Creative Australia has joined a significant research partnership that will connect and strengthen Australia’s arts and cultural research infrastructure.
The Australian Creative Histories and Futures (ACHF) project will bring together datasets that have, until now, been fragmented and largely disconnected.
The national initiative will also build data skills and digital infrastructure across the creative arts, enabling researchers, policymakers and practitioners to conduct more meaningful research, evaluation and impact measurement.
The Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) has committed $2.9 million to the ‘Australian Creative Histories and Futures’ project. The investment will enable extensive cultural data about the creative arts in Australia to be made accessible to researchers, policymakers, arts organisations and artists.
The Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) secured funding for the project through the Department of Education’s National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) and developed the project through co-design with the arts and research sectors.
Creative Australia is a contributing partner on the four-year project, which will be led by UNSW School of the Arts & Media researchers Dr Caroline Wake and Dr Bryoni Trezise, with other partners from Flinders University and ACMI. Along with the ARDC contribution, co-investment from the partners will bring the project’s total investment to $5.8 million.
Creative Australia Research Director Rebecca Mostyn said:
“We have a wealth of cultural data in Australia spanning decades of artistic practice, public investment, attendance and participation. However, until now, these datasets have not been able to ‘speak to each other’. This initiative changes that and will help bring the arts in line with other sectors that have benefited from coordinated research infrastructure for decades. By connecting major cultural datasets, we can uncover patterns, identify gaps and generate new knowledge to inform cultural policy and build the evidence-base needed to support a thriving arts and cultural sector into the future”.
Professor Claire Annesley, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Design & Architecture (ADA) at UNSW said: “The Australian Creative Histories and Futures project aims to preserve and make Australia’s rich cultural history accessible. In doing so, it will enable strategists, policymakers and arts organisations alike to use the data to make informed decisions about the best ways to support future arts projects and communities,”
“It will also be a rich resource for researchers looking into Australia’s creative history.
"In our increasingly connected world, it’s important that information about our cultural heritage is preserved and made available to all."
UNSW Professor Grainne Moran, Pro Vice-Chancellor Research Infrastructure said: “This project brings together a group of committed partners who will upgrade, integrate and future-proof important tools and resources, including AusStage and DAAO. It builds on work by many in the creative arts and aims to provide a strong foundation for preserving and studying the aesthetic and economic contributions that the arts make to Australian culture. UNSW is excited to be leading the project, with the ARDC providing strong support and data expertise."
Jenny Fewster, Director of the ARDC's HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons, said:
"We're excited to recognise the value of national research infrastructure for the creative arts through expanding the HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons.
"Until now, data about Australia's creative outputs has been fragmented and under acknowledged. This new project will usher in a new era of data-driven research and decision making for Australia's creative arts sector."
Aims of the Australian Creative Histories and Futures (ACHF) project include:
- anchor and augment Australia’s cultural data sector
- secure existing data assets by strengthening their technological architectures
- facilitate interoperability between these data assets as well as between their associated research and industry communities
- develop Indigenous data governance, reparative description and accessibility principles for the cultural data sector in line with FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable) and CARE (collective benefit, authority to control, responsibility, ethics) principles
- upskill sector stakeholders in cultural data management and analysis.