Power in the Present: Valuing the Arts NOW
Date: Tuesday 19th May 2026
Time: 12.00pm – 1.30pm (AEST)
WATCH THE RECORDING
We are hosting another National Online Forum, continuing our advocacy work to secure artistic practices within and outside the university as fundamental to a healthy and thriving society.
In context of the national and global events which have questioned and challenged the place of arts in our societies we take as our focal point what it is that we gain by understanding artistic thinking/doing/being as irreducible to our collective thriving on this planet.
This is a timely moment as the Government reviews its Revive policy and continues the drafting of a new Research Insights Capability approach to valuing research. We are interested in hearing from you about the ways in which art and creative practice research is meaningfully and critically embedded in our lives and how we can preserve and elevate this influence for the benefit of our communities. Come along and contribute to this vital conversation. We will be producing a collective Position Statement as an outcome of the Forum.
The event will be chaired by Professor Samantha Bennett (ANU, DDCA Board).
Part 1: Framing
Marianne Wobcke (Griffith University); Justin O’Connor (Adelaide University, ACPRA); Robert Walton (Melbourne University); and Naomi Sunderland (CARI, DDCA Board) speak for 10 minutes each to frame the discussion. Read speaker bios and abstracts.
Part 2: Discussion
Attendees participate in small-group discussions on given provocations which will inform the drafting of a collective position statement. Read more about the format and discussion provocations.
WATCH THE RECORDING
Forum Outcomes
DDCA proposes one outcome of the Forum is a collectively composed Position Statement, articulating the complexity and depth of the contribution art/creative practice research makes to research communities and society more broadly.
We hope to address ARC’s ‘impact’ agenda whilst at the same time shifting the language and framing that reduces the work toward instrumentalist ends.
Together with our collective impact statement, we hope to push beyond the constraints and limitations of ‘value’ to clearly articulate the incontestable need for support of the arts at all levels of society.
The Forum will be hosted via Zoom on Tuesday 19th May at 12:00pm – 1:30pm AEST
Previous Forums and Outputs
DDCA 2024 National Online Forum
Creative Matters, 2024 Special Edition: “DDCA National Forum on evaluation of creative practice research”
DDCA 2025 National Online Forum
Outcomes and resources of the DDCA 2025 National Online Forum