Australia’s 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 ‘Australian Creative Histories and Futures’ (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 UNSW 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’s total investment to $5.8 million.
“The arts are lived by artists and by audiences as an ecosystem that is in constant cross-feed,” said Dr Trezise. “This 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 – why they are so important and what the best policy settings are to nurture thriving creative communities and careers.”
Professor Claire Annesley, Dean of UNSW Arts, Design & Architecture (ADA), said: “The Australian Creative Histories and Futures project aims to preserve and make Australia’s rich cultural history accessible.
“In 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.
“It will also be a rich resource for researchers looking into Australia’s creative history. In our increasingly connected world, it’s important that information about our cultural heritage is preserved and made available to all.”
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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.
UNSW ADA Co-Associate Deans Research (Indigenous), Scientia Associate Professor Liza-Mare Syron and Scientia Associate Professor Fabri Blacklock said: “This 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.”
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: “We're excited to recognise the value of national research infrastructure for the creative arts through expanding the HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons.
“Until 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’s culture is extensive, dynamic and ever evolving, and so too is its cultural data, said Dr Wake, who’s co-leading the project.
“We 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,” Dr Wake said. “And there are other datasets too, such as those held by Creative Australia.”
AusStage, which was recently included in UNESCO’s Australian Memory of the World register, 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 – AusStage, DAAO, and Creative Australia – have different methods of storing information and are not currently interoperable, meaning they must be searched separately.
Looking to the future
UNSW 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.
“It 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,” she said.
“UNSW 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).
