Monthly Archives: October 2020

ACT Arts Election Forum 2020 Report

Posted on by
Reply

ACT Arts Election Forum 2020 Report

On 9th September The Childers Group in partnership with the Canberra Artists Action Group (CAAG) held (via Zoom) an ACT Arts Election forum. It was a first “on-line forum” for Childers as our last election forum was held at Gorman House in 2016. How things in our sector have changed.

The forum was moderated by Alex Sloan AM (many thanks) and our three speakers were : Gordon Ramsay MLA (Labor), Vicki Dunne MLA (Liberal) and Jo Clay (Greens).

Over 60 people attended the forum and the response has been very positive. The format for the forum was as follows:

  • We would like you to state your party’s policy – five minutes maximum
  • We would like you to address 3 specific questions from our arts community which will be provided to you in advance
  • General questions from the floor

The 3 questions were :

  1. What is your party’s key vision for the arts in Canberra and the Region in a post Covid19 world?

 

  1. The last released ACT Arts policy is dated 2015. Do you think that a new policy needs to be developed. If so how would you go about it and what do you think would be some of the key elements that your party would see as important .

 

  1. Given :
    • the high value of the arts in development of creative and critical thinking and mental and physical well being,
    • that the main or only arts experiences for many students are at their school or college, and
    • that there are many professional artists who would appreciate secure employment

what is your Party’s policy to ensure quality, expert arts education to students at schools and colleges?  and what is your Party’s policy on providing professional teacher education in the ACT, to meet the need for arts teachers in schools and colleges?

We have also asked the 3 speakers to send through their formal Arts policies which can be found below :

ACT Labor (pages 28-29) : https://www.actlabor.org.au/media/43449/act-labor-policy-position-document-updated-220920.pdf

ACT Greens : https://greens.org.au/act/valuing-the-arts

Canberra Liberals : we will post their policy when it is launched