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ABSTRACT
This article examines cultural policy developments affecting the Australian local government sector arguing for policy that directly addresses the operational needs of small to medium museums. Over a period spanning roughly three decades, national and state government involvement in ‘community’ cultural programmes has decreased, with local authorities assuming primary funding responsibility; a process I call the ‘municipalisation of culture’. The dual imperative for councils to provide dynamic cultural facilities while demonstrating prudent spending of ratepayer money has produced a challenging climate for local museums. Using the state of New South Wales as a case study, this article explores how this shifting cultural policy landscape, together with growing instrumentalisation of cultural programmes, has transformed the perceived context and purpose of museums in local government areas. It argues that the pressures of demonstrating impact across an array of public benefits in a restricted funding climate threatens the sustainability and meaningfulness of local museums.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. I use the term ‘local museums’ interchangeably with ‘small and medium museums’ in this article. Museums & Galleries NSW define ‘small’ museums (and galleries) as those with five or less paid employees, while ‘medium’ organisations employ six to fifty staff (Huxley Citation2013, 10).
2. NSW is the oldest and most populated of Australia’s states and territories.
3. ‘Cultural sector’ includes music, dance and theatre as well as museums and galleries.
4. Half of NSW museums and galleries in the small to medium category record an annual expenditure of less than $33,800, with more than half completely reliant on volunteer labour (Huxley Citation2013, 26; 41).
5. There is no consistency in cultural policy approaches across Australian state and territory governments. For example, South Australia has no dedicated cultural policy, Western Australia’s arts and cultural policy framework only covered a period between 2010 and 2014 and Victoria’s first creative industries strategy was released in 2016.
6. This includes extensive studies by Museums and Galleries NSW (Huxley Citation2013, Citation2014), a 2016–2017 NSW Legislative Council inquiry into museums and galleries and comprehensive research into arts and culture by Local Government NSW (Watterson Citation2017). In 2015 the NSW State Government released its first cultural policy, ‘Create in NSW’, which has been followed by additional funding initiatives.
7. The Australia Council was first formed in 1967 and serves as the Australian Government’s arts funding and advisory body.
8. Neoliberalism favours small government, market deregulation and an increasing role for business in decision-making to support economic and employment growth (Gattinger and St. Pierre Citation2010, 282–283). According to Australian research (Beer et al. Citation2005; Cheshire and Lawrence Citation2005; Tonts and Haslam-McKenzie Citation2005), neoliberal policy has been an important feature of regional development in Australia since the early 1980s.
9. For a similarly broad definition of the cultural domain, see Boaden and Ashton (Citation2015, 22), and Crossick and Kaszynska (Citation2016, 7).
10. See also Chapter 3, page 5 of the Report that states that it is the policy of the Australia Council to encourage local councils to become involved in the provision of artistic and cultural activities, based on the idea that Local Government is ‘closer to the people’ (i.e. better able to identify community needs) and has greater flexibility in regard to expenditure.
11. All case study institutions are referred to by pseudonyms to protect the anonymity of respondents.
12. Research by the Regional Australia Institute (Citation2017) shows that, between 2011 and 2016, 246 regional local government areas saw an overall decline in population, compared with 175 areas that saw an increase. Under these circumstances, the expectation that local authorities, which rely on ratepayer income to fund their activities, bear responsibility for cultural provision seems all the more tenuous.
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Helena Robinson
Helena Robinson is a lecturer in the Museum and Heritage Studies Program at the University of Sydney. Her research explores intersections between processes of meaning-making in museums and broader cultural and public policy frameworks. Her recent research investigates the idea of cultural democracy and the practice of stakeholder participation in curatorial projects, as well as the convergence of museums, libraries and archives and the impact of integrated institutional structures on the interpretation of museum collections.