Patternmakers 25/8/26 Patternmakers 25/8/26

When Art Sparks Change

Can project acquittals be repurposed to show the value of arts projects for Australian communities?

Creative Australia commissioned us to collate a selection of local CACD case studies to share their stories and showcase the inspiring work led by community artists. Explore the digital resource to learn more.

All around Australia, artists are sparking social change, working with communities to tell their stories, tackle big issues and create common ground.

Community arts and cultural development (CACD) is a specialist art form, where professional artist facilitators work with communities to co-create projects with purpose.

Here, you can read the stories of local CACD artists and their projects.

As Australia grapples with a 'civic crisis', their work has never been more needed.

Image: Georges Riverkeeper, STARTTS & Jiva Parthipan’s *The River Project*

UNESCO says that culture is an under-utilised resource for building social cohesion, with 'a high capacity to stimulate effective engagement of local communities across all generations in public life.'

In 2023, social cohesion in Australia was the lowest it’s been since measurement began in 2007, according to the Scanlon Institute’s Social Cohesion Index.

The Australian Government is aware that the country is facing a crisis in terms of civic engagement.

"We've seen a collapse in the number of people volunteering and a decline in the share of people who are donating to charities. Compared with the mid-1980s, Australians have half as many close friends, and know half as many of their neighbours. We have become more disconnected."
Andrew Leigh, Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury

Engaging in arts, culture and creativity are shown to have powerful social and emotional effects.

One study by the University of Western Australia found that people engaging with arts and creative activities for two or more hours a week had significantly better wellbeing, after controlling for a range of other behavioural and demographic factors.

Creative arts practices can also help alleviate social challenges by addressing disadvantages and bringing people together.

According to Creative Australia’s Towards Equity report, CACD is ‘a specific type of socially engaged arts practice where, as a group, community members and professional artists collaborate to create art that is reflective of that place and community.'

Key examples:

Milk Crate Theatre used devised theatre to facilitate social inclusion for people at risk of, or experiencing, homelessness
All The Queens Men curated a lavish party to facilitate pride, celebration and visibility for LGBTIQ+ elders
Carclew addressed isolation amongst youth in regional South Australia through facilitating the opportunity for emerging young writers to develop their own monologues
Jiva Parthipan and the NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors (STARTTS) engaged with place-making and cross-cultural understanding through a creative experience along the Georges River in Casula NSW

The impacts are profound.

Download the PDF to read their stories.

“Art is powerful. It can change things: perspectives, politics, people. Humans have an inherent need to be creative, to express themselves beyond the practical; we have an inherent right to be creative.”

— Time Out, Review of Milk Crate Theatre's DUST

CACD was pioneered in the 1960s and 1970s during a period of social upheaval, and it remains distinct from other art forms, guided by the principle of cultural democracy.

Author of ‘A Restless Art’, François Matarasso, describes community art as ‘the creation of art as a human right, by professional and non-professional artists, co-operating as equals, for purposes and to standards they set together, and whose processes, products and outcomes cannot be known in advance.’

In 2016, 14% of Australians were involved in CACD activities, which actively engaged community members in decision-making and the co-creation of art with professional artists (National Arts Participation Survey, Creative Australia).

Participation rates in CACD were higher among people in regional Australia (13%) that year, along with Australians aged 15 to 24 years (28%), those with disability (31%), those from CALD backgrounds (26%); and First Nations people (55%).

These strong engagement figures show that the CACD sector is a leader in the use of the arts to support social inclusion and cohesion, enabling diverse voices to be heard and stories to be shared through creating art.

However, of all the surveyed artforms, Australians had a particularly limited understanding of the benefits of CACD. In 2022, after two years of the pandemic, participation had fallen to 9% of Australians.

Authors

**Peta Petrakis**, Senior Research Analyst

**Melanie Raveendran**, Digital Marketing Coordinator

**Tandi Palmer Williams**, Managing Director

Acknowledgements

These resources are dedicated to CACD practitioners everywhere, working to address disadvantage and bring Australians together.

They have been created by research agency Patternmakers, with assistance from the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.

Thank you to the practitioners who participated in the creation of this resource and to the many partners involved in each of the projects profiled.

Patternmakers 19/12/23 Patternmakers 19/12/23

Dance Sector Uplift

When we were invited to help distill the findings from a sector recovery project, we weren’t expecting to find a bigger, bolder ambition.

Following the flood and storm events of 2022, Dance Sector Uplift set out to reactivate dance, physical theatre and experimental performance across the Northern Rivers. Beyond simply rebuilding, the report captures a vision for a new regional hub for dance.

In 2023, Arts Northern Rivers commissioned Patternmakers to assist with the Dance Sector Uplift project, designed to reactivate dance, physical theatre and experimental performance across the region.

This partnership stretches back to the Creative Industries Recovery Forum in 2022, which we attended and developed a report to identify sector priorities in order for the creative industries to flourish again after the severe storms and flooding hit communities across Northern NSW and Southern QLD.

Arts Northern Rivers undertook three streams of focus to support the region’s activation, recovery and renewal, identified as Public Art, First Nations Arts, and Dance/Physical Theatre.

In consultation with local artists, Arts Northern Rivers was committed to stimulating the region with a revitalisation of the dance sector by supporting activities which nourish and promote the region as a creative, thriving and growing centre of diverse embodied practice.

Local dance maker and producer, Philip Channells managed the delivery of the project. Philip works across art forms including dance/theatre, film, performance installation, community art projects, site-specific work and artist residencies with collaborators who value, challenge, redefine and inform our different perspectives of contemporary life.

“Approaching the Dance Sector Uplift (DSU) research project through a broad lens of diversity and inclusion enabled conversations amongst the sector, acknowledging the diverse cultural influences, creative practices and lived experiences of practising artists.

This conversational approach led us to realise the need for various stages of research to ensure a broad set of important voices were caught in the process.”

— Philip Channells

This project was informed by a multiplicity of consultation methodologies with members of the Northern Rivers performing arts sector, including local Bundjalung, Yaegl and Gumbaynggirr leaders, knowledge keepers of dance, dance makers and performers and global Indigenous and CALD artists living in the region.

Arts Northern Rivers conducted a survey inviting all artists working across an embodied practice to contribute to the research and design process for the reactivation of dance.

We analysed and compiled the results of these surveys and consultations into a full report in order to inform the direction and outcomes of the project. The report identifies the strengths and challenges, supported with evidence and data, and recommendations on how to plan ahead, to create a vision, and help independent artists realise their creative potential while working collectively within the community.

Download the Dance Sector Uplift report below for the full story.

Report

Click below to watch the webinar where the findings from the report were delivered to all the participants from the local dance sector.

Webinar

Image | Dancers: Omer Backley-Astrachan, Kirsty Kiloh, Charemaine Seet in The Draw IN by Geraldine Balcazar. Photograph by Shane Rozario.

About the Author

Tandi Palmer Williams
Managing Director

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Patternmakers 30/11/23 Patternmakers 30/11/23

City lights to red dirt: Connecting with audiences across Australia

Audiences in big cities, outer suburbs and the regions have vastly different contexts, and they behave differently when it comes to attending cultural events.

In this Audience Outlook Monitor report, ‘City Lights to Red Dirt’, we look at the geographic trends in data collected from past attendees. If Australia is to achieve equity of access for audiences, regardless of location, there are insights for programming, marketing and strategy.

Our cities, suburbs and regions are different places today and audiences are responding in interesting ways.

Attendees of arts and cultural events are feeling the pressure of the housing crisis, changing work and commuting patterns, navigating weather events and approaching travel and leisure differently.

In this new report, ‘City Lights to Red Dirt’, we look at the geographic trends in data collected from past audiences of cultural events.

Click the buttons below to download the report, as a PDF or accessible Word version, or read on for more of the findings.

PDF REPORT

WORD report

Three chapters, three geographic audience segments

The report compares audiences in three main geographic areas, providing insights for connecting people with culture where they live and the places they visit.

Download the chapters as separate fact sheets below.

Audiences in Big Cities

Arts audiences in big cities are experiencing the arts at high levels, but with market saturation and the shifting dynamics of Australia's CBDs post-pandemic, new challenges have emerged for organisations to cut through.

In Australia’s big cities, more people are attending arts events more often, but resident arts organisations are competing in a congested market. The data from past attendees shows that:
- 85% of big city audiences said they attended at least one kind of cultural event in the fortnight before data collection. Attendance is also more frequent amongst big city arts audiences: 38% attend a gallery or museum at least once a month, compared to outer suburbs (27%) and regional audiences (29%).
- Arts audiences living in big cities are spending more on tickets to in-person live events and cultural activities: 7 in 10 spent more than $50 the fortnight before data collection (69%), compared to 65% of outer suburb audiences and 57% of regional audiences.
- While most audiences are drawn to fun, uplifting and even escapist content right now, big city audiences are showing a greater appetite for challenging, topical content in the next 12 months (52%), compared to audiences living in outer suburbs and regional areas (both 41%). With more options on offer, they are also more likely to tune into reviews when considering what to attend.

AUDIENCES IN BIG CITIES

Audiences in Outer Suburbs

Outer suburbs are the biggest growth areas in Australia right now, and have an expanding arts audience looking for more cultural experiences closer to home — but don't yet have enough venues nearby to accommodate.

In the outskirts and outer suburbs of big cities, the rate and frequency of attendance are slightly lower than big cities, but the market is growing, as more people move to more affordable areas where families can enjoy different lifestyles. The data from past attendees of events shows:
- Audiences in outer suburbs are feeling slightly more pessimistic than optimistic about their financial situation, with almost half (46%) say they’re worse off than they were a year ago, and 25% expect to be financially worse off in the coming year.
- Audiences in outer suburbs (combining both residents and visitors) were most likely to attend a cinema locally (59%), whereas big city audiences were comparatively more likely to attend a local live performance. Audiences in the regions were most likely to attend a fair/festival locally (40%) or visit a museum or gallery (51%).
- Audiences in outer suburban areas are the least likely to be participating in online events right now. Half of outer suburbs residents say online arts events and experiences are playing a small (43%) or substantial role (8%) in their life, while another 49% say they play no role.

AUDIENCES IN OUTER SUBURBS

Audiences in the Regions

Across Australia's diverse regions, audiences are experiencing access to arts and culture differently. Factoring in extra time and travel costs means heightened barriers in 2023, but with a decentralising trend, more options could be on the cards.

Regional Australia is changing, with demographic shifts seeing some regional places grow dramatically in recent years – but rising costs of travel are leaving some isolated. There are different patterns for large towns, smaller villages and bush or outback areas, but on average, the data shows that:
- Regional audiences indicated feeling less stable financially and more pessimistic about their future finances than those in outer suburbs and big cities, and many are being selective about what they attend right now. Almost half (47%) say they are ‘worse off’ financially than they were one year ago, and 26% expect to be ‘worse off’ in the coming year.
- Regional audiences have lower levels of access to some types of events, like live performances, and therefore attend less often: 52% of audiences in the regions said they attend performing arts events at least once a month or more, lower than proportions in big cities (77%) and outer suburbs (63%).
- Some art forms appear to reach audiences in regional areas better than others. For instance, in the past 12 months, 51% of regional audiences have attended contemporary music and 57% have attended libraries, which are similar to attendance rates in urban areas.
- Four in ten regional audience members say that in the coming year, they’ll be most attracted to stories that are ‘about or from my local community’ (39%), slightly higher than the rate in big cities (32%) and outer suburbs (28%).

AUDIENCES IN THE REGIONS

Get the data at a glance

Click the button below to download our Fast Facts for attendance, inflationary pressures, programming preferences and ticketing and marketing behaviour.

Fast Facts

Read the ‘Audiences 2023+’ report

In case you missed it, click the button below for the key insights from the August 2023 National Snapshot.

Audiences 2023+

Use the dashboard to get results for your artform and region

Survey data from Phase 9, which heard from over 8,800 respondents, has been uploaded to the dashboard, which now contains insights from over 100,000 Australian participants.

You can use the dashboard to explore the findings by state/territory, artform and audience segment.

It’s freely available to access, just click the image below and use the login details provided on the dashboard page.

About the Audience Outlook Monitor

The Audience Outlook Monitor provides the results of a study that has tracked audience sentiment over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Data was collected in six phases throughout 2020-2022 and is again being tracked in 2023.

Government agencies across Australia are collaborating with research agencies Patternmakers (Sydney) and WolfBrown (USA) to produce this resource. The dashboard is freely accessible and designed to help artists and cultural organisations of all kinds to make the best possible decisions.