Welcome to the Creative Barkly Project Update for July 2018. Those of you with a keen eye will notice that we skipped our update for February 2018. This is because we have been super busy with preliminary data analysis and case study fieldwork. Here is all the latest from those activities…
Field trip November 2017: This was a short trip out to Alice Springs for some meetings and interviews with sector professionals from Desart, ICTV and a planned trip to Arlparra that we unfortunately had to cancel due to poor weather.
Preliminary data analysis: Building on the preliminary report, the team started the process of developing codes for analysing the data, and finding emerging themes and trends. A huge thanks to the Creative Barkly “brains trust” for looking over our code book and helping us to refine our approach. This process is on-going, and we will stay in touch. We hope to share some more results with you all in the coming months.
Case study field research May-June: We have identified four case studies from the mapping phase, which will be Barkly Regional Arts as a whole organisation; the Desert Harmony Festival; Arlpwe Art and Culture Centre in Ali Curung; and the voluntary arts sector. Sarah travelled out to the Barkly for three weeks in May-June this year to commence the case study research in Tennant Creek, and strengthen relationships in Ampilatwatja and Arlparra (Utopia Homelands). This coincided with the Barkly Artist Camp, which drew artists from all over the region to Tennant Creek for their annual sharing of skills. Sarah also presented preliminary findings from the project at the Developing Northern Australia Conference in Alice Springs (18-19 June), where the project was received with interest.
Conference on Cultural Economics 26-29 June: Sandy O’Sullivan also presented our approach and preliminary findings at the 20th International Conference on Cultural Economics hosted by RMIT in Melbourne. This was a great opportunity for us to explore current thinking around the tensions and intersections between creativity and economics, and network with leaders in the field.
Elaine Sandy at the BRA Artist Camp Artists of Ampilatwatja Art Centre Men’s carving at Ampilatwatja
- Undertaking field trips in August and September to coincide with Desert Harmony Festival in Tennant Creek, and the Traditional Dance Festival in Ali Curung. This will be an intensive phase of data collection for the case studies.
- Continuing data analysis, which will be an on-going, iterative process from now until the end of the year.
- Developing publications and outputs that will include a position paper, and a literature review for inclusion in academic journals. The team will also continue consultations with stakeholders and sector representatives to establish a plan for outputs that can be used by communities and organisations. We welcome your thoughts at any stage about what would be useful for the sector in this regard, please get in touch!
Creative Barkly 