Victorian creative industries taskforce report presented to government

The Victorian creative industries taskforce, chaired by Melbourne University Publishing (MUP) CEO Louise Adler, has presented its first report to the state government.

The ‘Creative State, Global City’ report, which drew on almost 10,000 contributions from the sector and the public, includes 42 initiatives for the government to consider covering five areas of focus: backing creative talent, strengthening the ‘creative industries ecology’, delivering wider economic and social benefits, increasing participation and access, building international engagement, and governance and implementation.

Initiatives include establishing a creative industries council for two to three years to ‘oversee and advise on the investigation and implementation of further strategic work’; fellowships to ‘enable creative practitioners to sustain and advance their careers at key points’; a commissioning fund to generate landmark Victorian creative works; increasing professional placements and on-the-job-training and opportunities; accelerator programs for creative and cultural entrepreneurs; co-working spaces in under-utilised spaces for creative use; and more funding to ‘enable Victorian talent to gain international exposure and build global networks’.

As previously reported by Books+Publishing, the taskforce was announced in April to ‘steer the future of Victoria’s creative industries’. The taskforce also includes filmmaker Tony Ayres; performers Shaun Micallef and Eddie Perfect; artist and academic Callum Morton; Bendigo Art Gallery director Karen Quinlan; ARIA CEO Dan Rosen; ACMI CEO Katrina Sedgwick; and policy specialists Bronte Adams and Mark Madden.

The report recommendations are available for public comment here. The government will release its creative industries strategy in 2016.

Category: Local news