What is excellence?
June 2015
I am particularly supportive of the emergence of new performance approaches since I believe that a discipline is nourished by its diversity and willingness to venture into unfamiliar territory - Dr Maggi Phillips, Remnant Dance Support Letter 26 Nov 2012
There had been a lot of chatter in the Australian arts scene recently about federal funding cuts to the Australian Government’s arts funding and advisory body, the Australia Council for the Arts (AC). The AC website identifies its role in part, as supporting “the unimagined along with the reimagined, the unknown and experimental along with the keenly anticipated. . . We invest in artistic excellence through support for all facets of the creative process. . .” The 2015-16 Australian budget measures sees the redirection of $110M over four years, from the AC to establish a new National Programme for Excellence in the Arts, run by the Ministry for the Arts. The language surrounding this policy shift focuses on ‘mainstream’ arts, aiming for ‘large audiences’ with this word ‘excellence’ appearing more than once in political rhetoric.
It’s unsurprising that the backlash from practising artists of all disciplines has been swift; outraged, hurt and frustrated. Artistic innovation more often than not is fostered in the fringes, not the mainstream. Brave, experimental and talented visual and performance artists explore new ways of creating work; shaping culture by questions asked through creative practices. The AC has sought to implement grants in the past to foster “the unknown and experimental” but with recent funding cuts, it is the small-medium and independent sectors where such experimentation frequently occurs that will be most directly affected. How will the National Programme for Excellence in the Arts support innovative artistic practices? What is excellence in the arts anyway?
My eldest daughter is studying ballet at a performing arts secondary school, as well as at a local ballet studio and her understanding of excellence as a dancer is one of perfecting technical expertise in the ballet genre. Technique is important but does it make for excellence in the dance? Or more importantly, in the dancer?
Recently, my daughter and I were invited to dance together as part of a Memorial Service for people who had suffered the death of a loved one, due to cancer. We flew five hours interstate to dance for 3mins, as part of an opening sequence that began with poetry, music and finished with lighting a candle. We choreographed the work to honour my own mum, who we still miss terribly 13 years after her own fierce yet fatal battle with cancer, and to honour those brave enough to attend the Memorial. My daughter and I talked about how our dance might create a space to hold grief; to speak of unspoken loss and celebrate the beauty of the relationship between two people who love each other. We talked about the intimacy of dance; its potency and fragility . . . and the capacity of the dancer to respect boundaries whilst moving through them to caress and nourish; lightly dusting kisses in the spirit. We spoke of dance as an agent for hope.
What is excellence in the arts? I think there is more to it than mastery of technical skill, although this is important for clarity of communication. There is also more to it than polished performance dynamics and wide-ranging audience appeal, though that too is important. Entwined in the concept of excellence I see innovation, risk-taking and courage. There is also something about excellent arts practice which I’ve observed has at its heart, service. This kind of culture-making service through artistic practice has the capacity to enrich our everyday lives so that we might celebrate the beauty of our differences and allow our art to make a difference. Perhaps more significantly, the kinds of artists seeking to make such innovative work also need to be nurtured and supported (yes, funding has a large part to do with that) and truly valued - because this is what ultimately fosters excellence in the arts.
Photography of Samantha Coleman by Alix Hamilton, reprinted with permission.