Arts and culture in Australian life: a statistical snapshot

This statistical snapshot brings together the latest data on Australia’s dynamic arts and cultural sector. It includes data on Australians working, participating and volunteering in the arts and cultural sector, Indigenous arts and culture, Australian spending on arts and culture, and the impact of the sector on our economy. DiD you know ... That as many as 3.5 million Australians work in our culture and leisure sector? That 85 per cent of Australians attend at least one cultural venue or event in a year? Or that Australia exported over $534 million in cultural goods in the last financial year

Ensuring the right to education for Roma children : an Anglo-Swedish perspective

Access to public education systems has tended to be below normative levels where Roma children are concerned. Various long-standing social, cultural, and institutional factors lie behind the lower levels of engagement and achievement of Roma children in education, relative to many others, which is reflective of the general lack of integration of their families in mainstream society. The risks to Roma children’s educational interests are well recognized internationally, particularly at the European level. They have prompted a range of policy initiatives and legal instruments to protect rights and promote equality and inclusion, on top of the framework of international human rights and minority protections. Nevertheless, states’ autonomy in tailoring educational arrangements to their budgets and national policy agendas has contributed to considerable international variation in specific provision for Roma children. As this article discusses, even between two socially liberal countries, the UK and Sweden, with their well-advanced welfare states and public systems of social support, there is a divergence in protection, one which underlines the need for a more consistent and positive approach to upholding the education rights and interests of children in this most marginalized and often discriminated against minority group

The social and demographic characteristics of cultural attendees

People choose to spend their leisure time in various ways. Some people\u27s choices include visiting cultural venues, attending cultural events and participating in cultural activities. For example, people may choose to attend cinemas or the theatre, listen to music, read books, or visit a museum or library in person or on-line. Information about these choices, and also the choices of those who do not access arts and cultural heritage services, is important for policy makers and service providers. In addition to understanding the interests of consumers, it is important to research those who do not consume arts and cultural heritage services, and to understand why. For example, is distance a barrier for people in regional and remote areas? Are general admission fees or charges a barrier to access for some people, and is this a policy concern? The answers to these questions would inform policy and assist more effective targeting of services

Cultural funding in Australia: three tiers of government 2005-2006

This is the twelfth in a series of cultural funding reports produced for the Cultural Ministers Council Statistics Working Group. The publication presents information about cultural funding by each level of government which has been classified into two major groups: Heritage; and the Arts.This publication is the twelfth in a series of cultural funding reports produced for the Cultural Ministers Council Statistics Working Group (CMC SWG) by the National Centre for Culture and Recreation Statistics (NCCRS), a section of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Data on cultural funding have been available since the Australia Council published a report on funding in 1988–89. Data have been aligned, where possible, with the categories specified in the Industry Classification of the Australian Culture and Leisure Classifications (ACLC), (cat. no. 4902.0), which was released by the ABS in 2001. The adoption of the Industry Classification of the ACLC for the report coincides with the decision by the ABS and CMC SWG to improve the coordination and comparability of data by encouraging the use of a common set of classifications for data collection and reporting. In reports produced before 2000–01, cultural funding data were classified into three major groups: Cultural facilities and services; Broadcasting and film; and Culture n.e.c. (not elsewhere classified). Consequently, it is generally not possible to compare data in this report with data in reports produced before 2000–01. Historical data in this publication have been presented in a way that shows consistent time series. In order to ensure that funds are not counted more than once, specific purpose grants received from other levels of government have been netted out of the expenditure for the receiving government. The mission of the CMC SWG is to provide the cultural statistics required for informed policy and decision-making by governments and the cultural sector in areas such as cultural industry development and management. The CMC SWG is grateful for the NCCRS\u27 work on this report and thanks the agencies which supplied data