Saturday 7 April 2018
Friday 6 April 2018
SMELL AND RHIZOMATIC INTERFACES
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| click here to go to source |
"I got the word that this amazing woman was putting on a show the next week, something about people in bags, in black bags, and it was going to be a bit of a happening and all that. So I went to a preview the night before it opened. I went in - she didn't know who I was or anything - and I was wandering around. ... There was an apple on sale there for two hundred quid; I thought it was fantastic - I got the humor in her work immediately. I didn't have to have much knowledge about avant-garde or underground art, the humor got me straightaway. There was a fresh apple on a stand - this was before Apple - and it was two hundred quid to watch the apple decompose." - John Lennon 
"Lennon took a bite out of the apple on display, before apologising and putting the apple back. Ono later recalled that "...he just grabbed it and bit it and looked at me like, you know, "There!" you know? I was so furious, I didn't know what to say. And it all showed in my face: How dare this person, you know, mess around with my work?" _ Yoko Ono
.. and it goes on ... “I WANTED TO TOUCH YOU WITH THE SMELL”: ERNESTO NETO’S IMMERSIVE, CROSS-SENSORY INSTALLATIONS Posted on March 25, 2015 ... click here
Thursday 5 April 2018
Monday 2 April 2018
Banana Wickery
Here are some Chinese wickery boxes and some of them are made from banana leaves. One of the boxes was exported to Japan to be used as a take-a-way lunch box for the everyday work force – probably making Honda cars with lots of plastic trims. Why not banana dash boards on bamboo chassis?.
IMAGES COURTESY Chris & Kay Harmen Tasmania from their 2015 visit to China and the town where Chris was born.
The photos are from January 2015 in the factory Zhangzhou, Fujian Province, China. The two blonde-haired women in the photos are Chris’s sisters from the UK who joined Chris & Kay in HK for the 4-week journey into China, particularly to their birth places – Chris in Xiamen and the two girls in Zhangzhou.
CLICK ON AN IMAGE TO ENLARGE
click on an image to enlarge
click on an image to enlarge
click on an image to enlarge
CULTURAL TOURISM ON THE TAMAR
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INTRODUCTION
Museums are amazing places invested with layers of cultural knowledge and cultural property. Likewise museums and art galleries have enormous and multidimensional Communities of Ownership and Interest (COI) – ratepayers in Launceston, researchers, taxpayers, donors, sponsors, et al – albeit that all too often museums' and art gallery's COI's various attachments to these places of the muse go unacknowledged. These COIs also constitute the primary audience for museums' and art galleries' programs and projects.
The report – click here to access the report – prepared for Launceston City Council by A. Stafford & Associates Pty Ltd – www.thestaffordgroup.com.au – in respect to tourism in the city/municipality/region pays scant attention to cultural tourism – in particular it makes an almost cursory acknowledgement of the Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery.
However, in a peripheral sense the report does touch upon issues that might be included in an assessment of cultural tourism in the city/region. Nonetheless, the report does not address the issue of cultural tourism in any substantial way.
Given the city’s/region’s history and heritage this seems to be a significant oversight or shortfall. The report does however gather together significant data relevant to cultural tourism albeit that its relevance to the phenomena seems by-and-large to have been either ignored or down played. Against the evidence that arguably the city/regions largest investment in infrastructure relevant to tourism is the Queen Victoria Museum & Art Gallery, all of this is somewhat puzzling..... CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE PAPER
UNPAID WORK IN MUSINGPLACES
GO TO SOURCE
https://fyeahhistory.com/2018/03/26/how-demanding-unpaid-work-is-killing-off-museums/
Recently the Victoria and Albert Museum put up a job advert for an unpaid voluntary curatorial role. To land this job you needed, minimum, a masters degree and to be able to work for free.
Obviously as soon as this job advert went live, all of history Twitter protested.
And the V&A duly apologised, said the whole asking people to work for free thing, had been a huge mistake and took down the job advert.
Fantastic win right? Well, kind of, but it’s also something that happens everyday in the history and heritage sector, it’s just that this one time, it was caught.
But we can’t carry on staying quiet every other time this happens. Because our reliance on these voluntary roles will inevitably end up killing our sector.
LETS LOOK AT THE AVERAGE ROUTE INTO A PAID ROLE AT A MUSEUM:
Undergraduate degree (ideally from a top university and in a relevant subject)
Postgraduate degree (again, top uni, relevant subject)
Voluntary roles in museums/archives (for an unspecified time)
Part time/low pay full time role (average 18k) possible volunteering on side
Eventually land a full time paid role
Can you spot the problem here?
Spoiler: You don’t need to be a detective to solve this ish
Now, lets not even start to focus on the whole, top university, masters degree minimum thing (though we do know that people from lower income, and also minority backgrounds are very much the minority; in terms of people attending these institutions)
BUT can we all agree that the industry is currently asking candidates to do a metric shit ton of free work, before they can even be considered for a job.
IT IS INSANITY AND IT IS NOT OK!
By asking for so much free work, swathes of people are immediately being cut out.
It becomes not so much a matter of – who is the best for the role – and more a case of, who can afford to not get paid and still pay their rent and eat!
Spoiler: it’s probably not going to be the candidate from a minority or lower income background.
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But it’s not just that it’s far from an even playing field.
HISTORY NEEDS DIVERSITY TO SURVIVE
There are two key reasons for this:
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- People are interested in a more diverse look at history Museum visitor figures are falling.
- Too help tackle this, we need to start engaging with new audiences and communities.
- Museums have to start hiring people with a diverse range of experiences.
- People that can research other annals of history, give a different perspective on well trodden ground and develop ways of bringing new communities to museums.
If history and heritage starts to do this, not only will it help ensure that we as sector survive; it will make history thrive.
.
BUT HOW CAN WE ACTUALLY DO THIS?
Well, we need to ditch our dependance on voluntary roles.
Now I know nobody has a magical money tree, but we can’t have diversity if we don’t actually make museums a viable career for more people.
So lets wave bye bye to this attitude to free work:
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Bye bye privilege fuckery!
Now thats out the way, lets say hello to: PAID INTERNSHIPS AND APPRENTICESHIPS!
Yup, you read that right. Paid. Minimum the living wage (£17k, and £20k for London)
By offering paid work, we’ll be able to access a broader pool of candidates than ever before. People who can bring something new and exciting to the table.
Plus we’ll actually be paying people for the hard work they do, and thats just basic ethics.
Apprenticeships can also help bring in people from the local community that maybe don’t have the degree, but that do have everything else you need to be an incredible curator, historian, conservator, etc.
Now, paying people means that budgets in other areas may need to be cut.
This is definatley something the bigger museums and heritage organisations can start to do, but understandably this isn’t something smaller museums can click their fingers and do overnight.
Long term budget changes will need to be planned out, grants may need to be applied for; it will be a ball ache and it will take a long time.
BUT IT WILL BE WORTH IT.
We can’t keep on blocking out the future, just because we’ve always done something one way, doesn’t mean we should continue doing it… guys we work in history, we know this.
So, lets keep on calling for diversity. Lets call out bullshit free work job adverts. If you can, start a conversation about bringing in paid internships into your department.
Go to local schools and communities and find ways to bring them into your museum.
HISTORY SHOULD BE EVERYONE’S STORY, IT SHOULD BE OPEN TO EVERYONE AND WE NEED TO START MAKING THAT A REALITY; IT’S JUST GOOD BUSINESS.
Sunday 1 April 2018
WICKER WONDERLUST MARCH–MAY 2018
MOBILE: 0432 264 369
WICKER WONDERLUST MARCH–MAY 2018
Design Tasmania is pleased to present an interactive exhibition exploring the unique relationship between Tasmanians and wickery. From Indigenous heritage to colonial industry, historical significance to contemporary usage, Wicker Wonderlust aims to explore how baskets and woven wares perform in history and practicality.
Design Tasmania will be hosting a series of events and talks aimed at generating community involvement. Weaving workshops, conversations with artisans as well as a portrait series of You and your Basket we aim to discover more about wickery through the evolution and hive-mind of this exhibition.
The exhibition will culminate in a presentation of discoveries and portfolios developed over time with community members' baskets to be included in this evolving showcase of Wicker Wonderlust.
WE WANT YOU!
Come in and bring your basket for display in our exhibition space, the more storied your piece, the better; All shapes, sizes makes and models welcome.
5:30-7:30pm Tuesdays 6th & 20th of March, 3rd and 17th of April and 1st of May.
RSVP to bit.ly/WICKERWONDERLUST
EVENTS PROGRAM
● WORKSHOP– Weaving workshop with Tasmanian Indigenous elders date TBA
● FLOOR TALK– History of Australian Basketry with John McPhee (former Decorative Arts Curator at The National Gallery of Australia date TBA
● INTERACTIVE– Basket drop offs
5:30-7:30pm Tuesdays 6th & 20th of March, 3rd and 17th of April and 1st of May
● CLOSING PARTY– End of exhibition reveal of community participation c. MAY 25th
A Cultural Unit For Launceston
SUMMARY
There is a perception that the proposed 'cultural unit' is intended to be a part of Launceston Council's operational structure. Likewise, that perception is underpinned by a notion that there is no imperative on the part of Council's operational wing to actively engage with, take advice from or initiate collaborative/cooperative concept development with the 'cultural communities' that are the subject of the proposed unit's work – albeit that this ambiguous currently.
As a 'cost centre' the unit is bound to be a drain at some level on Council's recurrent budget. The extent to which it may be is open to speculation but it is clear that Launceston's aldermen have not actively considered the fiscal implications of putting such a unit in place – at least not yet. This being the case the unit's future must be regarded as being 'politically vulnerable'.
Given that there has been no clear and unambiguous 'purpose' for the proposed unit set out so far it follows that the proposal is unsupported by a set of objectives. Likewise, the rationales in support of the initiative are unclear and far from being anything that might be considered 'unambiguous'.
That this is the outcome of a consultancy it is hard to imagine that the city's aldermen have serious interrogated the proposal and the veracity of the apparent assumptions informing the imitative. In fact, allowing this proposal to proceed to its current stage of development without serious investigation around the table in open Council raises a series of uncomfortable questions – question that deserve further consideration.
BACKGROUND
On Monday, March 26 2018,Launceston City Council pulled a ‘cherry picked’ community consultation manoeuvre in honour of the impending(?) Cultural Strategy for Launceston. These events are becoming more and more blatant and this time it is the city’s cultural communities and networks that are in the Aldermen’s sights. But why and what for? ... CLICK HERE TO SEE THE INVITATION
The QVMAG has apparently been attempting to put a cultural strategy in place and the omnipresent Adelaideian singer cum festival organiser cum cultural guru, Robyn Archer. was enlisted as a consultant to tell the General Manager, and the good aldermen, how to do it. Sadly, the Commonwealth Games seems to have gotten in the way and the ball is now in someone else’s court – apparently.
But what did Robyn Archer have to say in her report to Council? After all she was presumably paid to do a job for the Launceston community. If so, why is it that her advice is confidential and what was she actually asked do? Curiously, Robyn Archer does not mention her consultancy on her online CV - http://robynarcher.com/biocv/
Launceston’s now departed General Manager, Robert Dobrzynski, was driving the Robyn Archer consultancy process but he has left the scene stage right and the process is now in the QVMAG Director, Richard Mulvaney’s lap – on Monday he was playing catch up. So, new consultants have been enlisted midstream, it seems, and by necessity some of the stratagem is starting to reveal itself under the mantra of “we are listening’’. Why NOW and why not before? Curiously, Robyn Archer’s report to Council was waived aloft at the meeting but mystifyingly it appears as if its contents are to remain confidential. It also appears that the new consultant’s brief is also confidential until the right person asks the right question at the right time in the right place. Launcestonians have seen all this before and increasingly in Launceston this approach appears to the 'status quo modus operandi'.
Basil Fitch continually reminds residents and ratepayers that Section 62 of the Local Government Act allows a General Manager to “do anything necessary or convenient”. However, many in Launceston’s arts community are asking why a 'cultural strategy' has anything to do with the Council – roads, rates and rubbish that is.
In fact, it is puzzling that Council is meddling directly in ‘the arts and culture’ in the city other than to facilitate cultural outcomes at the behest of ratepayers, or for some marketing purpose even if either is unstated – and then on what “expert advice” as is required under Section 65 of the Act is this taking place now.
In fact, it is puzzling that Council is meddling directly in ‘the arts and culture’ in the city other than to facilitate cultural outcomes at the behest of ratepayers, or for some marketing purpose even if either is unstated – and then on what “expert advice” as is required under Section 65 of the Act is this taking place now.
Several of the city’s artists, who understandably wish to remain anonymous, have asked “how is it that the Council has any expertise at all to enable it to ever interfere with artists work?” Ex Alderman Fitch in recent years has been challenging Launceston Council on the “so-called expertise that Council deems it has via the General Manager in multiple contexts. ” .
Mr. Fitch says, “Council has increasingly overstepped its authority and the aldermen have allowed the city’s managers to continually sideline them. In the end the aldermen have failed, and are failing, to represent their ratepayers and residents. Here it is the arts community, other times it’s the business community, other times it mum-and-dad property investors and it goes on and on.”
The Monday meeting – “sorry, information session” – was for a cherry-picked audience to be brought into the fold given that the stated aim of the session was to share with a predisposed audience ‘information’ about:
The Monday meeting – “sorry, information session” – was for a cherry-picked audience to be brought into the fold given that the stated aim of the session was to share with a predisposed audience ‘information’ about:
• “what has been done,
• what is happening now and
• where we are headed to in the short, medium and long term.”
However, there was no indication of an intention to allow any meaningful consultation to go on – nor apparently any real chance of it either. Also, there is the background projection that whatever comes out of the process, no matter how ambiguous, is destined for automatic approval and with deemed delegated authority – and that could turn out to be somewhat concerning.
The ‘session’ was decorated with ‘good news’ of various kinds apparently designed to placate and/or divert ‘the natives’ attention away ‘from other matters’– ie.
• news of the $500K to be spent at ‘The Princess‘ on a new sound system, and
• the QVMAG going all entrepreneurial via the brewing industry, and
• MOFO’s planned return in 2019.
All of which was designed to spice up the assertion that “we are determined to get the right Cultural Strategy for Launceston, [and oh yes], one that is uniquely its own and one that will create the kind of creative community that its many artists, performers, writers, musicians, producers, videographers, digital creatives, poets, comedians, playwrights, designers, architects, choirs, film-makers and the many other cultural practitioners are proud of”.... but all this is an aspiration, a laudable one even, but it is not a purpose.
There are a couple of points that seem to have escaped the good aldermen’s attention when letting this dog’s tail wag like it is doing. As ex-aldermen Fitch puts it “if it looks good, sounds good, it must be good, but is it really?” He says, “you see all this has got this far without due process around the table and we have been here before so many times in the last three or so years and the ratepayers always lose out in the end.”
A CULTURAL AUDIT
Ray Norman reports that since it was announced that Robyn Archer was appointed as a consultant he has been told that she was doing a "cultural audit". If that is so where is the outcome since it appears as if Robyn Archer has delivered her 'report'. If there is such an audit in Robyn Archer's report it would be more than useful for the communities which the 'audit' has focused upon. It would good for them to have access to it. That is the entire network of people who are cultural producers, audiences, etc. that make up the city's 'cultural community' – those deemed to be stakeholders and those deemed to be appropriately interested parties.
A cultural audit is a purposeful thing to do and ideally it needs to be done in collaboration and cooperation with the communities that are the subject of the audit. Thus far, if such an audit has been attempted it seems to have been done in isolation, and somewhere insulated from, the 'subject communities'. Very often these kinds of audits are characterised as being "dubious pen sucking exercises'.
Here, the 'subject communities' will not always fall within the municipality of Launceston bounded as the city is by 'political borders' especially so given these border's cultural porosity. So when politics collides with a 'cultural landscape' things tend to be deliberately overlooked to serve the purposes of bureaucratic convenience.
A CULTURAL AUDIT
Ray Norman reports that since it was announced that Robyn Archer was appointed as a consultant he has been told that she was doing a "cultural audit". If that is so where is the outcome since it appears as if Robyn Archer has delivered her 'report'. If there is such an audit in Robyn Archer's report it would be more than useful for the communities which the 'audit' has focused upon. It would good for them to have access to it. That is the entire network of people who are cultural producers, audiences, etc. that make up the city's 'cultural community' – those deemed to be stakeholders and those deemed to be appropriately interested parties.
A cultural audit is a purposeful thing to do and ideally it needs to be done in collaboration and cooperation with the communities that are the subject of the audit. Thus far, if such an audit has been attempted it seems to have been done in isolation, and somewhere insulated from, the 'subject communities'. Very often these kinds of audits are characterised as being "dubious pen sucking exercises'.
Here, the 'subject communities' will not always fall within the municipality of Launceston bounded as the city is by 'political borders' especially so given these border's cultural porosity. So when politics collides with a 'cultural landscape' things tend to be deliberately overlooked to serve the purposes of bureaucratic convenience.
THE STRATEGIC PROCESS.
Tamar Cultural Forum via Launceston's Concerned Citizen Network has sought independent advice from a management consultant with significant corporate experience. It has been pointed out that the fundamental flaw that seems to be evident in the process that is being followed by Launceston Council is that the whole process is back-to-front.
Normally, in the development of a ‘strategy’ one would clearly identify a purpose and/or a need. After that, one would determine some ‘objectives’ that were consistent with ‘the purpose’. To get this far there would be reasons identified in regard as to why these things were important and relevant.
Typically, only then would a credible consultant make any attempt to advise on any strategies to be put in place. In regard to this “cultural strategy for Launceston” none of this is evident except perhaps in the minds of people working alone and isolated from, and perhaps insulated from, the people they are attempting to put a ‘strategy’ in place for – and speculatively.
Beyond all that there is no evidence that a basic ‘Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats’ assessment (a SWOT Test) has been carried out by anyone – or at least not yet. In situations like this such an assessment is fundamental when positioning an initiative and setting priorities. If it has been done why haven’t its outcomes been published and shared with the communities that will be impacted upon by the initiative?
THE INTEGRITY OF PROCESS
Taking on board the factors set out above, and looking at what has been reported to have been achieved so far, it appears that there is quite a bit to be concerned about given that:
- An Executive Officer - Arts and Culture seems to have been already appointed;
- A ‘Cultural Unit’ of some kind seems to have already been established at the cost of $50,000;
- Some form of confidential report has happened and seemingly well away from public scrutiny; and
- There is a lack of evidence that the subjects of the strategy – those to whom it is being applied and those who will be funding the strategy – have been engaged in a consultation process nor is it set out anywhere as to how and when they might be if it is planned for them to be.
- It is possible that it is being considered that a fully accountable consultation process will be too expensive, too time consuming possibly, when the required answers are to hand already.
Looking forward it seems reasonable to assume that what is being planned is more ‘information sessions’ with key stakeholders rather than anything resembling a data gathering process that allows for unpredictable cum unanticipated questions and unplanned for outcomes.
This initiative has all the indicators that it has been imagined in reverse order, or put another way, the horse has been harnessed up the wrong way around in the cart – the horse will suffer intolerably and as for the cart, well it’s unlikely to go anywhere fast.
THE COST OF THE APPARENT STRATEGY
Given that one salaried position seems to have already been put in place it is anticipatable that this position will require support of the equivalent of at least another full-time position. In turn, these positions will require services plus infrastructure in order to deliver whatever outcomes/dividends ‘the unit’ is set up to deliver – ideally purposefully.
If 'the unit' is to use existing infrastructure and equipment, at what opportunity cost will it do so?
All the indicators seem to point to an implementation cost of at least $100K – salary plus on-costs – and quite likely something well in excess of that depending upon how it is implemented. It is not beyond possibility that the implementation could cost as much as $200K with recurrent expenditure running to say up to $100K pa - minimum.
When the decision to proceed with the initiative is made it:
• Should be understood what opportunities, income even, will be forgone; and
• Likewise, if there are to be dividends – fiscal and/or other – they need to be identified, estimated and quantified; and
• Moreover, to what purpose will any income will be applied and/or from what source, and by whom, will over budget expenditure be sourced.
In addition to this, anticipated outcomes need to be identified and Key Performance Indicators need to be identified.
In addition to this, anticipated outcomes need to be identified and Key Performance Indicators need to be identified.
Curiously, there appears to be no evidence that any this has been taken into account, or that any of it is even on the to-do-list. Plus, given that it will be funded from the public purse, is there any indication that a line item statement of accounts will be made available to ‘the public’ – where and/or when.
Without doubt the initiative, as projected, will have a considerable cost. Similarly, it may well be that it is envisaged that it will ultimately turn into a substantial ‘cost centre’ within Council’s budget. None of this seems to have been seriously considered and the unspoken imperative appears to be that the ratepayers and residents can be conscripted to pay whatever the cost turns out to be.
KEY STAKEHOLDERS
The process of implanting a cultural unit within The City of Launceston's operation and managerial structure needs to be challenged given that on the evidence it is not in response to an 'identified or articulated purpose' – and consequently lacks a set of goals and objectives.
For there to be a meaningful purpose it is the role of the 'stakeholders cum cultural community' to articulate it and/or act upon it in accord with the aspirations of the relative networks in the community - here cultural networks.
It is NOT the function of 'governance' – at any level – or its bureaucratic operatives to speculate upon a purpose and then initiate a strategy to implement it in isolation. It's especially so in relation to 'culture'. At least its not the case in a system of representational governance where governance's role is to determine policies and strategies. Quite simply it is management's role to implement governance's policies in accord with governance's strategic purpose.
However, if we understand 'culture' to mean the sum total of way of living that are:
• built up by a groups/communities of people;
• transmitted from one generation to another; and that
• encompasses particular behaviours and belief systems; and that
• are characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or age group;
currently in 'places' – cultural landscapes – like Launceston these things are increasingly complex and multidimensional.
Consequently, the concepts of 'stakeholder and cultural community' are unlikely to be adequately defined from the outside. Likewise, 'deeming' this or that group to be, or not to be, a stakeholder is inappropriate if not arrogant. Thus the notion of "stakeholder" as it is being projected via Launceston's aldermen collectively, and deliberately at the behest of 'Council's management', is ever likely to lead to dysfunctional outcomes. That's the risk here!
A CULTURAL FORUM
If there is a perception on the part of Council that Launceston's cultural communities need to lift their game in some way or other there is no supporting evidence to suggest that the Council's 'cultural operations' are in any position to be offering such a critique. Rather, these operations might well be the subject of similar critiques relative to the recurrent funding they are the recipients of and the outcomes delivered.
Council operations such as the QVMAG are perceived as, and deemed to be operating as, a 'cost centre' which by extension means that 'survival' is the driving imperative rather than 'success' – survival equals success. Dickens' Mr Micawber's famous and often quoted, 'recipe for happiness':is instructive here ... "Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen [pounds] nineteen [shillings] and six [pence], result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery." Dickens, through Mr Micawber, had a very good idea about what 'riskless survival' looks like.
On the face of it, Council seems to be proposing that it will risk spending something in the order of $200K doing something yet to be specified and for which a 'puroposful reason for being' is yet to determined. Moreover, it seems that Council intends to 'conscript/levy' these funds via its recurrent budget and thus by extension, each of the city's rateable properties will need to be paying an extra $7 to $8pa on top of the extra $500 the extra rates they are currently paying for 'regional servicing'.
NB: the QVMAG claims to be a "Regional Institution', indeed the largest regional museum cum art gallery in Australia, it is not funded regionally, nor is it accountable to any form of regional governance.
If Launceston' proposed 'unit's' purpose was to be something like 'to facilitate a platform that proactively encourages with open and inclusive interfaces between cultural producers, audiences and their various networks' the purpose might be better placed in the 'Tamar Region' rather than Launceston alone. However, speculating what the unit's 'purpose' is intended to be is entirely speculative given that it is not set out anywhere obvious. Clearly, on the basis of information to hand thus far, the unit is not intended to be a networking operation at all.
CONCLUSION
The perception that the proposed 'cultural unit' is intended to be a part of Launceston Council's operational structure seems to be well founded. Likewise, the perception that there is no imperative on the part of Council's operational wing to actively engage with, take advice from or initiate collaborative/cooperative programming with, also appears to be well enough founded.
As a 'cost centre' the unit is bound to be a drain at some level on Council's recurrent budget. The extent to which it may be is open to speculation but it is clear that Launceston's aldermen have not actively considered the fiscal implications of putting such a unit in place. This being the case it is bound to be 'politically vulnerable' long term.
Given that there has been no clear and unambiguous 'purpose' for the proposed unit set out so far it follows that the proposal appears to emanate out of a vacuum and is thus unsupported by a set of objectives. Likewise, the rationales in support of the initiative are unclear, at times opaque and largely missing. Whatever, it is all far from being anything that might be considered 'compelling'.
If all this is the outcome of an consultancy it is hard to imagine that the city's aldermen have allowed this proposal to proceed to its current stage of development without serious investigation around the table in open Council – yet it appears as if they have.
The process of implanting a cultural unit within The City of Launceston's operation and managerial structure needs to be challenged given that on the evidence it is not in response to an 'identified or articulated purpose' – and consequently lacks a set of goals and objectives.
For there to be a meaningful purpose it is the role of the 'stakeholders cum cultural community' to articulate it and/or act upon it in accord with the aspirations of the relative networks in the community - here cultural networks.
It is NOT the function of 'governance' – at any level – or its bureaucratic operatives to speculate upon a purpose and then initiate a strategy to implement it in isolation. It's especially so in relation to 'culture'. At least its not the case in a system of representational governance where governance's role is to determine policies and strategies. Quite simply it is management's role to implement governance's policies in accord with governance's strategic purpose.
However, if we understand 'culture' to mean the sum total of way of living that are:
• built up by a groups/communities of people;
• transmitted from one generation to another; and that
• encompasses particular behaviours and belief systems; and that
• are characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or age group;
currently in 'places' – cultural landscapes – like Launceston these things are increasingly complex and multidimensional.
Consequently, the concepts of 'stakeholder and cultural community' are unlikely to be adequately defined from the outside. Likewise, 'deeming' this or that group to be, or not to be, a stakeholder is inappropriate if not arrogant. Thus the notion of "stakeholder" as it is being projected via Launceston's aldermen collectively, and deliberately at the behest of 'Council's management', is ever likely to lead to dysfunctional outcomes. That's the risk here!
A CULTURAL FORUM
If there is a perception on the part of Council that Launceston's cultural communities need to lift their game in some way or other there is no supporting evidence to suggest that the Council's 'cultural operations' are in any position to be offering such a critique. Rather, these operations might well be the subject of similar critiques relative to the recurrent funding they are the recipients of and the outcomes delivered.
Council operations such as the QVMAG are perceived as, and deemed to be operating as, a 'cost centre' which by extension means that 'survival' is the driving imperative rather than 'success' – survival equals success. Dickens' Mr Micawber's famous and often quoted, 'recipe for happiness':is instructive here ... "Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen [pounds] nineteen [shillings] and six [pence], result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery." Dickens, through Mr Micawber, had a very good idea about what 'riskless survival' looks like.
On the face of it, Council seems to be proposing that it will risk spending something in the order of $200K doing something yet to be specified and for which a 'puroposful reason for being' is yet to determined. Moreover, it seems that Council intends to 'conscript/levy' these funds via its recurrent budget and thus by extension, each of the city's rateable properties will need to be paying an extra $7 to $8pa on top of the extra $500 the extra rates they are currently paying for 'regional servicing'.
NB: the QVMAG claims to be a "Regional Institution', indeed the largest regional museum cum art gallery in Australia, it is not funded regionally, nor is it accountable to any form of regional governance.
If Launceston' proposed 'unit's' purpose was to be something like 'to facilitate a platform that proactively encourages with open and inclusive interfaces between cultural producers, audiences and their various networks' the purpose might be better placed in the 'Tamar Region' rather than Launceston alone. However, speculating what the unit's 'purpose' is intended to be is entirely speculative given that it is not set out anywhere obvious. Clearly, on the basis of information to hand thus far, the unit is not intended to be a networking operation at all.
CONCLUSION
The perception that the proposed 'cultural unit' is intended to be a part of Launceston Council's operational structure seems to be well founded. Likewise, the perception that there is no imperative on the part of Council's operational wing to actively engage with, take advice from or initiate collaborative/cooperative programming with, also appears to be well enough founded.
As a 'cost centre' the unit is bound to be a drain at some level on Council's recurrent budget. The extent to which it may be is open to speculation but it is clear that Launceston's aldermen have not actively considered the fiscal implications of putting such a unit in place. This being the case it is bound to be 'politically vulnerable' long term.
Given that there has been no clear and unambiguous 'purpose' for the proposed unit set out so far it follows that the proposal appears to emanate out of a vacuum and is thus unsupported by a set of objectives. Likewise, the rationales in support of the initiative are unclear, at times opaque and largely missing. Whatever, it is all far from being anything that might be considered 'compelling'.
If all this is the outcome of an consultancy it is hard to imagine that the city's aldermen have allowed this proposal to proceed to its current stage of development without serious investigation around the table in open Council – yet it appears as if they have.
T. Alen, et al APRIL 2018
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