1. Unlocking the creative and cultural economy within your municipality
Tara Callinan, SGS Economics and Planning

2. Unlocking the creative and cultural economy in your municipality
What I will cover:
What is a ‘creative and cultural economy’?
The value of the Victorian creative and cultural economy
Current policy context
Levels of access to creative and cultural industry activity
Issues and opportunities for outer Metropolitan Melbourne and Regional Victoria

3. What is the creative and cultural economy?
Creative and cultural industries are an evolving mix of sectors spanning arts, culture, screen, design, publishing and advertising. They cover disciplines as diverse as game development and graphic design, fashion and filmmaking, performing arts and publishing, architecture and advertising, media and music, comedy and craft.
Across all disciplines, Victoria’s creative industries are driven by a powerhouse of small organisations, micro businesses and sole practitioners, comprising the vast majority of the sector. They operate within a creative ecosystem that extends from iconic cultural organisations and global businesses to educational institutions, government bodies and community groups.
The Creative Victoria discussion paper goes into detail about each industry.
The creative and cultural economy includes activities that are commercially-driven and community based, experimental and export-intense.
Source: Creative Victoria

4. Value of the creative and cultural economy
In 2013 the industry:
Contributed $22.7 billion to the Victorian economy
Employed 222,000 people
Had 70,000 volunteers contributing $220 million to the Victorian economy
Generated $1.48 billion in exports
Accounted for 8% of the economy in GVA terms, and is growing more quickly than the broader economy.
Cultural tourism along contributed $1 billion to the Victorian economy.
Victoria was home to 29% of all Australian and creative and cultural economy employees.
The economy value of the Victorian creative and cultural economy is immense:
This is compared to Construction contributing $19.8 billion, Agriculture, forestry and fishing contributing $8.1 billion and mining contributing $6.5 billion.
Source: Creative Victoria

5. Value of the creative and cultural economy
However there are other values that this industry brings to individuals and communities.
Source: Creative Victoria

6. Value of the creative and cultural economy
There are also broader social benefits
Source: Creative Victoria

7. Current policy context
Creative State was launched in  April 2016 by the Minister for the Creative Industries, Martin Foley.
The five major areas of focus within Creative State are:
Backing creative talent ($6.35 million over four years)
Strengthening the creative industries ecosystem ($57.35 million over four years)
Delivering wider economic and social impact ($ million over four years)
Increasing participation and access ($32.15 million over four years)
Building international engagement ($5.05 million over four years) (Creative Victoria, 2016, page 1).
It is Victoria’s first Creative Industries Strategy, and now serves as the corner stone for all creative industry policy and investment in the state (Creative Victoria, 2016).

8. Current policy context
The principle of universal access underpins the strategy and the government’s aspirations for Victoria’s creative and cultural life. “All Victorians have the right to a creative and culturally fulfilling life and the opportunity to reap the benefits of participating in a vibrant culture, of living in a vibrant area and enjoying a wide array of inspiring experiences. Regardless of cultural background, age, gender or ability, regardless of where they live or what they earn, all Victorians are entitled to see themselves reflected in our cultural life – on our screens and stages, in our music, literature and art. All Victorians should have opportunities to shape our creative identity and creative industries, be it as artists, technicians, administrators, board members and industry leaders or as audiences and active community participants”. – Creative State, 2016.

9. Current policy context
The rollout of the government’s 2015 $20 million regional arts package is set to build the capacity of regional galleries and performing arts centres, stimulate more, and more ambitious, regional touring and increase and diversify community participation. New actions under Creative State, including investment $32.15 million over four years, will be aimed at improving access to, and participation in, cultural activities, increase availability of cultural experiences across the state, and promote accessibility and diversity in employment and the production and consumption of arts and culture. Importantly, the Victorian government wishes to strengthen partnerships with local government to deliver significant economic, social and cultural outcomes for all Victorians.

10. Current policy context
Initiatives include:
Place-based actions in partnership with suburban and regional councils to establish spaces for creative enterprises and collaboration, and stronger cultural engagement with communities.
Specific actions in regional centres, including Bendigo, Ballarat, Latrobe Valley and Shepparton to enhance creative experiences and infrastructure.
Actions to achieve greater diversity in employment, programming and participation in the creative industries.
Engaging more Victorians in cultural and creative endeavour, in particular in Regional Victoria is a particular focus of Creative State. Area of Focus: Increasing participation and access ($32.15 million over four years)
Action 21: Creative suburbs A program to increase cultural programming in outer suburban areas. Working in partnership with local councils, the program will build on local creative strengths to maximise participation and relevance. It will complement existing arts and culture programs focused on regional communities to ensure access and cultural participation for all Victorians.
Action 22: Bendigo arts and design Enhancement of Bendigo as a regional focus for the arts by supporting the creation of new landmark works, hosting a national arts and culture conference, developing community participation programs that celebrate multicultural communities and establishing a creative industries hub.
Action 23. Shepparton Art Museum: Support to establish a new architecturally-inspiring art museum at Shepparton’s Victoria Park Lake that will radically increase access to historic and contemporary art collections for local, national and international visitors, as well as provide opportunities for increased participation for the local community.
The government commitment of $10 million relies on local government investment and contributions
from the Commonwealth and philanthropic sources.
Action 24. Latrobe Creative Precinct Development of a major new performing arts centre in Traralgon which will serve the broader Latrobe Valley. The project, which is co-funded by the local council and relies on Commonwealth funding, will include a creative industries training facility and capacity to present outdoor events and festivals. The precinct will significantly increase access to, and participation in, creative activity for local communities and build career pathways into the creative industries for the next generations of residents.
Action 25. Regional White Night: A regional white night in 2017 to build on the success of the Melbourne event and share the cultural, tourism, social and economic benefits more broadly.
Action 26. Regional Centre for Culture: Establishment of Victoria’s first Regional Centre for Culture program in 2018, including the development of grassroots community participation projects combined with opportunities to engage with some of Victoria’s most respected creative organisations and agencies, in a year-long celebration of arts, culture and community.
Action 27. Arts experience data platform Development of a shared data platform to support services that improve collection, analysis and presentation of cultural and event information for audiences and organisations in the creative industries. The platform and initial business case will be developed in consultation with audience groups and organisations that hold the data and will drive new creative services and responses

11. Levels of access to creative industry activity - Victoria
Arts and cultural activity is delivered differently throughout Victoria’s regions and outer metropolitan areas within a variety of both state and regionally significant and locally focussed venues and a myriad of events, programs and festivals. Employment in the creative and cultural sector differs across the state, with the majority (70%) of jobs in the creative and cultural sectors in 2011 located in metropolitan Melbourne. Indeed, metropolitan Melbourne has higher proportion of jobs in all creative sectors compared to the Victorian average, except for the Grampians Region which has a higher proportion of Museums jobs. .
The dominance of metropolitan Melbourne in creative employment in part reflects the state and nationally significant facilities and venues located in this area. However, other factors contribute to metropolitan Melbourne’s creative industry dominance, including the varying levels of arts and cultural participation in regional Victoria and outer metropolitan Melbourne. The literature indicates that metropolitan Melbourne performs better than the rest of Victoria in regards to participation (both active and receptive), perception of availability of arts and entertainment and ease of attending specific venues. There are some art forms where Regional Victoria has higher rates of participation. However, the majority of artistic participation in both regional Victoria and outer metropolitan Melbourne is eclipsed by metropolitan Melbourne.
Important to remember in this analysis, jobs in creative industries have been used as a proxy for access to arts and cultural activity.
Our study found that Overall, 3.13% of Victoria’s population could be seen to have negligible access to arts and cultural activity (within a 30 minute car trip). This number is highly skewed by Metropolitan Melbourne, with 0% of metropolitan Melbourne being poorly serviced. Out of the regions, it is Gippsland that has the highest percentage of population with a poor access level to arts and cultural industry activity (33%). Only 1% of Outer metropolitan Melbourne’s population has the negligible access (scoring in Decile 1).
It is evident that, with metro Melbourne excluded, the key hubs for arts and culture activity in regional Victoria, or the best served areas, are Geelong followed by Ballarat. Bendigo, the Latrobe Valley and Shepparton Mooroopna form the next band of relatively well served districts in the State, but they appear to be some distance behind the first.
The third tier of access areas are centred on the broader Colac, Horsham, Albury-Wodonga and Bairnsdale districts. Quite large areas of the State, including reasonably well populated districts in the South West, the North West corridor between Horsham and Swan Hill and, to a lesser extent, South Gippsland, have low access to arts and culture, as measured by the prevalence of destination zones within the bottom three deciles.
The question of access to arts and culture has also been interrogated from the perspective of ‘access indices’ for different spatial groupings of communities across outer metropolitan and non-metropolitan Victoria.
In this analysis, “negligible access” means access to people with creative skills accessible within a 30 minute drive (or Decile 1)
An access index, constructed on the basis that the Inner City’s median access to creative jobs is set to 1.00, indicates that outer metropolitan residents have about 80% of the access (or choice) enjoyed by their inner city counterparts, while regional city residents have only 2%. Residents of regional satellites and outer rural areas have less than 1% of the access of inner city dwellers.
A re-calculated index, with the metropolitan area excluded and with the median access to creative jobs in regional cities (Ballarat, Bendigo, Geelong, Shepparton and Latrobe Valley) set to 1.00, shows that, on average, residents of regional city satellites have about 15% of the choice and access enjoyed by regional city residents, while outer rural residents have somewhat higher access at 35%. Access to creative job numbers are generally very low in regional city satellite and outer rural areas. Therefore the variations in the index between these two latter categories of Councils should be interpreted with caution. The clear conclusion is that access is poor across both sets of communities compared to regional cities, and certainly with respect to the metro area.
Individual towns can be ranked in terms of access to arts and culture by comparing the number of creative jobs within 30 minutes.
On this basis, the three best served towns (with more than 5,000 residents) in regional Victoria are:
Leopold
Lara, and
Geelong.
The tree best served towns (with more than 5,000 residents) in outer metropolitan Melbourne are:
Pakenham
Melton, and
Healesville.
The three poorest served towns in regional Victoria are:
Wallan
Cobram, and
Yarrawonga – Mulwala.
The poorest served town in outer Metropolitan Melbourne is Sunbury (the only town with a population greater than 5000 with a decile lower than 8).

12. Levels of access to creative industry activity- Barwon South West Region
The City of Greater Geelong fares relatively well for access to creative and cultural activity within a 30-minute travel time, with Lara and Leopold in particular having quite high levels of access compared to other areas within Regional Victoria and Outer metropolitan Melbourne. Barwon South West is also the only region to house centres and towns with access scores in the 9th decile and above (excluding Melbourne). Point Lonsdale- Queenscliff has an access level of 9; for a population of 3,380 there are 1,483 people with creative industry skills accessible within a 30 minute timeframe. By contrast, Portland and Hamilton score in the lowest three deciles for regional Victoria.

13. Levels of access to creative industry activity - Gippsland Region
The towns of Morwell and Traralgon in Latrobe City Council and Moe in Baw Baw Shire have the highest access level for the Gippsland Region, scoring in the 6th access decile. The other towns with populations above 5000 in Gippsland all fall within the lowest 40% in Regional Victoria and Outer metropolitan Melbourne. Sale in particular falls within the 2nd decile, with only 49 people with creative industry skills located within a 30-minute travel time by car.

14. Levels of access to creative industry activity - Grampians Region
Ballarat is a clear standout in this region, achieving a high access level in the 8th decile for non-metro Victoria. Despite being relatively close to Melton (which scores in the 10th access decile), Bacchus Marsh in Moorabool Shire is situated only at the median level for regional Victoria, that is, the 5th decile.
The Grampians region also includes one town with a population above 2000 that scores within the highest 10% of access across regional Victoria and outer metropolitan Melbourne. Bannockburn has an access level of 9.

15. Levels of access to creative industry activity - Hume Region
The centre of Shepparton – Mooroopna scored the highest access level (6th decile) for the Hume Region, followed by Albury Wodonga. This is expected, as they are the largest population centres of the region. It is interesting to note Kilmore’s low access (4th decile) relative to the other towns of its size. Benalla has a larger population than Kilmore yet scored an access level in the 3rd decile (access to 62 people) and Yarrawonga – Mulwala scored in the 2nd decile. Indeed, the Hume region is home to all three towns across Regional Victoria and Outer metropolitan Melbourne with the lowest access to creative industry skilled people within a 30-minute travel time, namely Wallan, Cobram and Yarrawonga- Mulwala.

16. Levels of access to creative industry activity - Loddon Mallee Region
Access analysis shows that Castlemaine has the same access level as Bendigo (7th decile), despite having a much smaller population. Despite Maryborough having a population of comparable size to Gisborne, it has an access level in the 3rd decile compared to Gisborne’s 6th decile rating. Interestingly, Gisborne scores higher than neighbouring outer metropolitan Sunbury, which ranks in the 3rd decile. Mildura has a moderate access level in the 5th decile despite its remote location.

17. Levels of access to creative industry activity - Melbourne Metropolitan Region
Pakenham and Melton are two of the three highest access towns across Regional Victoria and Outer metropolitan Melbourne, both with an access level in the 10th decile. Despite its comparable population size to Pakenham, Sunbury, as noted, scored an access level in the 3rd decile with only 94 people with creative industry skills accessible within a 30 minute travel time. The outer metropolitan Melbourne area also includes a number of town centres with smaller populations that score within the highest 20% of access across regional Victoria and outer metropolitan Melbourne, namely Beaconsfield Upper in Cardinia Shire (10th decile), Yarra Glen within Yarra Ranges Shire (10th decile) and Balnarring in the Mornington Peninsula Shire (8th decile).

18. Issues
There are typically four types of issues in explaining these variations across Regional Victoria and outer metropolitan Melbourne:
Access and engagement
Disconnected venues
High expectations of programming
Perceptions of local art
Community perceptions of arts and cultural venues
Effects of the digital age
Disconnected diverse voices
Access by public transport
Access to the arts during childhood
Limited opening hours
Lack of community support for smaller institutions
Skills and business development
Funding
Local advocacy and leadership
Disconnected venues
Access and Engagement
Venues hosting arts and cultural activity that are located at a distance to other ‘formal’ arts and cultural programming are reported to find it difficult to promote and facilitate wider engagement with the community. It was noted that venues that network with other less formalised arts and cultural programming (such as that delivered in schools) can increase the awareness required in the community for other artistic ventures to prosper.
High programming expectations
Community (and Councillor) expectations, particularly for programming in regionally significant art spaces, are reportedly high. Regional galleries are expected to deliver content with the same level of quality and variety as metropolitan galleries which have a larger population and resource pool to draw on.
Perceptions of local art
There is a perception that young people only wish see and engage with the arts in metropolitan Melbourne rather than their own area. Local contemporary needs to be perceived as equally desirable and important.
There is also the perception that community artists do not receive the recognition for their contribution to locally produced art. Rather than focussing on whether creative works include professional artists, there is a recommendation the industry be more focussed on the works that are being produced, or the artistic ‘outcome’.
Community perceptions of arts and cultural venues
Stakeholders commented that community sometimes feel that galleries are expensive, kids need to be quiet and that you need to “dress up” to go to a gallery.
Effects of the digital age
Some programmers find it difficult to motivate people to participate in creative and cultural activity face to face due to the ease of digital access to these activities. In a rural or outer metropolitan areas this is exacerbated as the distances between individuals and artistic offerings are larger.
There is a perception that the community sometimes suffers from information overload; people are saturated with information making it difficult to register or remember arts and cultural programming. It is also reported that many members of the community remain unaware about what creative activities are happening, even though they are promoted through multiple forms of media. Targeted communication of programming and events to the community is seen as crucial.
Disconnected diverse voices
Ensuring that diverse voices and communities are both communicated with and represented is seen as an ongoing issue. There is reportedly a lack of knowledge from diverse cultural communities about arts programming, events and facilities, which is partly due to a lack of understanding about particular websites/ other forms of media that have relevant information. Language barriers can also prevent information being disseminated to everyone.
Facilities and events in regional areas with infrequent V/Line services are reportedly less well attended (notably Albury V/Line Service: Benalla, Shepparton, Wangaratta, Wodonga V/Line Service, Warrnambool V/Line Service & the Swan Hill V/Line Service). While public transport is perceived as excellent in a radial direction out of Melbourne, it is lacking between regional centres.
Access to venues and facilities by public transport
Access to the arts during childhood
Ensuring that children’s participation in creative pursuits are continued after schooling is seen as extremely important for arts and cultural participation in future generations
Limited opening hours
limited opening hours for some gallery spaces (in particular closing early on week days) make it difficult for all community members to attend programming.
Lack of support for smaller facilities
Smaller galleries and venues are reportedly often limited by a lack of support from the broader community. Some smaller venues and spaces are held back by a lack of skills to market themselves and create effective programs. In some contrast, larger venues are seen as being able to draw on support from the community and philanthropic organisations, while being guided by a professional board that plays a strong advocacy role.
Access to the NBN is seen as crucial for skills and business development in creative industries. This is reportedly particularly important in regional Victoria and outer metropolitan Melbourne where artistic and cultural offerings are often located further away.
Skills and business development
Access to skills training and professional development in regional Victoria and outer metropolitan Melbourne is reportedly limited, in particular for curator training and leadership training
Funding
Funding not available for outer metropolitan venues and organisations
Many stakeholders say that artists, venues and organisations must be located in regional Victoria to qualify for particular funding assistance. There are many artists who live in both outer metropolitan and regional Victoria and must be equally supported
Funding tied to once off events
When funding becomes available to historical societies, it is often tied to a particular program which has been decided on by a third party. One example given was recent funding that became available for historical societies to commemorate the centenary of World War 1. Such arrangements can dampen innovative programming.
State funding not indexed
Government funding provided to arts organisation is reportedly not indexed to increase with costs or CPI. This is said to limit the exploration of new opportunities to increase the levels of access in regional Victoria and outer metropolitan Melbourne.
Lack of local leadership and advocacy is seen as one of the largest barriers to regional and outer metropolitan access to arts and culture.
Limited advocacy and leadership

19. Opportunities
There are also a number of opportunities to increase the Victorian community’s access to art and cultural activity in Regional Victoria and outer metropolitan Melbourne, namely:
Regional collaboration
Short term leases for emerging artists
Promoting the accessibility of outer metropolitan Melbourne
Selling the “good news” stories
Harnessing the power of social media
Regional collaboration
Regions that reportedly “do well” in arts and cultural programming work collaboratively across “regional corridors” and other venues/ organisations. One primary example given was Creative Gippsland. A number of peak organisations noted that there are opportunities in integrating schools programming, programming across councils, arts venues and other independent organisations. Doing so could allow smaller organisations to utilise the marketing and organisation skills of larger bodies. The organisations say it will also allow for collaborative marketing of a region, reducing the costs and time to all parties. Connecting all arts and cultural activity within a region could mitigate the risk of individual venues or programs becoming disengaged with the wider artistic and cultural activity occurring around them.
Facilitating short term leases for emerging artists
Emerging or young artists find it difficult to obtain short term leases, and rarely require longer term gallery space. The initiative “Renew Newcastle” demonstrates how providing artists short term leases in unused shop fronts can both activate a street and provide the artists the opportunity to develop and improve their craft.
Promote the relative accessibility of outer metropolitan Melbourne
Case study: Baw Baw Shire venues are seeing a high proportion of attendances coming from outside the shire, particularly from the middle to outer eastern suburbs. This is seen to be primarily due to accessibility; travelling on the Monash Freeway to a venue with free parking is seen as being easier than venturing into the city and having to pay for parking. Other outer metropolitan councils can use this to their advantage.
Selling good news stories
Towns in Victoria that have higher concentrations of artists and arts workers, and that documenting and showcasing these towns could build the case to invest in these areas. Towns such as Castlemaine, Clunes, Morwell, Wangaratta and Warrnambool are cited as places with strong concentrations of artists. Promoting the benefits of living and working in the creative sector in regional Victoria and outer metropolitan Melbourne is seen to benefit the whole economy.
Harnessing the power of social media
Social media provides and ever increasing means for people to be connected and contribute to historical collections, programming and other online arts mediums. Social media is slowly being taken up by many creative institutions that would not have previously, such as historical societies, and will continue to be utilised as more young people become involved in volunteering.

20. Opportunities Other opportunities:
Promoting the power of art to create social change and cohesion
Engaging with all members of the community in a way that can be understood by all cultural groups
Engaging the community through volunteers, including young people and other groups that are less engaged with.
Investment in professional development of staff and volunteers within arts and cultural institutions
Fostering local leadership, skills development and networking, and
Advocating and showcasing local creative production.

21. Questions and discussion
Do you have any questions on the presentation?
Further information:
Phone:
Questions for the audience?
Are there any issues within your municipality/ region that are inhibiting the growth of the creative and cultural industries?
What things do you think could work in your municipality/ region?
Does your municipality/ region have any “good news stories?”