Australia stands to benefit substantially from sharing the best of its culture with the rest of the world. In recent years a major effort has been made to send Australian artists, exhibitions and films to countries important in our web of international relationships. We have worked, in particular, to better coordinate international cultural activity and link it more closely with our trade and investment efforts.
The Australia Council's objective is to spend at least half ($2.5million) of its international cultural budget in our region. Through the funding of Australian artists and cultural activity overseas, the Council is making a significant contribution to the development of the arts in Australia. The Government supports this approach by the Australia Council and believes the nation, as well as the artists, companies and institutions involved, benefit from a confident projection of Australian cultural diversity and energy to new audiences overseas.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has also been increasingly changing the focus and scope of its international cultural relations program in recent years.
In particular, the Department supports tours by Australian artists to more specifically underpin the pursuit of particular Australian objectives. Most recently the major promotions in Korea, Japan and Indonesia have relied on a blend of culture and commerce to project a contemporary image of Australia overseas.
While the arts in Australia benefit from the opportunity created by these activities, the principal reason for sending arts overseas under DFAT's auspices is to enhance our national image at critical times or to support particular goals.
The current funding of DFAT's international cultural relations is relatively modest. As a consequence, virtually no post can support a visit or tour by a major Australian company.
Particularly in the Asia-Pacific, but also in the US and Europe, the use of leading performing arts companies and the mounting of major visual arts exhibitions offer unique opportunities to both influence perceptions of Australia and influence individuals who are important to Australia. In order to allow DFAT to plan a program of tours by elite performing groups and major visual arts exhibitions the Government will provide $4 million over four years.
Under this new program the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Minister for Trade will invite elite performing groups to tour particular countries at selected times. The new program will allow DFAT to support companies which may not otherwise be able to afford regional tours.
Such tours will focus on countries of importance to Australia and present programs appropriate to the cultural norms and tastes of the region.
In addition to the arts development and national image and national interest reasons for exporting Australian culture, there are major market opportunities that need to be identified and developed. The Australian rock music industry, for example, has seen strong growth in recent years - its export earnings in 1992-93 climbing to
$206 million. In addition to the export of pure cultural product, there are also important markets for technical design and production services which Australia is extremely well positioned to supply. The export potential in the area of cultural exports is significant and through the efforts of Austrade and other marketing activities the Government will take full advantage of these opportunities.
While each of these programs has its own rationale, there is an important place for coordination of activity in the arts overseas. The Australia Abroad Council (AAC) provides a clearing house and information exchange through its `forthcoming events' publication, and by encouraging coordinated Australian promotional activity. In order to ensure commercial opportunities are not missed, a special working group of the AAC will be established to coordinate the activities of the Australia Council, DFAT and Austrade.
The Australia Abroad Council (AAC) has pioneered the task of high-impact cultural projection of Australia abroad. The vehicle adopted has been a series of major promotions in key target countries. In seeking to change perceptions of contemporary Australia, the promotions have incorporated a wide range of cultural forms to improve understanding and recognition of Australia as a natural and long-term partner in regional developments. They have successfully enlarged awareness of features of Australian life not previously comprehended. They have produced tangible economic returns, and have opened doors to continuing Australian cultural promotion in major regional capitals.
Funding of $3 million will be provided for an Integrated Australian Promotion in 1995-96.
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