When Kamilaroi and Bigambul artist Archie Moore won the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale last Saturday — the biggest art news in the world — Channel 9’s evening bulletin covered it as news. However, there was no mention of it on the ABC’s 7pm news bulletin. And while the win has since received coverage from the national broadcaster, that its reporting on such a landmark moment lagged behind the commercial station is telling.
As far as arts news goes, Moore’s award was a World Cup, a Grand Slam, an Olympic gold. It’s not only a global accolade, it’s also the first time in history that it’s been won by an Australian. Despite this, the national broadcaster was ill-prepared to recognise and act on a pivotal art event as news.
More than a year after the release of “Revive”, Australia’s national cultural policy, the ABC has never been more depleted in arts and cultural expertise. The broadcaster’s entire operations have been separated into “news” and “content”, with arts and culture having landed on the side of repackageable work. On this distinction, only news is accorded the status of an ongoing, expert commitment, while strategy on “content” seems more generic: arts and culture as interchangeable content, ready to be repurposed.
Last year’s sackings also leave the broadcaster with neither a strategic approach nor dedicated leadership in this area, with remaining arts staff distributed across different teams. The ABC claimed these redundancies would “lead to more of the arts content audiences want and expect”, yet the bulk of that work is either archival or foreign content.
Further, if you click on the “Arts” category on iview, many of its shows are largely by overseas producers on overseas artists and themes, or ABC shows featuring overseas artists. We’re also being offered a special ABC radio series on Shakespeare. Shakespeare! Search “Shakespeare” on ABC Listen and there are 250 pages of listings. Do Australian audiences need the ABC to repackage Shakespeare yet again? I don’t know whether I’m more miffed as an arts lover or a taxpayer.
After last year’s sackings, I was concerned these changes would reduce the ABC’s capacity for arts journalism, cultural analysis and industry reporting. That’s precisely what we’re seeing.
Niche programming such as the former Art Works on the secondary TV channel, and Virginia Trioli’s Creative Types, speak more to specialist arts audiences, and tend to be temporary shows that come and go. What we “want and expect” of the national broadcaster, however, is to address a diverse Australian public in an ongoing way.
Where are the news items on the people and the organisations that make it possible for arts and culture to flourish? How does the national broadcaster engage Australians in understanding who’s responsible for the books, shows and films that shape our culture? And when that work is recognised internationally, how is it recognised at home?
At the Asia Pacific Arts Awards on Tuesday night, which one award-winner described as the “Golden Lion of Parramatta”, Arts Minister Tony Burke put it plainly: “Acknowledging artists like sportspeople. That’s what we need to do.” Addressing the artists in the room, he said: “You make sure that Australians know each other better. And you make sure that the world knows us better.”
Stop-start approaches to arts and cultural coverage might keep adding more “content” to the ABC’s platforms, but they do little to redress the invisibility of Australia’s cultural life across news and current affairs coverage, despite the prevalence of news on Australia’s sporting culture. Instead, arts coverage needs to be relevant, expert and connected to current conversations, debates and events. Continuing with more of the same is no strategy to win audiences.
With arts and media leader Kim Williams now at the helm as ABC chair, let’s see a sophisticated approach that spans news media in comprehensive ways, illuminating the nation’s cultural life. Let’s see the arts make headlines in Australia, as well as around the world.
Does the ABC need to give more attention to the arts? Let us know your thoughts by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.
