Community Engagement and Creative Community Culture: A Study of Queensland Arts Council and the Role of the Arts and Cultural Industries in Building Stronger Communities

Richards MJ¹*

1. Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

During the latter part of the 20th century, Queensland Arts Council (QAC) sponsored thousands of arts activities throughout the state. The organization attracted local elites, and enlisted thousands of members in more than a hundred regional towns. It helped drive the evolution of Queensland’s cultural ecology, as regional members advised local governments, wrote cultural policies, and drove campaigns for facilities and infrastructure.

Towards the end of the 20th century QAC lost audience and influence, because it had lost touch with its constituency.

This Queensland University of Technology project funded by the Australian Research Council, studied how QAC reformed its structures and processes to re-engage with local communities. Mendicant local branches became autonomous Local Arts Councils (LACs). Each LAC responds to local community interests and needs, facilitating artistic activity, and representing community interests at broader forums. LACs contribute to civil society by fostering social integration, the decentralization of cultural production, and the dispersal of cultural power. Researcher was attached to QAC for three years, studying the organization and seven selected LACs by participant observation, and feeding interim findings into both strategic planning and daily operations.

This paper examines how QAC and LACs operate to build social and cultural capital, and to support the Cultural Industries in small regional towns and cities. It presents a set of Enabling Principles directed at nurturing Creative Community Culture, with important consequences for long term community vitality, strength and sustainability.

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