Alex Kelly

Attention: Committee Secretary Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee [email protected]

Regarding: a. the impact of the 2014 and 2015 Commonwealth Budget decisions on the Arts; b. the suitability and appropriateness of the establishment of a National Programme for Excellence in the Arts, to be administered by the Ministry for the Arts

July 15th 2015

To Whom It May Concern:

I am a practicing artist and arts worker who has lived in Central Australia for the past 12 years. I work as a documentary filmmaker and a producer of community arts and cultural development projects. I was the 2009 Australia for the Arts Kirk Robson Award winner and was granted a Churchill Fellowship to explore my practice internationally in 2012. Please find my full biography attached at the end of this submission.

I am deeply concerned about the announcement that $104.8M will be removed over four years from the Australia Council's funding. I am alarmed to hear that these funds will instead be used to establish a new 'National Program for Excellence in the Arts'.

From 2005-2010 I was Creative Producer of the Big hART’s project. This was a $2.8M project, a small portion of which was granted through the Community Partnerships division of the Australia Council for the Arts. Ngapartji Ngapartji was a project that punched well above its weight. In our six years of operation we worked with over 250 young people, produced over 75 short films, an award winning feature documentary for ABCTV, two touring theatre productions – which were seen by over 29,000 people at 10 festivals around the country and in London and Rotterdam – as well as delivering a crime prevention project for the Attorney General’s department and playing a leading role in the development of the National Indigenous Languages Policy.

The project injected money, skills, experiences and opportunities into the communities in which we worked Central Australia – a region of Australia that is so often portrayed as dysfunctional, but is rich in story, characters and possibility.

It also provided new ways of seeing this part of the world to the audiences who saw the work at the Sydney Opera House, Sydney Festival, Festival, Perth Festival, Dreaming Festival and Adelaide Cabaret Festival.

I have attached the evaluation report on the social impacts of the project produced by Dr. David Palmer from Murdoch University, Western Australia: The Consequences of Kindness.

The kind of art that I produce and make is excellent. It is potent and it is critically important to the culture and health and wellbeing of Australia.

It is sometimes provocative, sometimes playful, but it is always created with a bigger picture of justice and opportunity in mind.

It is non traditional in form, often experimental in process and requires partners and funders who are willing to take a risk on unconventional approaches to community development and art making.

I have seen the varied and powerful impacts of community devised art making and art making in remote and regional Australia. I have an unwavering conviction in the importance and power of art to galvanise and strengthen communities.

I am deeply concerned that this kind of work – which I know from my own experience can produce excellent art in a process that can open up possibilities for changes in the lives of participants & audiences alike – will not be supported under a narrow arts funding regime with ministerial discretion for where the funds are spent.

Cultural independence and a rich and risk-taking arts community is critical to the functioning of a democracy. I encourage the Senate Enquiry to recommend the funding be returned to the Australia Council for the Arts and a strong commitment to the value of arts and culture in our society be demonstrated by this government.

Yours sincerely,

Alex Kelly Independent Producer & Filmmaker , NT

Alex Kelly biography;

Alex Kelly is an Alice Springs filmmaker, producer and communications strategist committed to social justice.

Alex is currently an Impact Producer on Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein’s project This Changes Everything which argues we need to radically shift our economic system to respond to the climate crisis.

For ten years Alex worked with leading Australian social change arts company Big hART, working as Creative Producer of the award winning Ngapartji Ngapartji project from 2005-2010.

Alex’s documentary film work includes producing Nothing Rhymes with Ngapartji production managing Coniston: Telling it True, directing Queen of the Desert and supporting the impact strategy for Frackman.

In 2013 Alex undertook a Churchill Fellowship looking at models for social change documentary impact and engagement in UK, Canada and USA. She has since been lecturing and running workshops in Impact Producing for film schools and agencies including VCA, OzDox, DYHD? and the Australian Director's Guild.

In 2009 Alex was awarded the Australia Council for the Arts Kirk Robson Award and in 2011 the Screen Territory Bob Plasto Award.

Alex is currently producing the documentary NO MAN IS AN ISLAND and developing the television series From Little Things; The Movements that Changed Australia. http://echotango.org/