Welcome to Australia's Culture and Recreation Portal Newsletter for July 2004
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The Digital Content Industry Action Agenda (DCIAA) was announced earlier this year by Federal Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, The Hon. Daryl Williams.
Action Agendas are driven primarily by industry, with Government facilitating the process and assisting with specific policy actions where appropriate. In order to deal with common issues and build critical mass and scale, Action Agendas take a whole of government approach and provide an effective framework for co-ordination and integration of government policies as they impact on a particular industry.
The DCIAA will be developed by the Action Agenda's Strategic Industry Leaders Group (SILG) over the next twelve months, culminating in a submission recommending actions by the digital content industry and Government.
The first appointments to the Action Agenda's SILG were announced on 8 June 2004. The appointees represent senior industry members from media, games and post-production organisations, as well as the building and education sectors.
For more information, go to the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts website at http://www.dcita.gov.au/Article/0,,0_1-2_2-3_471-4_117690,00.html
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Shirley Hazzard has won the 2004 Miles Franklin Literary Award with her first novel in 20 years, 'The Great Fire'.
Hazzard, who now lives in New York, was born in Sydney in 1932 and moved to Hong Kong as a teenager when her diplomat father was posted there after World War II. At the age of 16 she began work in Hong Kong as an intelligence officer for the British, monitoring China's civil conflict. 'The Great Fire', which in part echoes Hazzard's own experiences, is a story of life and love after World War II.
The annual Award is one of the most illustrious events on the Australian literary calendar. The award, now worth $42,000, was bequeathed by the will of Australian novelist, Miles Franklin for a 'published novel or play portraying Australian life in any of its phases'.
The Culture and Recreation Portal has a great article about the Miles Franklin Literary Award at http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/milesfranklin/ so come along and have a look.
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Snippets from our What's New page for July 2004
http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/news/
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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 2004 AbaF Awards Councillors' Dinner is on in Melbourne on 29 July 2004.
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The art of conversations exhibition is on at the Goulburn's Regional Art Gallery until 17 July 2004.
The exhibition involves collaboration and interaction between five writers and five visual artists from the Southern Tablelands, Southern Highlands and Canberra and neighbouring regions. Participants bring their experience of the area and the cultures of which they are a part. They also bring their histories from all around Australia, and their involvements, preoccupations, obsessions and fascination. Visit the Conversations website for more information.
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Future Memory, a new exhibition giving insight into what has come into the National Library of Australia's collection during the past four years, is on show until 1 August 2004 at the National Library of Australia, Canberra. The exhibition, containing over 200 items, begins with a book on the law of the English church dated 1505 and concludes with a satellite image of the bushfires which devastated Canberra in January 2003.
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The 2004 Darwin Fringe Festival, 'a delicious affair with tantalising titbits, magnificent morsels, enticing events and alluring activities all guaranteed to tempt one's palate', is on this year from 23 July - 15 August 2004.
There's so much on again this year like the Fist Full of Films Competition Award Night and Public Screenings, music, performance, some real and virtual events, national touring events, Fringe Clubs, a Comedy Debate, the annual Tribute Night, acrobatic troupes, visual art, the Rural Fringe, special events, writers' events, dance, and theatre.
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'A giant gossiping termite mound on the Sydney harbour foreshore's lawn, a 6 tonne boulder with a human face crushing a car, an aeroplane covered with the clothes of Sydneysiders all feature...'. - see it all at the 14th Biennale of Sydney until 15 August 2004. This year's theme is 'On Reason and Emotion' which invites the audience to 'an aesthetic experience using not only their sight, but also all the senses provoking active participation and inciting the emotions' says Isabel Carlos, 2004 Biennale Curator.
The program of events is huge! There's a walking trail around Sydney's foreshore and leading art galleries and museums are involved like the Museum of Contemporary Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Royal Botanic Gardens, Museum of Sydney, the Sydney Opera House forecourt and Artspace. There's also a dynamic public program of artist talks, discussion panels, performances and film screenings.
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Sport leadership opportunities for women in rural and remote areas have received a boost with the announcement of the Sports Leadership Grants for Women in Rural and Remote Communities.
Sixty-eight individuals and sports organisations will receive grants totalling more than $209,000 to develop women's sport leadership skills and abilities.
The grants were announced by the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Status of Women, Senator Kay Patterson, and the Minister for the Arts and Sport, Senator Rod Kemp. 'The Australian Government has targeted four key areas that will encourage and support the involvement of women and girls in all aspects of sport' Senator Patterson said. 'Indigenous women, women in disability sport, and women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds' are all involved.
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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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