Beyond Research: Creative arts in the impact, engagement and innovation agenda
Location: Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne
Date: 22 September 2017.
Download Conference Program
DDCA’s 2017 conference focused on the theme ‘Beyond Research: Creative Arts in the Impact, Engagement and Innovative Agenda’. As the title suggests the discussion focused upon the positioning of creative arts in relation to the announced impact and engagement agenda. Following a keynote presentation by RMIT Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President Professor Paul Gough, NiTRO Editor Dr Jenny Wilson chaired an afternoon panel comprising:
- Professor Joanne Tompkins, Executive Director for Humanities and Creative Arts at the ARC,
- Dr Tim Cahill, Associate Director, KPMG Advisory,
- Professor Cat Hope, Head of the Sir Zelman Cowan School of Music, Monash University, and
- Professor Clive Barstow, Vice President of DDCA and Executive Dean, Humanities and Creative Arts at Edith Cowan University.
The panel members and audience engaged in a wide ranging discussion that considered how to improve ARC success rates for creative arts, the broader picture of Australia’s capacity for research engagement and the obstacles that exist for humanities and creative arts, the importance of including artists outside the university in academic strategies for impact and engagement, and the benefits and risks that measurement of Impact and engagement that were revealed by analysis of the UK REF exercise.
The event concluded with a focus on two new books on artistic research: Artists in the University: Positioning artistic research in higher education by Jenny Wilson, published by Springer, and Perspectives on Artistic Research in Music, edited by Rob Burke and Andrys Onsman and published by Rowman and Littlefield.
Conference Summary
A summary of the conference was published in NiTRO in October 2017 and can be accessed here.
Presentations
Keynote
Professor Paul Gough (RMIT) delivered the Keynote presentation: Creative Arts in the Impact, Engagement and Innovative Agenda: Lessons to be learned from elsewhere.
A copy of his presentation is available here
Panel presentations:
Prof Joanne Tompkins outlined the opportunities for creative arts funding that are offered by the Australian Research Council, outlined some of the challenges experienced by applicants from creative arts and suggested ways to improve success chances.
Dr Tim Cahill, Associate Director, KPMG Advisory, and former Director for Research Evaluation at the ARC delivered a presentation entitled Limits to Research Engagement and Impact which included some statistical ‘home truths’ for the university and creative arts sectors.
A copy of his presentation is available here
Professor Cat Hope, Head of the Sir Zelman Cowan School of Music at Monash University considered the relationship between Impact and Engagement with a range of other factors relevant to creative artists such as social v academic impact; ERA and Impact; Research income and industry and the university relationship with the independent arts sector.
A copy of her presentation is available here
Professor Clive Barstow, Vice President of DDCA and Executive Dean, Humanities and Creative Arts at Edith Cowan University focused on the messages contained in the various analyses conducted on Research Excellence Framework UK 2014-2021, and considered what advice they may give for creative arts in the Australian exercise.
A copy of his presentation is available here
New books about Artistic Research
DDCA President, Professor Su Baker, officially launched Dr Jenny Wilson’s book Artists in the University: Positioning artistic research in higher education.
Details are available at: https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789811057731
Dr Rob Burke and Dr Andrys Onsman provided an overview of their new edited collection Perspectives on Artistic Research in Music.
Details are available at: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781498544825