Brokering Aboriginal art - A critical perspective on marketing, institutions, and the state

Abstract:

'Brokering Aboriginal art: A critical perspective on marketing, institutions, and the state', the 2005 Kenneth Myer Lecture in Arts and Entertainment, presented 7 April 2005 at Bunjilaka Gallery, Melbourne Museum. Edited by Ruth Rentschler of Deakin University Centre for Leisure Management Research. In the 2005 Kenneth Myer lecture, Jon Altman discusses a paradox: the international success of the Indigenous art market contrasted with Indigenous Australians’ stagnating socio-economic circumstances. Examining state sponsorship of arts infrastructure from an historical and analytical perspective, he argues that, although the market appears successful, it remains fragile, and complacency in policy and practice would be detrimental to its sustainability. His lecture concludes with arts policy observations intended to ensure the development of the Aboriginal arts sector, particularly in the light of recent changes to Indigenous affairs organisations. Over the past 30 years, visual art has shone as a beacon of Aboriginal cultural survival, adaptation and efflorescence in post-colonial Australia. This success has occurred within a broader national context where Aboriginal socioeconomic status is perceived to have either stagnated or declined. Yet dynamic and innovative art movements thrive in many remote communities that are regarded as the most problematic in terms of welfare dependence and social disintegration. This lecture explores this apparent paradox by focusing on a history and analysis of state-sponsorship of arts infrastructure in that Aboriginal arts sector, a form of sponsorship that has provided the inter-cultural mediation, or brokerage, that has been pivotal to this unusual arts movement. By then drawing out some emerging tensions, contestations and challenges I argue that that there is no room for complacency in arts policy or practice—the new-found success of Indigenous arts remains fragile. The lecture concludes with a discussion of the risks to Aboriginal art posed by recent changes in Indigenous affairs and makes some broad arts policy observations, based on historical evidence, for the ongoing development and growth of the nationally significant and internationally acclaimed Aboriginal visual arts sector.