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Victorian College of the Arts

 

40 Years of VCA

The Centre for Cultural Partnerships has established a cross-sectoral partnership initiative to extend and demonstrate the value and impact of community-based arts practice within all areas of public policy. This strategic action has a focus on unlocking potential through collaboration.

The Centre is committed to collaboratively working with current and future partners, to building long-term relationships and establishing a dynamic cross-sectoral partnership initiative to guide, support, inform and apply new knowledge in partnership development. Fundamental to this partnership initiative is a range of explorations including the role of the arts in cultural democracy, community leadership and cultural citizenship, youth arts and digital media, creativity and urban culture, and the role of the artist in social innovation strategies.

Many relationships have been formed with a range of organisations from amongst government, community organisations, philanthropic trusts and the business sector. 

Every partnership and associated projects is unique, and common to all partners is a commitment to advancing the role of community-based arts practice in achieving social change and meeting social inclusion objectives. Current and proposed project areas that are committed to the integration of the arts to social and community objectives include:

• Community health and wellbeing - Western Region Health Services project developments 
• Neighbourhood renewal and urban liveability – expert advice to VicHealth’s LEAP program
• Social enterprise development – Horn of Africa youth arts online business initiatives 
• Intercultural dialogue - outreach programs in Outer Melbourne
• Community Education – Adult Migrant (AMES) 
• Justice system – Dandenong Police – Multicultural Community Liaison Scheme 
• Refugee settlement – Magistrates conference – Forum theatre initiative 
• Youth culture – City of Melbourne’s Signal Digital Space initiative 
• Regional development - Festival for Healthy Living – regional artist training program 
• Social Housing – Barkly Street Arts Centre in Footscray - an African young mothers project 
• Local Government Arts & Culture policy development - a range of local council expert advice 
• The future of cities – research on Lend Lease developments in Docklands and the City of Melbourne laneways streProxy-Connection: keep-alive Cache-Control: max-age=0 art.

InProxy-Connection: keep-alive Cache-Control: max-age=0 upporting project development and clarifying the partnership’s scope and key direction, Centre staff work collaboratively to firstly build the relationship and then to assist in identifying the strategic actions needed to achieve the specific project goals. Projects are often inter-disciplinary in design and can draw on the existing resources of collaborative partners, as well as the extensive resources of a range of other areas of expertise including the engagement of Faculty of VCA and MCM and University of Melbourne specialists. 

One of the key benefits of this approach is that the Centre is able to promote cross-sectoral partnerships to others working in the field. Our learning inquiry approach to partnership projects is action-based and highly integrated with our core activities of teaching, research and knowledge exchange. As a continuous learning cycle, this strengthens our knowledge of practising partnership and enables us to better guide and promote to others – as students, researchers, and practitioners - as well as organisations looking to find partners in this field. Working together, we aim to build the capabilities of others to engage effectively and productively in cross-sectoral partnership.

Program initiatives 

• Customised support
• Meeting specific needs in cross-sectoral partnership building, community leadership capacity building, and generative skill development
• Online & IT Resources as InfoHub service
• Developing and testing new tools & other web based info for artists, arts/cultural brokers, and social/cultural entrepreneurs
• Action research & publications
• Using action research methodologies to analyse partnership experience and disseminate analysis & learning to others.

Partnership Evaluation

Providing case studies as best practice examples for community-based evaluation, the Centre will build a database of inter-disciplinary specialists/experts including selected alumni from the CCD postgraduate and masters courses to ensure the range of experience covers cultural, language and sectoral backgrounds.

The Centre for Cultural Partnerships invites partnerships with arts and non-arts community-based organisations and public/private sector agencies that hold parallel values and strategic development objectives.

More information

Sue Clark
Head, Centre for Cultural Partnerships
E: clarks@unimelb.edu.au