Arts in the Murchison

The literature tends to make broad, ambiguous statements about why people engage in the arts, which is reflected in government research reports and policy statements. As an example I’ve compiled a little mini list of why people engage in the arts below (anyone wanting a list of references please get in touch):

* provides intense personal, intellectual and spiritual engagement
* source of relaxation
* entertainment
* social opportunities
* communication
* express ideas
* strengthen social bonds
* increases participation in decision making
* increases creativity in decision making
* builds community capacity
* strengthens identity
* sense of place
* provides meaning
* pleasure
* emotional stimulation

I wanted to explore some of these ‘reasons for arts engagement’ and started to collect data and interview people on the arts in their communities. I spent just under two weeks in three shires within the Murchison region. The Murchison region broadly relates to the catchment area of the Murchison River and encompasses pastoral, mining and indigenous communities within Western Australia’s Mid West region.

While the data is quite raw, I wanted to get a few initial findings and thoughts down early, just to see what came out of these initial interviews while the ideas are still fresh. For people in the Murchison region I found that many of these broad claims held. However, the main reasons why people in the Murchison engage in the arts includes the creation of great art, for networking and social opportunities, entertainment, recreation and pleasure, a positive outlet in a safe venue, and to expand potential career opportunities by increasing both skills and confidence.

Creating great art

For the most part, the community acknowledged different levels of arts engagement. There was a distinction made between professional artists, who worked solo and produced high value works of art and those who engaged as a hobby, recreation and social reasons.

“There is different levels when it comes to art. First you’ve got your acknowledged artists and they need to be supported somehow with accessing material at an affordable level, helping them to market their product. That’s difficult to do in a town like this, again, because you’ve got that family group dynamic.”

Many artists interviewed downplayed the social aspects of art groups and even went so far to suggest that belonging to an art group had a detrimental effect on creativity and the artistic integrity of their work. One artist suggested that he noticed a distinct change in his work after going to the art group for a while. He tended to paint more scenic and landscape pictures, lamenting the subsequent lack of integrity and artistic edge.

“A Saturday morning art group used to meet…the group was mostly for gossip and catching-up and was made of the partners of workers and miners in town. The group no longer exists. It was more about the ‘social’ than the art. The art produced was less expressive with less meaning.”

Networking and Socialising

Testament to the number of craft, pottery and quilting groups across rural Australia is the social and networking opportunities affording by belonging to such groups. The participants themselves would not normally consider themselves artists and their produce was often made for charity, friends and family. There is a lack of recognition and appreciation of craft as art because of the focus of craft as a hobby and not as a profession.

“There are individual artists doing their own thing, and then there’s a group of people who get together to do craft stuff, but I think I there is a loss of understanding of how that is art in some way, because they tend to see that as hobby and not art.”

The socialising and networking opportunities afforded by such groups works well for a small population when there is not a critical mass to make other activities, like sporting teams viable. The craft groups bring disparate groups together, providing social opportunities and a meeting place. This is of particular importance for this region where distance and isolation can be drivers for depression and other mental health issues.

“All the station ladies have a key and can use the centre whenever they want. The group is wonderful for the wellbeing of the station ladies. Gives them a place to hang out when they come to town. To have a cup of tea and to do some art while waiting to pick up the kids.”

“Art and music brings people together”

With a particular reference to the indigenous communities it seems that visual art, craft and music plays a powerful role in bringing people together. This is of considerable significance when there is, not just historical and racial divisions in a community, but also divisions between different family or skin groups.

“The art has helped to break the ice. [The service] is now more like a drop-in centre. The families in this town do not participate in activities across skin groups.”

Entertainment and a good night out

Touring shows can provide light relief and an escape from the mundane hum-drum of everyday life. It is also interesting that touring shows and concerts bring a lot more people out of the woodwork. Attendance figures at a recent touring production of a play based around shearing teams show greater participation by the community than could be afforded by any other form of arts activity. People might not necessarily want to commit the time or the energy to putting on their own play or starting a drama group, but a commitment of a couple of hours to watch a show provides much needed light entertainment and relief, as well as social opportunities without any ongoing or longer term commitment.

Tourism and additional income

As already mentioned there is a distinction made between the professional artists and those who engage in the arts and craft for hobby or recreation. They both provide pleasure and recreation on an individual level, but they also have the potential to provide additional income for the artist through sales to tourists. It was not unusual in this region for handmade trinkets and other items by local artisans and craft people to be offered for sale at the tourist centre, craft shops and local public houses.

“Art & culture is the major industry of the town. Women paint coffee cups on their front porch.”

The problem with the tourist market is that the difficulties with getting materials means that items are not always the best quality, and often underpriced. They provide a cash income to locals, but this practise is often criticised as it undermines the development of integrity within the work as the temptation for a quick sale means the work is often not developed, documented, or even paying the artist what its worth. The artist looses out in the long term because they are not given an opportunity to build a body of work, and develop their own style for an international market with the potential for much higher returns.

“The indigenous people paint strictly for money. They are chasing the tourism dollar.”

Positive Alternatives

The arts provide time for reflection and introspection, especially when quiet and safe spaces, such as a women’s centre, are dedicated to art.

“It can be used therapeutically as well. A lot of women like to come together around painting. So [a social worker] just bought a lot of canvas and paint and stuff and just set it out there and women started coming… as they’re painting they start talking… as they got to know her they started opening up to her and talk more.”

The same principle applies to young people. The arts, especially music and dance, is seen by many as a positive alternative for destructive or anti-social behaviour, such as vandalism, graffiti and other petty crime. The arts activity provides a focus for the young people which can take place in a safe and supervised environment.

“This place is boring, you have youth wondering around, adults wondering around, bored to tears.”

“A band jamming session, or something like that brings the community together, it gives people something to get involved with over time”

Art in this sense not only assists in helping know your own abilities and provide a sense of achievement, but provides an alternative to what would otherwise be considered destructive and anti-social behaviour. The arts activity takes place in a safe venue and provides a haven for individuals to spend time for themselves and not be concerned with family issues.

Expanding career opportunities

Difficulties with both the nature of the population and the funding structures has restricted many projects to one-off, short term, however this is not always seen as a negative. One-off projects help the community identify talent, expand career opportunities and develop networks and relationships within and across communities and across agencies and different groups. On-off projects have provided formal qualifications, opportunities and experience which benefit the participants beyond the life of the project.

“its not just a once-off thing, and it helps us identity talent that we can support out of this town. Hopefully some of them will go on to do a few things, they don’t all have to become stars, but they could become art teachers or music teachers or whatever.”

In one participant’s case, a one-off workshop provided training that helped her get a job in a neighbouring town. Furthermore as these opportunities are not available on a regular basis, local residents, and particularly children and young people, don’t have the opportunity to know what is possible, to know what kind of future they could want for themselves. So many talents and potentials may go untapped and unnoticed simply because people were never given an opportunity to know what is possible.

“I think, if people can start seeing a future for themselves, a little bit of light down the tunnel, that it gives them hope and a sense of purpose… for a long time I think for a large part of this community there was just no vision for a future, it was just surviving day by day.”

Conclusions

Just from personal observations, there is a large number of very creative people residing in these towns and their reasons for engagement in the arts are just as diverse as the forms and ways in which that engagement can take place. I have demonstrated here a full spectrum of reasons for engaging in the arts from personal achievement and pleasure, to social opportunities and a supplementary income, as well as a means to develop skills, provide time-out and hope for the future.

Thank you for reading this far – boy, it’s a long one isn’t it? I look forward to receiving any feedback on some of the issues I have raised.

Role of women in rural wellbeing

Leadership roles for women in rural Australia have largely been on the periphery. I would hesitate to say marginalised, but their roles have been subsidiary to more industry, governance and generally more economically minded roles of men. This is even apparent in the language, there wasn’t a ‘men’s-only’ organisation, but an organisation which had a women’s auxiliary.

I wanted to explore the idea that women are at the forefront of rural wellbeing because of their involvement and leadership in the arts and other creative pursuits in rural Western Australia. “Not the bread and butter, but definitely the jams and creams” was the title my husband came up with for a presentation I prepared for the Engendering Leadership conference at UWA in Perth, so I wanted to share some of that information in this entry. The presentation focused on how the role of women in the leadership of the “jams and creams” organisations (that is arts, social, support, charity & fundraising organisations) has greatly enriched the social landscape of rural communities by building and strengthening social bonds & networks, identity, sense of place and resilience in rural WA.

The idea for the presentation came while I was on the road in the focus region for my PhD research. It had occurred to me that men were largely underrepresented in my sample. This is not unusual for the arts sector, but I wasn’t just talking to artists and artsworkers. I’d been talking to a range of community groups and service organisations, shires and so on. But very few men were answering the phone. If I did happen to get hold of a male sounding voice, it was more often than not that I was referred on to the secretary, or the subcommittee, inevitably, referring me on to a woman.

This got me thinking about gender issues, so I set about doing some research (surprise, surprise). A federal government report entitled ‘A Snapshot of Women’s Representation on Selected Regional Bodies’ released in 2005 found that women in rural and regional Australia continue to be underrepresented in roles that involve management and decision making. Specifically, the representation of women is lowest on regional industry boards (0-21%), and highest (though still not equal with men) in regional organisations, such as areas consultative committees, development boards and catchment management authorities (12-41%).

This contradicts what I have been finding. Reports such as these seem to be asking, ‘well, where are the women?’ Whereas in my research so far I’ve been left wondering, ‘where are all the men?’

According the 2006 census ‘rural balance’ the split is fairly even with 53% men and 47% women. A trawl through some other figures, stats and research suggests that while women are much less likely than their brothers to inherit the family farm or rural town business, they are more socially mobile than men (that is they move around more to take advantage of education and employment opportunities). While men dominate the resources, construction and primary industries, women dominate education, health & finance.

In the arts and cultural sector there are more women than men involved in event organising, performing arts, craft and visual art. Yet more men than women are involved in radio, TV, design & music.

There are problems with relying on statistics though. Across the nation women are underrepresented in the role they actually do, due to their nature in both the workforce (which is overly part time & casual) and the amount of time and energy dedicated to voluntary work and unpaid domestic labour. The man might be the figure head for a number of social, economic, or arguably, practical reasons, but how much of “his work” would be possible without the contribution of his spouse or female colleagues?

Arts stats are even more difficult to decipher, firstly because there is no rural/urban split in the data, but also because arts activity and events occur outside of the so-called ‘arts and cultural sector’. For example, I was told about a Mother’s Group that has been doing screen printing. It’s not a screen printing group, it’s a mothers group, but they’re doing arts activities. There are also examples of a Women’s Domestic Violence Service that uses their office and counselling space for painting. It’s not a painting group, it’s a Domestic Violence Service, but the women (mostly indigenous women) can go there and paint. They have a safe place where they can get out of their household and take time out from their families and domestic situation and spend some time for themselves. The primary purpose isn’t the art, the primary purpose was to get women comfortable going to the centre allowing them access to the service if they choose to use it.

Rural women have a strong history of networking (just look at the CWA, for example). They provide vital services and support for their community through a myriad of voluntary organisations and groups throughout rural Australia. However, changes to farming life as a result of rural restructuring, droughts, rising input costs, etc., means women have less time and energy for volunteering which has an impact on the social wellbeing of the community. Women not only take on more outside physical work, but also juggle being a mum, bookkeeper, recording duties, farm correspondence, off-farm work and other activities (like growing vegetables, keeping poultry, or organising tourist accommodation & tours) to alleviate financial pressure on the farm and their families.

“I used to have a son on the farm, but he’s gone. Now I’m the son [laughs]. I use the arts to get a break, a bit of time out.”

“For my father-in-law, women were barefoot and pregnant and it was a real shock when I came up. I’m out on the tractor. I’m out doing sheep work. Its just our generation, you just do it.”

"I've been lucky, I've got a good husband and a daughter at home and I've been able to put the time into it, but anyone else couldn't, and this was all done for free" - Founder & former chair, regional arts council

“There used to be pottery, china painting, oil painting and sewing and there was decoupage as well, felting, spinning, weaving. Some have moved on, a lot of those people, but the next generation is not interested in art. You look at the age group it just keeps going up. They’re all encouraged to go to work.”

“She’s right, it’s because they’re so busy and they’ve got children and it’s a different way of how we were, because I was always home just raising my children and I had a job at home that I did at night time. But during the day you’d go out and do everything and organise the open days and things like that.”

Due to the tough times that everyone is facing the men are also stepping down from their previously very public roles in communities. As such that the nature of the rural community that revolves around sport and the local public house is also changing.

“Once your football side goes and the pub, well nobody goes there. Your town’s dying”. In the same breathe this interviewee also stated that there must be a lot going on because she was out every day of the week.

The men are more busy and consumed with their work and their businesses, in some regions, they are also working more off the farm in nearby mining towns in order to supplement the lack in farming incomes.

“The men are busy. They’re focused on their farms. If you rang my husband he’ll say, well speak to my wife, cos I’m busy, he’ll find something to do.”

“There’s 5 or 6 women and no men. And this is the royal show to represent all that area. Some men will come and help at the royal show. It takes a week to set this thing up. That royal show was really a male domain, wasn’t it? The dungarees, the tweed coat and the hat, it was the thing to be involved and a part of. Not now, they’re just not even interested.”

There might not be a footy team, and of the three pubs once operating, the last one still open is in a sad state. The population is on the decline and most shop fronts are empty, but women have held on to their spaces. Women are making a visual statement in their towns by claiming back the old buildings of a thriving past for use as art, craft and community centres. The most visual of these is the use of public art and murals that brighten up the visual appeal of a community, making a very public visual statement about the town and the people that live there.

The role that women play in rural Australia is recognised and greatly appreciated by their husbands, families and the communities that rely and depend upon their generosity and service. They manage their homes, their children, the farms finances, and more, while still finding time to contribute, usually on a voluntary basis, to their communities vital services including charity & service organisations, tourism, agricultural shows, expos and opens days, they belong to craft groups, painting groups, conservation groups, development councils, and so on.

We have come a long way in recognising and legitimising the roles and contribution of women in rural Australia, but there is still a long way to go. For example, only a couple of years ago there was a free inoculation for Q fever for all farmers. Not too many women did turn up, but because the inoculation was for farmers, and this particular programme did not recognise women as farmers, it was not free for women. In one district, the only two people who showed evidence of having the disease was the two women who decided to go ahead with the test anyway. It was a disease that can only be contracted mainly by contact with droppings, urine or milk from stock. In this particular district, few men assist with the delivery of sheep, goats & cattle and thus would not have come in contact with the disease.

Still a long way to go.

Art is a Tool

Yes, the arts is a tool.

We might not necessarily know (or care) what this tool of ours actually does, but for those of us involved in some way or another, we have a fair inkling that it is good for us and that we like it.

For the most part, I personally don’t think it really matters. I’m lucky, I rehearse with a dance company once a week, play guitar in my one room flat and crochet when I feel inspired to make something. I don’t question why I do it. I don’t have to. I enjoy it and that’s what I like to do. So why the broad statement… art is a tool? Because it is and I believe once we recognise this and acknowledge it, we can move on to something more interesting.

Too many people are reluctant to define what they mean when they talk about the arts. Which I think is a big shame. I was in a rural community where a distinction was made between the “really creative people in town” (the ones responsible for some amazing public art installations) who weren’t really artists because they weren’t into painting. I’ve also spoken to a public servant who was frustrated with the misconception of artists as those “absinthe drinking bohemians”. A teacher described to me the impression of the arts by primary school children as “that whoosy girly thing”. “What about music?” she asked them, which in the Perth original music scene is a male dominated domain. Oh, that’s different.

We don’t need to make judgments on what is good or bad art. We don’t even need to define artistic integrity, just what we mean when we use the word “art”, because this gives you clues to its purpose and the outcomes it might be responsible for.

Art for its own sake will never fall off the agenda. We need it, enjoy it and don’t feel the need to question it. But if art can be utilised for a purpose, if it has an application, use and advantage in other sectors, such as health, development, therapy and varying forms of rehabilitation in all settings from institutions to community, then doesn’t it deserve recognition?

Purpose and Definitions

How do you research the arts and social wellbeing in a rural community?

Well… first you have to define what you are talking about. I have gone for very broad and simple definitions as I was finding that other literature I was referring to was often very specific. Sometimes the author(s) would discount other forms of arts engagement or participation, or specify parameters, which in my opinion, does nothing for an understanding of how ART as opposed to any other activity impacts on wellbeing.

So for the definitions:

What is Art?

I’m calling art the product of creative expression and it includes the performing arts (such as dance, theatre, and music), the visual arts and craft, and the literary arts. I was also thinking of including multimedia arts, but I figured in some ways they would overlap performing, visual and literary. In whatever form or medium it comes, it is still a product of creative expression.

What is Social Wellbeing?

I’m calling it the social fabric of a community. So it includes things like belonging, trust, reciprocity, identity and place.

What is a rural community?

This can be tricky. It’s definitely located outside of the designated metropolitan areas of Australia’s capital cities. It is also a community that is based on primary industries such as agriculture, mining, pastoral, fisheries, etc. Defining something as rural, as opposed to regional, also implies a certain degree of remoteness, low population density and size, and low proportion of residents in an urban environment.

Once you’ve defined everything, you have to decide how you are going to measure it. Now this should follow on quite logically because how you understand the concepts that you want to research will determine how you measure it. So the research will take place in rural communities for all types of arts engagement. Sounds simple enough?

The hard part is the social wellbeing. So rather than make up my own way of measuring a concept that’s hard to define and even harder to measure I’m looking at adapting a number of measures already used in a variety of fields. These include quality of life scales, life satisfaction and happiness measures, even social capital indicators.

The biggest criticism of previous research is that there is, quite simply, a lack of robust data and evidence. The difficulty in trying to quantity effects, impacts or outcomes and what these outcomes should be has also been criticised. It’s even questionable as to whether we should be searching for an impact at all. Doesn’t this defeat the purpose of art for its own sake? Plus the methods of data collection, including the choice of the sample and the purpose, intention and bias of the researchers themselves has all been called into question.

In my opinion the intrinsic benefits of the arts is the primary reason why I myself engage. I like it and it makes me feel good. But I also think that if we can understand a little better why we enjoy it, what it does for us and how it impacts on communities we have a chance of building a better case for why opportunities to engage in the arts should be accessible and available to everyone.

I interviewed the former CEO of a local government authority in regional Australia and I think he summed it up very well. So I wanted to finish this entry with his quote:

“in terms of arts outcomes they were here, but in community development outcomes they were way up here. That was always one of the challenges; it was almost like a metaphor for something else. It wasn’t about what people were doing; it was about the effect of having them doing that on community spirit and cooperation and all those other kinds of things. That was something we found extraordinarily difficult to get through to the funding providers. They say ‘well, we don’t want to fund a festival,’ well you’re not funding a festival, you’re funding a community building activity that turned what could have been a war zone into a community. It was difficult trying to make that connection with some of the funding organisations, because I think the arts are undervalued as a tool for people learning other things. Because you cooperated on an arts project you’ve got the relationship where you can cooperate on other things too.”

A Short Introduction

The Arts and Social Wellbeing in Rural Western Australia

Henry Lawson, Banjo Paterson and Frederick McCubbin have all been pivotal in shaping Australian cultural identity as firmly rooted in rural Australia. However many commentators are suggesting that rural Australia is in crisis and suffering from decline. This disadvantage is evident with respect to standards of health, infrastructure, employment and education.

For my research, I wanted to test the premise that the arts play a crucial role in promoting social wellbeing and that the arts contribute to the revitalisation of declining economies through tourism, income generation, and employment.

You can find many reports stating the benefits of the arts. Including that the arts are used as a form of communication, to question norms, express ideas and strengthen social bonds. The arts contribute to rural revitalisation, and thus social wellbeing: directly through economic opportunities, and; indirectly by enhancing participation and creativity in public decision-making, strengthening community capacity, and strengthening identity and sense of place. However this is not to deny that people are often not drawn to the arts for their instrumental effects, but because of the meaning, pleasure and emotional stimulation that they provide and that these intrinsic effects are satisfying in themselves (McCarthy et al., 2004).

So what’s the problem then? Well it all comes down to a lack of hard data. Research is usually conducted by arts funding bodies (yes - potential conflict of interest there!). Otherwise it is left to the organizations themselves, largely not-for-profit, community-based, and heavily reliant on volunteers who don’t necessarily have the time or resources to carry out research.

In recognition of this dearth of data a few agencies, organizations and educational institutions in Australia are starting to do something about it. Including the support of my research http://www.segs.uwa.edu.au/pgweb?displaytype=Student_info&id=735

I wanted to start this blog to not only help clarify a few things in my own mind, but to provide myself with an outlet for this information so it doesn’t just sit on a shelf in some university library with no one to read it. I hope you enjoy it.