporated into Australian law.

'Bungaree: the first Australian'

This is a long peer-reviewed exhibition review of 'Bungaree: The First Australian', an exhibition curated by Indigenous artist, Djon Mundine. This review discusses the artwork and the historical re-imagining that the artwork and the exhibition as a collection explores, particularly the use of irony and humour. In discussing the curatorship, this article also suggests links with other Indigenous curatorship epistemologies in other places, focusing on the workshops, lectures, artists in residence programs that enabled the artists to work and think in-situ. This article also reveiws the current historiography on Bungaree.

Pre-service visual art teachers’ perceptions of assessment in online learning

This paper reports on a study conducted into how one cohort of Master of Teaching pre-service visual art teachers perceived their learning in a fully online learning environment. Located in an Australian urban university, this qualitative study provided insights into a number of areas associated with higher education online learning, including that of assessment, the focus of this paper. Authentic assessment tasks were designed within the University’s learning and teaching framework of constructive alignment and were sequenced across the three semesters of the visual art program. Analysis of data collected through a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews revealed that participants largely held very positive attitudes about the suite of online assessment tasks, particularly in light of (a) the collaborative learning that took place, (b) the nature, structure and sequence of the tasks, and (c) the ways in which the tasks contributed to their workplace readiness.

Street art : Mirror reflections on and meshing with urban agriculture

Street Art: Mirror Reflections on urban AgricultureThis chapter will look at the way socio-political commentary exists in street art and how it has tended in recent times to be displayed overlooking community urban gardens. The urgency with which inner suburban councils in Melbourne Australia have dedicated themselves to carving out recreational spaces is a reflection on the expectations of multi-cultural groups whose culture incorporates the growth of vegetable and fruits close to their place of residence. Street art, famous for its commentary on urban ugliness, has integrated its philosophy and aesthetics, along side notable community gardens in Melbourne. The images incorporate the aims of urban agriculture whilst often simultaneously critiquing the alienation of the urban dweller cut so relentlessly from the means of growing food and from accessing land that might produce it. Community gardens in the twenty-first century go some way to reversing a state of being in which ‘workers’ were alienated from the source of their labor and their survival. This chapter will also probe the extent to which street art in the inner laneways of Melbourne incorporate in to their designs fauna and flora. This reference to all that is organic in environments devoid of vegetation draws attention not only to that absence but also for the need to address it. This work will therefore deal with two interrelating themes: 1. Street art that complements community gardens; 2. Street art that engages with agricultural imagery and images of fauna and flora with the aim of subverting the continual growth of unregulated concrete jungles. The chapter will be informed by interviews with well known Australian street artists and will also explore the work they have done in Paris, Jamaica, London and Miami on both themes stipulated above.