Describe the main features of the measure/initiative:
A New Approach’s (ANA) vision is for an Australia that celebrates, benefits from, and invests in, arts, culture and creativity for the benefit of all Australians. It is a non-partisan, evidence-based think tank which champions the positive effects of arts, culture and creative activity in contemporary Australian society.
ANA’s ambition is to strengthen bipartisan, business and wider community support for arts, culture and creativity through an independent and non-partisan approach. In pursuit of this ambition, ANA works to foster a more robust discussion about cultural policy that is based on evidence led insights and informed by shared understandings. ANA works to create the evidence base, inform policy development, lead discussion and coordinate goodwill in a focused and sustained way.
ANA was initiated as a collaborative project by some of Australia’s leading philanthropic organisations. In 2021 ANA is supported by a unique consortium of nine philanthropic organisations from across the country. ANA describes its independence as a key asset, as its work is informed by governance and advisory groups with deep, broad and diverse expertise and perspectives.
Website of the measure/initiative, if available:
What are the results achieved so far through the implementation of the measure/initiative?:
ANA played a role in encouraging the current parliamentary inquiry into creative and cultural institutions and industries.
ANA’s research reports are developed with the purpose of being used across governments, businesses, cultural institutions and by individual creators to shape policy, strategy, investment and advocacy. Providing independent and rigorous evidence, analysis and insight in this manner is one of the key ways ANA supports stronger, better-informed governance for culture in Australia.
One of these reports, A view from middle Australia: Perceptions of arts, culture and creativity, explores current attitudes to arts and culture amongst ‘middle Australians’ (middle-aged, middle-income swing voters) with a particular focus on marginal electorates in suburban and regional areas. It finds that middle Australians are passionate about the role of arts and culture in their lives, and have clear views about the opportunities that arts and culture create for them, for their families, and for society more broadly.
Importantly, these middle Australians felt that without arts and culture people would be less tolerant of each other’s differences, and they would have fewer opportunities to learn from others who were less like them—something participants seemed to genuinely value.