Page 2861 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 17 September 2014
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The ACT government supports 20 key arts organisations. These important organisations recorded more than 300,000 attendances at arts events and activities in 2013. These organisations include Ausdance ACT, Canberra Youth Theatre, Canberra Youth Music, Music For Everyone, QL2 Dance, Warehouse Circus and the community outreach program delivered through the ANU School of Music and School of Art. The ACT government also supports graffiti art through the Territory and Municipal Services legal graffiti art sites.
Between them, our key arts organisations provide a significant and broad-reaching range of arts programs for our youth. Indeed, in 2013 more than 10,000 participants under the age of 12 took part in programs run by our key arts organisations. Research highlights the positive impact of young people’s involvement in the arts, including increased motivation, self-confidence and creative thinking, student engagement and improved school attendance.
The government is also committed to ensuring that people with disabilities or experiencing disadvantage have opportunities to engage in arts and cultural activities. The community cultural inclusion program operating from the Belconnen and Tuggeranong arts centres focuses on support for people across our community. From programs like dancing with Parkinson’s, delivered through the Belconnen Arts Centre, and exhibitions like Touch, from the Tuggeranong Arts Centre, arts and cultural engagement embraces and supports members of our community to have a voice and to share their experiences.
In 2013 there were more than 30 dedicated programs available for people living with a disability provided through the key arts organisation network, engaging more than 400 individuals. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, in 2009, 78 per cent of people in the ACT aged five years and over with a disability and 74 per cent of people aged 60 and over attended at least one cultural venue or event in the 12 months prior to interview.
There is increasing evidence in the correlation between participation in creative activities and positive health outcomes. Engagement in the arts often serves to strengthen social bonds and to forge connections that may not have existed before. Arts and culture are vital tools in promoting a stronger social fabric and in improving the social health of the community.
Arts activities are both personal and social experiences. They involve the individual act of creating or observing and the communal act of sharing with others. The opportunity to discuss one’s artistic experiences can intensify the experience and serves as its own unique event. Whether this involves reliving moments from a play, a recent book or discussing the progress of one’s own work, such conversations help people to explore the experience more deeply and to benefit from different perspectives. We have a community that is very supportive of the arts who willingly give their time, energy and passion in volunteering within the sector.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Work in selected culture and leisure activities 2007 report, almost one-third of all people living in the ACT undertake
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