Regional Arts NSW - The peak body for regional arts activity in New South Wales

Media Release

RANSW and partners win ARC funding for regional arts & culture study

27 September 2007

Regional Arts NSW is partner with the University of Technology, Sydney, the University of Wollongong, the University of New England and 10 other community partners in a successful Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkages Project announced on 24 September by the Federal Minister for Education, Science and Training, the Hon Julie Bishop MP.

The $2.5 million project, 'Cultural Asset Mapping for Planning and Development in Regional Australia', is a five year project which will run from 2008 to 2012.

At a time when regional societies are changing markedly, this project examines ways many areas in Australia might revitalise their economies and communities by engaging in new approaches to the arts and creative activity.

For consumers and producers alike, many regions in Australia offer opportunities for enhanced cultural activity and productivity and quality of life. But these opportunities have not yet been thoroughly observed, described or analysed. The project addresses this serious gap in knowledge and will give policy-makers, planners and communities crucial information they need to decide their futures.

The project aims to:

  1. document and analyse the cultural assets of a selected set of regions;
  2. identify barriers to more integrated and effective development of the cultural industries and arts in regions;
  3. build long lasting capacity for expansion and effective stewardship of cultural activities by transferring knowledge and developing and implementing policy; and
  4. contribute significantly to the international understanding of the relationship between cultural industries/arts, regional development and cultural policy.

Collaborating partners in the project include the Australia Council for the Arts, the Local Government & Shires Associations of NSW, Canberra Arts Marketing, the cities of Wollongong, Canberra, Albury-Wodonga and Armidale, and shires of Uralla and the Central Darling.

The project will commence in early 2008.

Media enquiries
Rachael Vincent, Communications Manager Tel 02 9270 2504