Redefining places for art
Many performance venues and large performing arts companies complain that audiences are losing interest in the performing arts. But is that really true?
While visitor numbers to traditional venues for these arts may not be growing, there is a rapid rise in attendance for alternative performance spaces, festivals and online art experiences.
A new Griffith University project aims to shed new light on how Australians engage with the arts.
Places for art: Redefining the dynamics of performance and location in Australia will enhance understanding of the dynamics between places and art in the 21st century.
Queensland Conservatorium Research Centre director Professor Huib Schippers believes cultural experiences are increasingly moving from traditional artistic venues to less conventional spaces where new sites of artistic creation and consumption are being developed.
"In cities, the city centre has conventionally housed large, traditional artistic venues designed for 'high' art such as museums, galleries, theatres and concert halls.
"But the rise of suburban centres and their distance to cities creates new realities with more emphasis on informal cultural venues,'' Professor Schippers said.
"This process of re-contextualising art has been successful in attracting new audiences state-wide, particularly in settings such as the Queensland Music Festival, which reached more than 200,000 people in over 20 centres in 2005 alone.
"Increasingly people create their own cultural experiences, moving between traditional and unconventional places for art while constructing their chosen cultural identity."
The project will explore the myriad factors that play a role in defining places for art across Queensland including age, income, and education level, cultural diversity, Indigenous presence, tourism, urban planning, climate and geography.
Seven Queensland-based arts organisations will be included in the research to develop a model that can be used to evaluate cultural policy in other Australian cities.