Indicative of the growing international trend to include the “creative industries” within the ambit of arts and cultural policy, the Australia Council’s report Arts and Creative Industries offers a timely contribution to the discussion in the lead to the development of a National Cultural Policy.

There has been some great commentary on the release of this report with Marcus Westbury’s piece in The Age That old opposition of art and popular culture is now mostly threadbare and Ben Eltham’s piece responding to the report The plan to provoke a profound shake up of the arts on Crikey generating some fruitful discussion.

As another example of the trend, preceeding last year’s Victorian election Labor’s arts policy Creative Powerhouse likewise proposed that the design, screen and digital game industries residing with the then Department of Innovation, Industry and Regional Development and the responsibilities of Arts Victoria be bought under a single new entity Creative Victoria.

The discussions around these issues are welcome and AICV will be contributing as the debate unfolds as well as evaluating potential outcomes for the sector.