[Reset: To turn a piece of computer equipment off and then on again when it does not work correctly, to make it start working correctly again.]
Reset: is an eight-month programme of events involving art and culture practitioners, policymakers and academics from all three universities in South Australia. The deepening crisis in arts and culture was only made worse by the pandemic, and its current failure to secure its value as an essential part of our democratic society has long roots. We seek new ideas and practices to help us rethink the value of art and culture and re-establish their place in public policy and in our everyday citizenship.
The proposition: Arts and cultural policy is in crisis, the pandemic has only exacerbated this. A fundamental process of resetting is needed – reflection, rethinking, dialogue. This resetting includes elements of ‘restoration’ – acknowledging what has been eroded and needs restoring – and reconstruction – moving on and building anew taking account of the realities of the current situation. We need to reset our shared understandings of art and culture, and the language in which we frame these. Economic, and to a lesser extent social policy, instrumentalism has hollowed out much of our language and our ability to rethink the problems we face. We have lost the ability to articulate the specific value of art and culture, as social practice and as public policy.
Posts
Reset’s Submission to the Inquiry into National Cultural Policy
March 2023 Dear Committee, Thank you for the opportunity to make a submission to the Senate Standing Committees on Environment and Communications Inquiry into the National Cultural Policy. We represent Reset Arts and Culture a collaborative group comprising the arts and cultural sector, policy makers and academics in South Australia. Reset is advocating for a…
Culture Goal? A New Vision for Art and Cultural Policy
16 September, OACPS House, Africa Room, Brussels A half-day workshop was organised by Reset, Culture Concepts and Avril Joffe, UNESCO Expert, Witwaterstrand University, South Africa as a part of a series of events in Berlin, Brussels and Antwerp in September 2022. This half-day symposium addresses the campaign for a cultural goal in the SDGs, less as a…
Re-Imagining Cultural Policy: A Workshop from a Global Perspective in Berlin
14 September 2022, Art Center Kunstquartier Bethanien A half-day workshop was organised by Reset, Culture Concepts and Avril Joffe, UNESCO Expert, Witwaterstrand University, South Africa as is part of a series of events in Berlin, Brussels and Antwerp between the proposal partners. The world faces a convergence of crises – in a decade with enormous…