NAVA launches Arts Agenda to connect research, policy and practice

Today NAVA launches Arts Agenda, a monthly focus on national issues in Australia’s contemporary arts, designed for the inboxes of leading thinkers in journalism, academia and policy.

“Australia lacks a regular ideas focus that sets arts and culture firmly on the national agenda,” says Esther Anatolitis, Executive Director of NAVA.

“Art teaches us what’s possible. Artists bring multiple perspectives together to confront our greatest challenges, searching our emotions and compelling us to act.

“It can be difficult for researchers, journalists, policy-makers and advocates to draw on the rigorous thinking of practising professional artists. It’s equally difficult for policy-makers and decision-makers to draw on the work of researchers and journalists with a focus on contemporary art practice. 

“Arts Agenda contributes by orienting current arts thinking, research and evidence to matters of national significance.”

The first issue of Arts Agenda presents an outline of the state of Australia’s contemporary arts, bringing current research to bear on issues affecting artistic practice.

Upcoming issues will focus on a range of national policy priorities as they relate to arts and culture, and also on the federal budget and its implications for the contemporary arts.

Last year, Esther Anatolitis’s work for various publications presented Australia’s only arts and cultural perspective on the federal budget to be published immediately following Budget 2018-2019, ensuring that the arts voice was part of the national conversation at that critical time.

“At a time when more and more work is needed to put national political priorities in their cultural context, it’s vital that that work includes insights from an arts practitioner, industry and researcher perspective. The contemporary arts has a great deal to offer the national conversation,” said Esther.