NSW gets creative in drive for state arts policy
Arts Minister John Graham wants to join the dots between creative industries, tourism, health and education.
The shortage of theatres and affordable studios, funding reform for independent artists and companies, and greater focus on the regions and skills development have emerged as prominent themes in discussions towards a creative industries policy being led by NSW Arts Minister John Graham.
The newly elected Minns government has held meetings across the state and received more than 630 submissions as planning for the Arts, Culture and Creative Industries Policy now moves into the next phase.
It’s expected the policy will be published before the end of the year, although it will not include funding commitments at that time.
Graham says 9 per cent of the workforce in Greater Sydney is engaged in creative industries but government policy has not kept up. Following the lead of federal Labor’s Revive cultural policy, he wants NSW to have a whole-of-government approach to supporting and motivating creative activity as an economic driver.
“If you talk about how creative people live and work in the sector … and where the jobs in the NSW economy are going to come from in the next couple of decades, then you have to be talking about the creative industries – not just our amazing traditional cultural institutions,” Graham says in an interview. “What I want is a whole-of-government policy that engages with education, health, TAFE, investment, looks right across the board and at how we can support creativity.”
Graham, who was elevated to the ministry with the election of the Minns government in March, holds the portfolios of Special Minister for State, Minister for Roads, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Music and the Night-time Economy, and Minister for Jobs and Tourism. It’s quite a mouthful and may be an indication of his determination to link the creative industries to different arms of government.
He became Arts Minister because he is a music fan, he says, and in the past he has campaigned against the closure of live-music venues in Sydney.
He wants the state tourism body, Destination NSW, to get behind the “experience” economy, which includes arts and cultural attractions, restaurants and other activities that make up the creative industries. Destination NSW already supports attractions such as Vivid and the return season of Wicked, but Graham says it should be doing more.
A proposal to address Sydney’s shortage of venues is to embed incentives in the planning approvals process and encourage developers to invest in cultural infrastructure.
“We have definitely got a problem with performance spaces in Sydney,” Graham says.
“I think we need to move to using the planning system, as we have in the past, to produce new spaces … We’ve lost that tradition of using the planning system as development occurs to create new spaces. Having those incentives right to reward new performance spaces being brought on stream (is something) we will be doing.
“We should acknowledge the former government’s good work building some new publicly funded spaces, but now we are going to turn to the other part of the patchwork, which is using the planning system to drive that.”
NSW has an unusually high concentration of the screen production workforce, and facilities are in high demand. Graham says finance for new studios must come from the private sector, possibly with government making land or buildings available. “We will be keen to talk to the screen sector – what they are thinking about, what the options are, how can government help,” he says.
“The answer won’t be taxpayers funding all this. That’s just not possible in the current budget environment, but that doesn’t mean government doesn’t want to help, and there’s an important facilitation role there, working with the industry …
“There may be government land or facilities that are of assistance. They should be part of the discussion. The next step is to really get industry together to focus on that question.”
Last week Graham announced he was scrapping the former NSW Coalition government’s plans for a $500m redevelopment of the Powerhouse Museum at Ultimo. Under the new arrangements, existing infrastructure including the 1988 Wran building will be saved and $250m invested in a “heritage revitalisation” of the museum. The final shape of the upgrade is to be decided. Graham wants Powerhouse stakeholders to be involved in the discussion, as they “clearly don’t feel” they were consulted in the past.
“The key things are the details of what that investment looks like,” Graham says. “We want to keep the Powerhouse that people know and love. We are keeping the Wran building. The creative industries are really important to me across the city, and the Powerhouse is known and loved for being a museum. It has to retain that focus. Those things are not up for negotiation.”
Public submissions to the policy discussion remain open until Friday, then Graham and his appointed panels of advisers and artists will help shape the policy detail. Graham’s ministerial advisory panel is led by Sydney Opera House chief executive Louise Herron, with other members being Sydney Fringe director Kerri Glasscock, Blackfella Films producer Darren Dale, University of Sydney director of museums and cultural engagement Michael Dagostino, and emeritus professor Ross Harley of the University of NSW.
The 13-member artist advisory panel is chaired by Bankstown Poetry Slam director Sara Mansour and has members from across the arts and creative disciplines.
They are Cressida Campbell, Jane Gleeson-White, Jonathan Zawada, Khaled Sabsabi, Kristy Lee Peters, Kylie Kwong, Liane Rossler, Nakkiah Lui, Rachel Neeson, Romance Was Born, Sukhdeep Singh and Vicki Van Hout.
Graham says he has been encouraged by the response of his ministerial colleagues and government agencies to the policy formation, including discussion with the health, education, youth and First Nations ministries.
“We’re inviting them into the process, we have started running this out across government,” Graham says.
“It’s difficult to get health or education to focus on these issues – they are dealing with big systems and big challenges. I don’t underestimate how difficult that is. My point is that it won’t happen at all if we don’t have a policy. We are setting out the goals so we can then drive those big bits of the system that support the sector.”