Research Priorities
The Centre for Cultural Partnerships conducts research into the theoretical frameworks of community cultural development (CCD) and its practical application in specific arts-based activities. The Centre’s research program explores new models of arts interventions and how they contribute to community cultural development. It has a particular focus on how collaborative partnership-based approaches can address significant public policy issues, the role of the arts and artists in these new contexts and the development of new evaluative frameworks appropriate to these new models and settings. The Centre favours action-based collaborative approaches that acknowledge the centrality of the arts and creative process, whilst also exploring the theoretical frameworks that underpin CCD practice.

The Centre is currently involved in major multi-disciplinary evaluations and supervises the work of a number of doctoral research candidates. Current work includes its flagship partnership with the Horn of Africa Communities Network and on-going research partnerships with VicHealth, the McCaughey Centre, the Cultural Development Network, The Torch Project,the Festival of Healthy Living (Royal Children’s Hospital) and various local government authories. The Centre is interested to talk with prospective PhD or post-doctoral students and experienced community cultural development practitioners interested in documenting, reflecting on and evaluating their practice.

The Centre’s research agenda falls into three broad areas:

1. Leadership in community cultural development practice
Community-based arts practice has evolved from a ‘participation-driven’ model exemplified by a focus on community arts festivals and other short-term participatory activities, to new forms of partnership which have seen the arts working in a range of social contexts addressing specific social policy agendas, from aged care to urban/neighbourhood renewal, to social inclusion. These new models have been designed to address emerging or intractable social issues requiring processes of arts intervention that are more directed and engaged, longer-term and more community-driven.

Current and future research interests include:
  • Defining and measuring cultural indicators
  • Cultural democracy and community cultural development practice
  • Social enterprise models for community cultural development
  • The use of digital technologies in community cultural development

2. Building capacity in community cultural development
Artists working in CCD need a range of skills and capacities that are very different from those learned in medium-specific arts education. The Centre’s Postgraduate Diploma and Masters courses are focussed on developing these skills and competencies and providing artists with the necessary intellectual framework to situate their practice. This derives from a number of disciplines – including social, pedagogical and cultural theory, partnership brokering and project management, ethics and leadership. As the field evolves, there will be a continuing need for research to inform both teaching and practice.

Current and future research priorities include:

  • Models of community leadership and the artist as community leader
  • Ethical frameworks for CCD practice
  • The role of the artist as agent for social change, relationship builder, animateur and social entrepreneur.

3. The arts and social inclusion
There is a need to develop new ways of evaluating the arts in community cultural development. Instrumental or “outcome’ measures may tell part of the story, but they will not capture the intrinsic qualities of art-making. What is it about the arts process that contributes to individual and community benefits? What is the connection between individual and community benefits and how do the arts contribute to these different outcomes? What is the leverage role of the arts in achieving social change? What is it about the arts practice per se that creates individual and community change? These forms of evaluation need to be appropriate to the new models and their specific agendas.

Current and future research priorities include:

  • Mapping the role of the arts and creative processes in community cultural development
  • The arts and community sustainability
  • Action-based research evaluating arts impacts on individual and community health and well being in specific contexts (e.g. refugee resettlement, aged care, urban/neighbourhood renewal, human rights and addressing racial discrimination, social justice and the prison system.)

4. Documentation and knowledge sharing
The Centre for Cultural Partnerships is seeking to engage people in debate and discussion about new models and practices in community cultural development through publications, seminars and conferences. For further information, contact:

Dr Lachlan MacDowall
Coordinator, Graduate Studies and Research
Centre for Cultural Partnerships
Faculty of the VCA
University of Melbourne

Email: lmacd@unimelb.edu.au
Phone: +61 (0)3 9685 9087