Visual Cultural Industry - Essay Example

Running Head: Visual Cultural Industry Visual Cultural Industry Name Institution Professor Course Date 1.0 Introduction Based on a number of international organizations such as the General agreement on tariffs and trade and UNESCO cultural industries also termed as the creative industries combines the production, creation as well as the distribution of goods and services that have a cultural aspect and they are also protected by a number of intellectual property rights (Bal, 2003) and they have the potential to be commercialized. The creative industries includes sectors such as film, television and radio, music and performing arts, advertising and marketing, architecture, design and visual arts, writing, publishing and print media as well as software development and interactive content (Australian Council for the Arts, 2012). So as to grow the creative industries in Australia, the government of Australia invests substantially in three major themes so as to leverage the national foundations, growing of creative contents and services as well as optimizing the commercial capacity. This essay sets out to: Discuss the role of government support to three visual cultural industry entities in Australia and they include the music and performing arts, Film, television and Radio and architecture, design and visual arts how the forms of funding shape and impact on the function and function and livelihood of these specific visual cultural entities What are other ways in which these visual culture entities seek to support cultural and economic revenue? And Offering a critical analysis of these findings. 2.0 Role of government support to three visual cultural industry entities here in Australia 2.1 Music and performing arts A great number of Australians enjoys listening to music and watching the various forms of performing art s by their local artists, Australians musicians have achieved success even internationally therefore making music a major cultural expert for the country. The Government of Australia tends to play an essential role in supporting the development and enhancement of the Australian music and performing arts industry through a great number of initiatives that have been implemented over time. A good example of such an initiative is the sounds Australia which plays an essential role in ensuring and developing the national as well as the international contemporary music industry in Australia. There is also another government initiative termed as the national live music office which aims at increasing the opportunities for the presentations of music and mostly live music and they achieve these through policy reforms and by identifying the directions to offer support to sector development and support audience. All this is done with the aim of benefiting the live music industry in Australia. The Australian government also has another initiative termed as the musos in residence. Through the use of this program the mid career artists are engaged with producers professionally and the producers therefore have an opportunity to act as mentors and work in the schools together with the upcoming songwriters. This offers an intensive and real world experience on skills related to studio production, song writing as well as post production (Department of Communications and the Arts, 2016a). In relation to the performing arts sectors, the Australian government also offers funding as well as support to the sector. A great number of the performing arts training institutions that are available fosters and contributes greatly to the thriving creative economy in Australia. The government of Australia offers a wide range of funding and support to these kinds of centers. Though not directly, the Australian government through the Australian council supports and offers oversight to the companies in the sectors. There are also grants that the government provides to the industry and mostly to those people who focuses more on dance, theatre, music in addition to regional touring (Department of Communications and the Arts, 2016b). Through the grants, the arts of the Torres Strait Islanders and the Aboriginal people are able to reflect their unique cultural heritage of some of the globes oldest cultures. The grants are also channeled to people with disabilities thus showing the inclusiveness of the fund to people from diverse groups (Australian Council for the Arts, 2016). 2.2 Film, television and Radio The iconic Australian film and television industry platforms the talents in addition to the creativity of the writers, actors, directors, producers and other post production workers. The film production industry in Australia contributes greatly to the national cultural life and at as of today it also continues to shape and extend the national identity of Australia. The government of Australia plays an essential role in these sectors in that it has a comprehensive package of a number of measures that are aimed at boosting support for the industry. Some of the measures that the Australian government have implemented to support the industry. For example, there is the Australian Screen production incentive and it is termed as the government’s main of showing support to the film and television and radio industry. The initiative offers a wide range of tax incentives for film, television, radio and other forms of screen productions and this is mainly achieved through three streams that are the producer offset, location offset and PDV offset. The production offers tend to encourage the production of film and television projects that have some Australian origin and the scheme is administered by the Screen Australia. The location offset is termed as a 16.5% reimbursement and it offers support to the production of large budget television and film projects that have been shot in Australia. The PDV offset offers a 30% return and it offers support on the post, digital and visual effects production (PDV) in Australia not considering where the project was shot (Department of Communications and the Arts, 2016c). Another major initiative of the government is the National Film and Sound of Australia (NFSAA) which commenced its operations as a statutory body on 1st July 2008. The agency acts as the main government agency that ensures the development, maintenance, preservation, as well as the promotion of the national collection of the audio visual material (Department of Communications and the Arts, 2016d) 2.3 Architecture, design and visual arts The indigenous visual art is essential to the Australian culture and over time in been recognized, through the architecture, design and visual arts the Australian people can express their identity, culture as well as their intrinsic relationships with their country which is Australia. The government of Australia offers support to this sectors through the Indigenous Visual Arts support by funding the indigenous art centers in addition to the allied industry so as to enable them to build and come up with stronger and long lasting Indigenous visual arts in Australia (Bal, 2003). The Australian governments offers funding so as to offer the much needed support to the operations of a great number of the indigenous art centers and also to those organizations that are involved on the promotion, production and marketing of the various indigenous arts products. The governments also offer opportunities which can be exploited by the indigenous artist with the aim of maintaining, extending and developing their professional practice in arts. At the same time the governments offers opportunities to the staff at the art centers, the artists and to the board members so that they can develop and enhance their professional experience, knwoldge and skills. Lastly, the Australian government also facilities the effective delivery of services to the industry by the various organization that support the industry. 3.0 How do these forms of funding shape and impact on the function and livelihood of these specific visual cultural entities? The above discussed forms of funding and support from the government in a way tend to shape and impact on the functions as well as on the livelihood of the three visual cultural entities that is the music and performing arts, film, television and radio and architecture, design and visual arts. The funding tend to shape and impact on the function and livelihood of these specific visual cultural entities in that it generates a lot of revenue for the country and for the locals. Based on available statistics, the Australian film and television industry has both direct, direct as well as to total economic contribution to the country’s economy. Additionally, it leads to the creation of jobs. As shown in the table the Australian Film and television industry has a great number of employees working in the industry (Dikovitskaya, 2005). Additional all the other visual cultural entities also have a considerable number of employees ranging from the tutors, producers, and the artists themselves. Thus the visual cultural entities can be seen to be playing a major and essential role in creating job opportunities for a great number of people in Australia. Another major way in which the funding shape and impact on the function and livelihood of these specific visual cultural entities is that they strengthen the cultural values and at the same time play an essential role in preserving the history and heritage of a culture and country. A key indicator of a healthy community is in the community and country ability to invent and preserve their culture this means that they need to conserve their heritage and history while at the same time developing new and advanced expressions that are in line with the current times. Over and over again, a great number of people interpret the concept of preservation as stagnation while in fact history and heritage can act as basis of advancement and innovation (Freedman, 2003). Furthermore, history and heritage are of great sources of meaning that offers resonance and character. In Australia which is a country which is complex and diverse, the history may be contested and layered. Another major impact is that there is the cropping up of community based organizations which set out to foster heritage, culture and place. In instances when planners requires the input of the community so as to understand the culture as well as the heritage and revitalizing place the availability of trusted organizations tend to be key to success (Illeris, 2005). This is based on the notion that a great number of the community cultural and art organizations tend to be connected closely to the community they serve and operate in and thus have an adequate and intimate understanding of the culture, identity and heritage of the community. Another noteworthy impact of government funding and support is that it strengthens the infrastructure in the visual industry in Australia. Though a great amount of funding offered by the governments may not be channeled into infrastructure development a small amount of the fund is allocated to the development of infrastructure (Mirzoeff, 2002). This seems to be a major impact of the funding and mostly in cultural and artistic activities that need physical structures. For example, artists are in need of theaters to practice t in and play their plays another good example is the art galleries. They need to be well maintained for them to attract a great number of people into the facilities to view and appreciate the Australian arts and culture. 4.0 What are other ways in which these visual culture entities seek to support cultural and economic revenue? The three visual cultural entities mentioned above in a way seek to support the cultural and economic revenue in that they offer employment to the people and seek to enhance the culture of the Australian community always. the visual culture entities seek to support cultural and economic revenue in that they seek out to improve the competitive advantage of the community, create a firm foundation when it comes to defining a sense of place, attract visiting and new populations into Australia, integrate the visions of the business leaders and that of the community and contribute to the cropping up of a skilled workforce (Freedman, 2003). Another way in which the visual cultural entities seek to support cultural and economic revenue is by been a core area of economic development and this is mainly enhanced by placing more emphasis on both the human capital and physical density (Illeris, 2005). This means that when the artists, firms and cultural facilities are located together there is usually a multiplier effect. By placing more emphasis on the cultural enterprises as well as on the creative workers in a certain geographical areas, there is the development of a competitive advantage and this is more likely to alleviate the people quality of life, improve the ability of the community to attract economic activity and eventually creates an environment in which cultural and innovation can flourish. The concentration of the entities and the skilled workers as well as relation to business and facilities acts as enablers in that there is creation of cooperative and partnership projects to develop the areas. Through concentration there is also, marketing of the products and skills. The physical density of these entities promotes the prosperity of the sectors which ultimately is in turn economically viability to the whole area (Mitchell, 2002). The visual culture entities seek to support cultural and economic revenue in that the planners can come up with deliberate connections between culture and arts and other related sectors. By establishing the opportunities for partnership in a number of economic sectors as well as creative professionals seems to be a major way of promoting economic development. The talents depicted by artists in these sectors tend to enhance the value of the local products and services and at the same time increase the products and services dissemination (Gardiner & Bailey, 2016). Partnership mainly results from the economic clusters that tend to deepened or closely related to the design field. The visual culture entities seek to support cultural and economic revenue promotion of assets which means that there is a promotion of the cultural entities and mainly for the sole purpose of attracting skilled workers and attracting economic investment. In relation to development there is a promotion of development activities through cultural, artists and creative policies (Gardiner & Bailey, 2016). The entities also make good use of revitalization and a great emphasis is placed in the artistic measures as well as strategies that emphasize more on creativity. Another way is by coming up with job clusters based on the available creative business for instance by linking the businesses with the non cultural businesses in the area. Another way in which the visual cultural entities seeks to support the cultural and economic revenue is by having a great recognition of the arts in the community as well as the cultural aspects and treating them as essential elements in economic development. The recognition as well as strengthening of the already existing assets seems to be essential parts of the community development and also contribute directly to the economic development. The assets tend to be related to personal development, entertainment, personal development and education in addition to direct job creation (Florida, 2002). The use of the cultural and creative amenities acts as effective for promoting and identifying a great number of community assets. There is great evidence that a high educated and high tech workforce tend to prefer to stay in locations where the creative amenities are available. So as to promote local creativity and cultural and attain economic revenue, communities can consider a certain area as a cultural, arts and creative district. Cultural activities in an area tend to draw tend to grow a great number of crowds around and within the community. And this is therefore seen as another way in which visual culture entities seek to support cultural and economic revenue. Cultural activities tend to increase the attention as well as the foot traffic in an area for example by attracting visitors and at the same time increasing the amount of money and time spent in the area and therefore leading to an economic revenue being generated. The cultural activities attract the attraction, for example, for casual perusal and also for artistic investment. These kinds of activities may include events at specific cultural facilities for example in the museums, theaters, clubs and galleries just to mention a few of them (Csikszentmihalyi & Hermanson, 1999). Another way is by communities trying to come up with creative ways so as to ensure that the artistic activities take place in underutilized and vacant places. Through the wide range of people that may view such activities the culture is passed on to the next generation and also people of other cultures tend to appreciate the differences in culture. 5.0 Critical analysis of these findings Based on the above analysis, it is clear evident that there are a great number of visual cultural entities in Australia and in that they contribute greatly to the economy of Australia. The government of Australia also seems to be greatly concerned with these sectors and thus offers a lot of support and funding to the sector. At the same time initiative have been developed so as to ease the burden on the players in the industry. For example, they are offered with grants as well as tax incentives which ease their way of doing business in Australia. Additionally the funding and support from the government in a way tend to shape and impact on the functions as well as on the livelihood of the three visual cultural entities that is the music and performing arts, film, television and radio and architecture, design and visual arts (Florida, 2002). Some of the impacts relates to creation of job for the Australians, generation of economic value from the various economic entities as well as the development of infrastructure to support the entities such as the art galleries and theaters which play an essential role in supporting artists and mostly the performing artists who generate their incomes from exhibitions and live events. Additional, the funding and support strengthens the cultural values and at the same time play an essential role in preserving the history and heritage of a culture and country. The visual culture entities seek to support cultural and economic revenue in that been a core area of economic development and this is mainly enhanced by placing more emphasis on both the human capital and physical density. This means that when the artists, firms and cultural facilities are located together there is usually a multiplier effect. Based on the findings, the Australian government should not relent from giving support to the industry and they should come up with strategies aimed at making the industry better and sustainable (Csikszentmihalyi & Hermanson, 1999). References Australian Council for the Arts (2012). Protocols for producing indigenous Australian Visual arts. Retrieved May 5, 2016, from http://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/symphony/extension/richtext_redactor/getfile/?name=daaf1afd6d719315db5e5e174a1da961.pdf Australian Council for the Arts (2016). Grants. Retrieved May 5, 2016, from http://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/funding/new-grants-model/ Bal, M. (2003). Visual Essentialism and the Object of Visual Culture. Journal of Visual Culture, 5-31. Csikszentmihalyi, M., & Hermanson, K. (1999). Why does one want to learn? In Hooper-Greenhill, E. (Ed.). The educational role of the museum (2nd ed.), London: Routledge. Department of Communications and the Arts (2016a). Music. Retrieved May 5, 2016, from http://arts.gov.au/music Department of Communications and the Arts (2016b). Performing arts. Retrieved May 5, 2016, from http://arts.gov.au/topics/performing-arts Department of Communications and the Arts (2016c). Australian Screen Production Incentive. Retrieved May 5, 2016, from http://arts.gov.au/film-tv/australian-screen-production-incentive Department of Communications and the Arts (2016d). National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. Retrieved May 5, 2016, from http://arts.gov.au/film-tv/nfsaa Dikovitskaya, M. (2005).Visual Culture: The Study of the Visual after the Cultural Turn. Cambridge MA: MIT Press. Florida, R. (2002). The rise of the creative class: And how it’s transforming work, leisure, community, and everyday life. New York: Basic Books. Freedman, K. (2003). Teaching visual culture: Curriculum, aesthetics and the social life of art. New York: Teachers College Press. Gardiner, H., & Bailey, C. (2016). Revisualizing Visual Culture. New York: Routledge. Illeris, H. (2005). Young people and contemporary art. International Journal of Art and Design Education, 24 (3), 321-242. Mitchell, W. (2002). Showing seeing: a critique of Visual Culture. Journal of visual arts, 1 (2), 165-181 Retrieved May 5, 2016, from https://www.nyu.edu/classes/bkg/methods/mitchell.pdf Mirzoeff, N. (2002). Visual Culture Reader. New York: Routledge. Read More