.svg){kind=icon}
Abstract:
Traditionally the production of creative arts in all its varied forms sits well outside what we would normally classify as an industry. It’s too chaotic, too ephemeral and too reliant on individual creative juices to fall into our usual perceptions of corporate enterprise and more formal industrial systems. But it is important to understand (as in the mainstream non-Indigenous art scene), that Aboriginal art has industrial elements, such as some systematic approach to production, marketing, promotion, and now, regulation. Perhaps ‘art scene’ or ‘art sector’ are more apt terms to use, but for present purposes let’s use the term ‘industry’ because I want to talk about factors that are separate from the actual creation of art works by artists Historically art movements have come and gone; French Impressionists sustained an art movement for some 50 years from about 1840 to 1890 almost solely through the efforts of artists and collectors. By contrast, the Aboriginal art movement in Australia is sustained with additional industrial devices working alongside artists and collectors. These devices include Government funding, an infrastructure of art organisations, substantial reliance on Information and Communications Technology, employment strategies and an extensive product range. It is likely there will always be an artistic expression by Aboriginal people, and therefore an Aboriginal art sector, as there has been for thousands of years. Naturally, this will involve development and morphing of genres and products with a greater or lesser concentration on what we understand as fine art. The point is that this expression is now sustained and promoted with the aid of industrial devices.
