Welcome to Australia's Culture and Recreation Portal Newsletter for April 2004
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The Culture and Recreation Portal has increased the number of articles on specific topics about Australian history, culture and recreation to 95. We have articles about The Angry Penguins and Australian of the Year, Fashion and Football, and Surf Life Saving and Swimming. The articles can be accessed from the Articles index at http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/.
The Culture and Recreation Portal is continually expanding its database of Australian cultural and recreational websites. There are now more than 2,800 websites indexed, with over 1.4 million individual pages of information available for searching via the Portal at http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/.
Make the most of the Portal's database by installing a free Bluey Australian Cultural search engine in your site. It will provide your visitors direct access to over 1.4 million pages of Australian cultural material. See more information at http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/bluey/.
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Thinking Easter eggs, Easter bilbies, and time spent with family and friends? Well, the month of April brings us Easter and, later on in the month, we remember our Anzacs with Anzac Day ceremonies.
The Culture and Recreation Portal has a great article which will put you in the picture about Easter and its traditions. Come and see the article at http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/easter.
On 25 April every year Australians commemorate Anzac Day. Our article about Anzac Day at http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/anzac will inform you about the significance of the day for both Australians and New Zealanders alike.
The 2004 Archibald Prize finalists have been announced, and the Packing Room Prize 2004, which was announced last week has been won by Evert Ploeg for his portrait of Jana Wendt. Our article 'The Archibald Prize - Australia's premier portraiture award' gives an overview and history of the Prize at http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/archibald/.
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Snippets from our What's New page for April 2004
http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/news/
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Digital Content and Web Services Workshops about export opportunities for Australian technology companies were held in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane last week. They attracted over 400 participants with the events being closed to further participants because of venue size in three centres.
The workshops included Tom Kennedy, Chief Executive Officer of Hyro Limited, presenting on the major finding of the export report he co-wrote last year as part of the Creative Industries Cluster Study. These workshops were an initiative of Austrade, the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, and the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association (AIMIA) and State Government allies. For more information go to http://www.austrade.gov.au/corporate/layout/0,,0_S1-1_1z2-2_-3_PWB110414889-4_jls4z1-5_-6_0-7_,00.html
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The culture of Australia's South Sea Islanders and their controversial contribution to the early sugar cane industry is explored in a new exhibition called 'Refined White' on show at the National Museum of Australia, Canberra, until 22 August 2004. About 62,000 people from the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and other New Hebrides islands were transported to Queensland between 1863 and 1904 to provide cheap labour for sugar plantations. 'Refined White', curated by Imelda Miller and inspired by her own South Sea Islander heritage, explores 140 years of their history using historic photographs and personal mementos.
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The Evolve High Beam Festival is on from 3 - 9 May 2004 at the Novotel Adelaide, South Australia. It's a different kind of arts and cultural experience with a stimulating and inspiring program for: people with a disability; their families, friends and support workers; artists with a disability; professionals working in the disability sector; and artists and others interested in how the experience of disability can influence one's world view and the art that artists make.
'Ideas and Innovations' is a two day watershed conference to be held during the festival. Themes include Technology, Creativity and Disability, Income Generation, Arts and Health, Accessible Arts Education, Social Inclusion and Critical Discourse. The program also features dance, theatre, music, visual art, comedy and workshops.
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An Action Agenda for the Digital Content Industry has been launched by Federal Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Daryl Williams at the AIMIA Awards last month.
The Digital Content Industry Action Agenda will assist in creating the necessary framework to bring the disparate but related parts of Digital Content industries together in order to deal with common issues and build critical mass and scale.
Amongst key issues identified in detail by the study are the development and dissemination of industry standards;
* education, training and mentoring, in particular the development of business skills;
* cross-sectoral research and development, and its relation to innovation;
* exports and market access and the role of niche markets; and
* facilitating investment
The culmination of the Digital Content Industry Action Agenda process will be an Action Agenda Cabinet Submission. Find more information at http://www.dcita.gov.au/Article/0,,0_1-2_2-3_478-4_117690,00.html
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AusWeb04: The Tenth Australian World Wide Web Conference is a broad-based Web conference touching on key issues relating to the use of the web. AusWeb04 will be held from 2 - 7 July 2004 at the Sea World Nara Resort, Gold Coast, Queensland. There will be national and international keynote speakers including Murray Goldberg, Founder of WebCT, CEO and President of Silicon Chalk, and Mary Ellen Zurko, Security Architect, IBM. There's also a range of half day and full day workshops and tutorials.
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Now in their fourth year, the AbaF (Australia Business Arts Foundation ) Awards represent the benchmark for excellence in business arts partnerships, cultural philanthropy, business arts volunteering and leadership. The deadline for award entries is 24 May 2004.
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For further details of these and other Australian cultural and recreational news items visit our regularly updated What's New page at http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/news/.
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We have another free email newsletter - the Portal contributors newsletter - produced and distributed by the Culture and Recreation Portal for the owners and managers of websites listed or indexed by our site.
The Portal contributors newsletter focuses on the online environment, website design, technical innovation, educational opportunities and provides specific information to ensure sites can be indexed successfully through our portal.
If you are one of the over 2,800 Australian culture and recreation websites in our directory, go and subscribe to the Portal contributors newsletter at http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/contributors/.
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