Campaigns
NAVA regularly undertakes active campaigns to bring about important changes or to pioneer new policies for the Australian visual and media arts, craft and design sector.
Why Campaign?
Campaigning includes many forms of action including providing expert advice to politicians, their advisers and departments at all levels of government where appropriate. It can involve writing letters and submissions in response to government inquiries and providing advice and feedback to arts funding authorities. This advice is based on research and consultation with other experts and close contact with and knowledge of the sector.
NAVA conducts surveys and industry roundtables, forms action groups and develops alliances with other key experts, provides media comment, and stimulates informed debate through public forums and online platforms.
Your participation is a vital ingredient. You should add your voice to NAVA’s campaigns and help us make important changes. NAVA puts out calls to action and co-ordinates the participation of its members and others in the visual arts community to express your views and join campaigns at strategic moments. In doing this, together we are building the strength of the Australian visual and media arts, craft and design sector and enriching the lives of all Australians.
First Nations
Self-determination
Gabriel Nodea, Chairman of Warmun Art Centre WA with Esther Anatolitis at NAVA's Future/Forward 2018. Photo Zan Wimberley.
One of NAVA’s current policy priorities as set out by its Strategic Plan 2018-20 is a commitment to self-determined approaches to First Nations best practice in contemporary arts.
Ambitious and Fair
Advocacy, Policy, Action
Tony Albert, David C Collins and Kieran Smythe-Jackson, Warakurna Superheroes #5 2017 (detail), archival pigment print on paper, 100 x 150cm
Art is powerful, challenging and inspirational – and yet, Australia’s artists work under increasingly precarious conditions, and their rights are increasingly under threat.
We need the voice of the artist to inform, invigorate and inspire the national political conversation.
And – equally importantly – we need the national political conversation to inform, invigorate and inspire our artists.
NAVA's current strategic focus is to advocate the ethics, negotiate the partnerships and secure the commitments that make the NAVA Code of Practice the enforceable standard across the contemporary arts industry.
Art Education
Actions
Poster by Kelly Doley, 2015. Photo by Joan Cameron-Smith.
Ensuring good educational opportunities in the visual arts is one of NAVA’s central concerns. Art education in the national curriculum, and at tertiary level are key to reaching this objective.
Charities and Advocacy
Advocacy work under threat
Proposed legislations threaten to significantly curtail the public advocacy permitted of registered charities.
Emergency Response
NAVA’s immediate action
Thousands gather at Adelaide Parliament House for Adelaide Emergency Protest: Fund the Firies & Demand Climate Action! January 2020. Photo Greyboots40 / Shutterstock.com
Australia’s cultural life is undergoing its most devastating disruption in generations and the impacts are being felt across the arts industry. For information on NAVA's emergency response advocacy work, follow the links below.
Federal Budget
Arts Funding
Since the arts funding cuts began from 2013, NAVA has continued to protest the necessity for the Federal Government to demonstrate a genuine commitment to Australian cultural development by ensuring the stability and financial viability of the whole system.
Gender Equity
Research, Policy and Action
One of NAVA’s policy priorities is that gender disparities in fees, opportunities and representation are overcome through policy and regulation.
We need to keep a close focus on those steps between decision-making and discrimination so that we can make a difference exactly where it counts. And in doing so, we need to recognise that the steps between decision-making, discrimination and harassment are not always great leaps. They’re part of an insidious continuum of behaviour. And this behaviour will no longer be tolerated.
National Arts Policy
NAVA's Recommendations
NAVA’s policy priorities are reviewed and updated annually. Our vision is for a comprehensive approach to arts policy bolstered by clear and enforceable industry standards.
Intellectual Property
Artists and Designers
NAVA asserts that it is fair for artists and designers to be entitled to control the use of their intellectual property.
NAVA plays an important role in advocating for the protection of artists' and designers' economic and moral rights both in law and in practice. Over its history NAVA has frequently taken action on behalf of artists whose IP is used without their consent or who come under duress to waive the right.
Recognise Art as Work
Minimum payment and conditions
Just like every worker in Australia, artists and arts workers deserve pay and conditions that reflect their value. NAVA is working to legislate minimum pay and conditions through a Visual Arts Award. Take NAVA’s 5-question survey to help us identify gaps in current Award coverage for galleries and organisations.
Three Impactful Reforms
With advice by Arnold Block Leibler
Paul Fletcher MP speaks at NAVA's Arts Day on the Hill, Parliament House, ACT. Photo by Irene Dowdy.
On 4 February 2020, NAVA met with Paul Fletcher MP to recommend three impactful reforms with tax law advice prepared by Arnold Block Leibler as pro bono legal advisers to NAVA.
