Chair’s Report

For much of the past 18 months, I was Deputy Chairperson of ANAT. I became chair when Louise Dauth stepped down to make herself available to be considered as a consultant to ANAT.

During 1988 and 1989 ANAT has become the major national co‐ordinator and promoter in the Art and Technology area in Australia. It has always been intended that ANAT would not be an organisation, which would continuously need to depend on government grants to fulfil its role of promoting, increased interaction between artists and advanced technology in Australia, and of promoting new wealth generating enterprises based on intellectual property. We in ANAT have always seen the government grant as fulfilling a “seedling” role rather than a recurrent one, which if stopped would lead to the collapse of the program. Therefore ANAT has always been anxious to make clear to people who would judge its performance, that the ultimate test of success of ANAT would be if we succeeded in placing ANAT in circumstances where it is funded in the main from sources outside Government.

Accordingly a major activity during the last 12 months has been the development of a proposal to establish a Foundation for a Creative Australia (FFCA). The Foundation is being proposed to test the concept that the Federal Government’s Civil Offsets Program could be used to develop new sources of funding to promote the development of major new economic enterprises based on Australia’s artistic intellectual property. We in ANAT are deeply committed to the idea that it is only by the integration of the highest quality intellectual property in the Arts, Sciences and Technologies that we will develop products and services which will help address Australia’s economic problems while at the same time providing new outlets for artists to derive reasonable incomes from their artistic work. While Australia continues only to depend on Government grants, and on the sale of traditional artistic products through the established networks of galleries, magazines, films etc, the arts will continue to receive totally inadequate funding. I would say that without a wholly new way of integrating the arts into the mainstream economy, Australia will not prosper.

During the last year a sub‐committee of the ANAT board has been working with Louise Dauth, who was chosen as a consultant of the ANAT board, to develop the program. I am hopeful that by the end of June we will obtain Federal Government support for the proposal. This will enable specific research and development projects, which are designed to develop new economic enterprises based on artistic intellectual property, to be funded through the Federal Government’s Civil Offsets Program by major trans‐national companies.

Should this happen there will then be many more opportunities to place Australian artists in situations where they will be able to improve their skills in utilising advanced technology, and also participate in commercial programs through which the should derive significant incomes. It is proposed that ANAT be incorporated within the Foundation structure. The administrative arrangements for achieving this, however, have not been decided. This will be a job for the incoming ANAT board.

I also hold the position of Director for the Commission for the Future (CFF). For the last 18 months the CFF has been implementing a program jointly funded by the Australia Council and the CFF. This project is called the “Creative Australia” project. The project aims to develop a policy and program framework to guide the integration of artistic Australia with the economic mainstream. As such, it aims to provide the philosophical and program basis for the new FFCA and ANAT. The CFF has recently implemented a whole new program with activities in 5 new program areas. One of these new program areas is called Creative Futures. This program will continue the work of the Creative Australia project which will terminate with a workshop in Adelaide from 2 – 4 July 1989. The CFF is deeply committed to further developing this program.

The FFCA will hopefully be one of the major mechanisms for the delivering on‐the‐ground, real life examples of economic enterprises based on artistic intellectual property, which will serve as examples for others to follow.

Although the development of the FFCA proposal has been the major activity of ANAT this year, there have been some other considerable successes. During January 1989 ANAT sponsored a Summer School in CADCAM for artists at the Regency College of TAFE. This was a spectacular success and will be repeated next year. Similar programs are planned in other cities. It is very important to remember that the education and training function is critical for our ultimate success. ANAT must continue to be a leader in the development of programs designed to give Australian artists opportunities to skill themselves in advanced technology. ANAT is also working with the Adelaide Festival of the Arts. ANAT has continued to implement the work program it inherited from the Australia Council when it was given the responsibility to manager the Australia Council’s Artists’ and New Technology Fund.

I want to thank all those people who have worked so hard to get ANAT off the ground, and in particular the members of the ANAT board and the former chairperson Louise Dauth. I am especially grateful to Francesca Da Rimini, the former Executive Officer, who resigned from her position in March 1989 to pursue her career elsewhere. Francesca gave ANAT110% of her effort.

Francesca was strongly supported by Caron Ward, who after Francesca’s resignation and prior to Virginia’s appointment worked very hard to keep ANAT progressing. I am deeply grateful to Francesca and Caron for their loyalty, support and work over the last 12 months. To the new Executive Officer, Virginia Barrett, I give my thanks also. In Virginia, ANAT has aquired a particularly able Executive Officer.

I wish the incoming board good fortune in their work of further realising the potential of ANAT.

Peter Ellyard Chair 

 

Staff

Executive Officer

Francesca da Rimini

Administrative & Project Assistant (from July ’88)

Caron Ward

Committee (as of Dec ’88) Louise Dauth

Chair 1984 – August 1988

Dr Peter Ellyard

Present Chair

 

Committee Members

Garry Benson

Lecturer in Electronic Publishing, Adelaide College of TAFE

Jim Bettison

Accountant Director, Luminis

Stephanie Britton

Editor, Artlink

Francescca Da Rimini (ex officio)

Executive Officer, ANAT

Louise Dauth

Freelance Arts Researcher

Julie Lawton

Graphic Designer
Assistant, Experimental Art Foundation

Michael Snelling

Director, Experimental Art Foundation