Evaluation of the Australian Performing Arts Market 2014-2018 - Year One Report

The Australia Council awarded the tender of APAMs 2014, 2016 and 2018 to the Brisbane Powerhouse. The Australia Council, in awarding the contract for the presentation of APAM by Brisbane Powerhouse, stipulated that a formal evaluation of the three iterations of APAM and activity in the intervening years be undertaken. Queensland University of Technology, Creative Industries Faculty, under the leadership of Associate Professor Sandra Gattenhof, were contracted to undertake the formal evaluation. This is the first year report on the Brisbane iteration of the Market. This report has drawn from data collected across a range of sources, drawing on the scoping study undertaken by Justin Macdonnell addressing the Market from 1994–2010; the tender document submitted by the Brisbane Powerhouse; in-person interviews with APAM staff, APAM Stakeholders, Vox Pops from delegates in response to individual sessions, producer company/artist case studies and, most significantly, responses from a detailed online survey sent to all delegates. The main body of the report is organised around three key research aims, as outlined in the Brisbane Powerhouse Tender document (2011). These have been articulated as: Evaluation of international market development outcomes through showcasing work to targeted international presenters and agents Evaluation of national market development outcomes through showcasing work to national presenters and producers Evaluation of the exchange ideas, dialogue, skill 
development, partnerships, collaborations and co- productions and networks with local and international peers. The culmination of the data analysis has been articulated through five key recommendations, which may assist the APAM delivery team for the next version, in 2016. In summary, the recommendations are described as: 1. Indigenous focus to remain central to the conception and delivery of APAM 2. Re-framing APAM’s function and its delivery 3. Logistics and communications in a multi-venue approach, including communications and housekeeping, volunteers, catering, re-calibrating the employment of Brisbane Powerhouse protocols and processes for APAM 4. Presentation and promotion for presenters 5. Strategic targeting of Asian producers.

Evaluation of Australian Performing Arts Market 2014-2018: APAM inter-year report 2015

In the awarding of the tender for APAM by the Australia Council to Brisbane Powerhouse for the delivery of the market in 2014-2018, a requirement is that a formal evaluation of the three iterations of APAM be undertaken by the Queensland University of Technology, Creative Industries Faculty, under the leadership of Associate Professor Sandra Gattenhof. The agreed research model delivers reporting on outcomes not only in the year in which APAM is delivered (2014, 2016, 2018) but also in the years between (2015, 2017). This inter-year report focuses on the domestic and international touring outcomes resulting from engagement in the 2014 Market and responds two of the three key research foci for the evaluation that are articulated in the Brisbane Powerhouse Tender (2011) document as: • Evaluation of international market development outcomes through showcasing work to targeted international presenters and agents • Evaluation of national market development outcomes through showcasing work to national presenters and producers. The reporting for mid-year 2015, a non-APAM year, collects data from two key sources – six identified case study productions that have been tracked for eighteen months, and an online survey delivered to all APAM 2014 delegates. This inter-year report is a six month follow-up with delegates and identified case studies companies that track the ongoing progress of market outcomes and levers for ongoing improvement of the APAM delivery model that was tabled in the Year One Report delivered to Brisbane Powerhouse in October 2014.

Evaluation of Australian Performing Arts Market 2014-2018 REPORT TWO APAM inter-year report 2015 DECEMBER

The report follows up on data and trends tabled in August 2015 that collected data from two key sources – six identified case study productions that have been tracked for eighteen months, and an online survey delivered to all APAM 2014 delegates. The comparative report has been constructed through an analysis of data reported from the August 2015 and the most recent online survey to all 2104 PM delegates conducted in late November 2015. The report highlights six key trends emerging from the data: The majority of survey respondents will return to APAM 2016; The central reason for attending is the networking opportunities the Market affords; Respondents are confident that a range of new relationships forged at the Market will afford long-term interest and buying opportunities and that as a result of the 2014 event, real touring outcomes were realised for some respondents; Respondents would like to see greater attention to a greater number of networking activities within the program to enable touring outcomes; The multi-venue model is still of concern, and is a recurrent issue from earlier surveys; The level of expense incurred by producers to present work at APAM. Throughout the report, extracted data from the online survey responses will be tabled to develop a narrative in response to the key research aims outlined in the Brisbane Powerhouse Tender document (2011). A full version of the collated responses to the survey questions can be found in the appendices of the report.

Little Birung

The field of research was contemporary indigenous theatre practice. The aim of the project was to produce theatre that remained as close and true to its source as possible, in both form and content. Little Birung is the final part of a 6-year mentorship of young indigenous artist, Megan Samardin, conducted by renowned musician and composer, John Rodgers, producer Leah Cotterell and director Sean Mee. The culminating event of the mentorship was to develop to create an original music theatre piece, composed by John Rodgers and Megan Samardin, that featured both Megan’s prodigious talent as a singer and her family’s remarkable story. Creative development consisted of extensive interviews with family members, creative development workshops (supported by both State and Federal Government) and critique and input from leading indigenous creatives such as Wesley Enoch (artistic director, Queensland Theatre Company). The challenge was to keep faith with the family and their story whilst creating a work that would appeal to national/international producers and their audiences. The result is a song cycle of 12 original songs that presents an intensely personal exploration of 6 generations of Megan’s family down the maternal line, as told through Megan’s sometimes uneasy relationship with her great grandmother, Flora. Uniquely, each of the 12 songs presents the personal response of each of the women as they confronted the often-brutal consequences of institutionalised racism and government-imposed oppression. The work was produced in Cairns in 2011 as part of the Cairns Festival to substantial critical acclaim and was an official event of Cairns Indigenous Arts Fair. A revised version was successfully presented at the Judith Wright Centre, Brisbane in November 2011. As a result of the Brisbane season, Little Birung has been invited to make a presentation at the 2012 APAM (Australian Performing Arts Market) in Adelaide. Importantly, the family and the indigenous community have embraced the work and have continued their fervent support. It has strengthened them as a family and as a part of the indigenous people of Australia.

Considerations for performing arts organisations in a climate of transition to the open market context in Vietnam

The emergence of a global economy and culture has created a worldwide climate of change since the 1980s. These changes impact on the growth of a national economy and change the significance of sectors in society, for example the service sector, which increasingly accounts for an important part of the economy (Burbules & Torres, 2000). The arts have also been profoundly influenced by social changes, and technological development. While these changes pose new challenges for the arts, most of which struggle for financial viability in an era of globalisation, privatisation and reduced public funding, the developments also open new opportunities for arts companies/artists but require them to possess the capability to identify and adapt to change. This process underlines the necessary new capacities of arts management, arts marketing, arts leaders and artists.

Doi moi - Vietnamese economic reforms in 1986 - provided impetus for change in every sector, resulting in growth of the service sector in Vietnam (UNDP, 2002). Arts organisations in Vietnam found themselves operating in a more competitive environment, forcing them to adjust to this new economic structure. Improved Vietnamese living standards helped to create more demands for a diverse entertainment industry and allowed both the government and individuals to spend more on the arts. A new cultural policy - socialisation (somewhat equivalent to privatisation in Western countries) was implemented in the arts and cultural sector, producing for performing arts organisations (PAOs) as well as a broader cultural milieu in Vietnam, challenges of being self-sustaining but also more autonomy and greater funding diversity. Simultaneously, this led to upgraded artistic standards, improved infrastructure and higher musicians’ salaries; the latter having only experienced slow improvement during the subsidised era.

This paper investigates how social changes affected organisational operations of selected PAOs in Vietnam and Australia. The analysis of how PAOs in each country adjusted to rapid changes will provide experience for learning from each other, particularly for the Vietnamese case. These analyses provide points of discussion, comparison and implications for development of arts management training in Vietnam. Case studies, personal interviews with key participants and policy actors have been used to discern which direction performing arts management should take in order to correspond with Vietnam’s present and future economic situation and its political position in the world.

Instrumentalism and the 'helping' discourse : Australian indigenous performing arts and policy

Indigenous arts are significant to the way Australia is represented to the world. Since the early 19705 Indigenous cultural policies, at both federal and state levels, have helped to shape the development of Indigenous performing arts in Australia. Over this period, cultural policies, in confluence with the aims of Indigenous artists and civil rights activists, have produced and reproduced instrumentalist rationales for the support of Indigenous arts. In particular, the sector has deployed <helping' rationales for cultural policies which focus on social and economic outcomes. This article addresses current debates around the instrumentalist purposes of cultural policy and the participation of Indigenous practitioners in reproducing the 'helping' discourse. The article, however, finds evidence of a recent break in the consensus which sees some Indigenous artists resisting the historical imperative for their arts practice to be exclusively focused on instrumentalist outcomes.

Performing arts management in a climate of adjustment : case studies from Vietnam and Australia

This paper presents a series of empirical case studies to discuss impacts of economic globalisation on the development of performing arts organisations in Vietnam (Hanoi Youth Theatre and Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra) and Australia (Melbourne Theatre Company and Sydney Symphony Orchestra), and focuses on how Vietnamese organisations have adapted to these changes. The paper also identifies cultural policy implications for the development of the sector; for arts management training in Vietnam so that the sector (and more importantly, the artists) may fully benefit from the open market context. The findings indicate that Vietnamese performing arts organisations have attempted to adapt to the new market context while struggling to balance artistic quality, freedom and financial viability in the new socialist regime. The Australian case studies offered a relevant management model to Vietnamese arts management practice and training.

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'.

Adapting, renewing, subverting : what place the performing arts in the creative industries?

Creative Industries was adopted as a platform in the 90s by the Blair government in the UK to describe the convergence of the arts, media, communication and information technologies as a newly formed cluster, providing economic and cultural capital for the knowledge economy. The philosophy and rhetoric which has grown around this concept (Leadbeater 2000, Castells 2000, Florida 2000, Caves 2000, Hartley 2000) has been influential in re-contextualising culture and the arts in the 21st century. Where governments and educational institutions have embraced the context of the creative industries, it is having a profound effect on the way arts are being positioned, originally as ‘creative content’ for the new economy. Countries and regions which have actively targeted the Creative Industries as an important economic growth factor in a post-industrial environment are numerous, but it is interesting to note that North and South East Asia and Australia have been at the forefront of developing the Creative Industries in its various guises. It could be argued that the initial phase of Creative Industries concentrated on media and communication technologies to provide commercial outcomes in small incubator business models; developing, for example, products for the games industry. Creative Industries is now entering a second phase of development; one in which the broader palette of the arts, though still not at the forefront of debate, is being re-examined. Both phases of Creative Industries have emphasised creativity and innovation as key drivers in the success and effectiveness of this sector, and although the arts by no means has a monopoly on these drivers, it is where they have an important part to play in the creative industries context. Arguably, the second wave of the creative industries acknowledges to a greater extent that commercialisation works in tandem with government and other support in a complex mixed economic model. In relation to the performing arts, the global market has seen an increase in large-scale cultural events such as festivals which are providing employment for the arts industry and multiplier effects in other parts of the economy. Differentiated product is important in this competitive arena and the use of mediated and digitised environments has been able to increase the amount of arts product available to an international market. This changed environment requires the development of new skills for our artists and producers and has given rise to a reappraisal of approaches to arts training and research in the Higher Degree Education sector (Brown 2007, Cunningham 2006). This paper examines pedagogical changes which took place in the first Creative Industries Faculty in the world at Queensland University of Technology as well as the increased opportunities for leading research initiatives. It concludes with the example of an interdisciplinary artwork produced in a creative industries precinct, exemplifying the convergence of arts and communication technologies and that of artistic practice and research.

Strengthening the Foundations: Mutuality and the Performing Arts

Following the positive response by governments to the report of Helen Nugent's major performing arts inquiry, urgent attention needs to be given to the seedbed companies where so often audiences are introduced to the performing arts and practitioners are launched on their professional careers. Doing so calls for lateral thinking such as will enable the widest possible range of stakeholders to become involved. One solution may be to develop multi-stakeholder arts mutuals from the simpler arts mutuals such as co-operatives which are already widespread in many spheres of arts activity. Relevant models include the multi-stakeholder mutuals of the Mondragon Co-operative Corporation and the employee mutuals which are being trialled currently in Britain. Possible stakeholders in an arts mutual could include employed, unemployed and trainee practitioners, professional, quasi-professional and amateur theatre bodies, community groups, municipal councils and statutory bodies such as the ABC. Mutualist models may also be helpful to major performing arts companies facing erosion of their subscription incomes or incurring higher support services costs.

Improvising a future in the performing arts : a new strategy to help performance studies students successfully shift between academic culture, professional culture, industry and career?

If there is one thing performance studies graduates should be good at, it is improvising – play and improvisation are central to the contemporary and cultural performance practices we teach and the methods by which we teach them. Objective, offer, acceptance, advancing, reversing, character, status, manipulation, impression management, relationship management – whether we know them from Keith Johnson’s theatre theories or Erving Goffman’s theatre theories, the processes by which we play out a story, scenario or social situation to our own benefit are familiar. We understand that identity, action, interaction and its personal, aesthetic, professional or political outcomes are unpredictable, and that we need to adapt to changeable and uncertain circumstances to achieve our aims. Intriguingly, though, in a Higher Education environment that increasingly emphasises employability, skills in play, improvisation and self-performance are never cited as critical graduate attributes. Is the ability to play, improve and produce spontaneous new self-performances learned in the academy worth articulating into an ability to play, improvise and product spontaneous new self-performances after graduates leave the academy and move into the role of a performing arts professional in industry? A study of the career paths of our performance studies graduates over the past decade suggests that addressing the challenges they face in moving between academic culture, professional culture, industry and career in terms of improvisation and play principles may be very productive. In articles on performing arts careers, graduates are typically advised to find a market for their work, and develop career self-management, management and marketing skills, together with an ability to find, make and maintain relationships and opportunities for themselves. Transitioning to career is cast as a challenging process, requiring these skills, because performing arts careers do not offer the security, status and stability of other careers. Our data confirms this. In our study, though, we found that strategies commonly used to build the resilience, self-reliance and persistence graduates require – talking about portfolio careers, parallel careers, and portable, transferable or translatable skills, for example – can engender panic as easily as they engender confidence. In this paper, I consider what happens when we re-articulate some of the skills scholars and industry stakeholders argue are critical in allowing graduates to shift successfully from academy to industry in terms of skills like improvisation, play and self-performance that are already familiar, meaningful and much-practiced amongst performance studies graduates.

Performance in the spotlight : exploring psychology in the performing arts

Sport and exercise psychologists are often sought after to apply their knowledge, skills and experience from a sporting context into other performance-related industries and endeavours. Over the past two decades, this has noticeably expanded out from a natural progression into the performing arts with other ‘typical’ performers (e.g., dancers, actors, musicians, singers) through to people who work in high pressure environments that consist of clear performance outputs and requirements that are usually linked to high impact consequences for non-achievement (e.g., lawyers, surgeons, executives, military personnel, safety professionals). Whilst these areas of application continue to increase in popularity and performance psychology is more readily recognised as an important factor in people performance across industries, the use of psychology within the performing arts continues to deepen and solidify its value as an essential and critical factor for success. This article focuses on the contribution of psychology to the performing arts that I have observed over more than 20 years – obtained through a variety of roles primarily within the dance sector including as performer, educator, health professional, researcher, commentator and senior leader.