Daphne Banyawarra from Ramingining, photo courtesy of Bula’bula Arts

What is an Art Centre?

Art Centres play an important role in maintaining and strengthening cultural practices. They operate as meeting places and offer opportunities for training, education, career pathways and enterprise.

They also play a vital economic role in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. This economic aspect is crucial not only to the Indigenous art and craft industry, but also to the health of the communities generally. Art Centre sales are often the only externally generated source of income.

The strengthening and positioning of Art Centres will ensure that Australia’s Indigenous art sector continues to flourish and excel. The economic independence of communities will help ensure that people can continue to live on their homelands, resulting in the preservation of traditional practices, ceremonies, language, art and spirituality. Art Centres often provide many social benefits which are not directly related to the arts. These services include assistance with health and medical requirements, aged care services, family business, education, legal, transport and financial management issues.

Arts Centres also provide a safe and supportive environment for artists and their families. Providing services such as these contributes to the social and physical health of community members.

Art Centres are…

Places of creativity
Fostering the creation of contemporary fine art.

Cultural keeping places
Art Centres dutifully put aside works of old and deceased artists for future reference by family and other community members.

Repositories of cultural knowledge
Art Centres are digitally recording images and documentation for community access now and by future generations.

Places for cultural rejuvenation
Art Centres are places where communities can renew cultural values and traditional lore.

Places that empower people
They are places where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture is valued in both worlds. Connection to country is maintained and strengthened. It is a place where communities can share their successes and engage with the wider community.

Employment and training facilities
Art Centres are a key provider of training and employment in Indigenous Communities. They are organisations that are Indigenous owned and operated, and generate income from outside of their communities. This means that they are not recirculating welfare payments.

Film Makers
Many short documentary films are produced under the auspice of Art Centres which serve to inform and educate the wider community about Indigenous culture.

Technological hubs in communities
Art Centres are often at the cutting edge of new technologies introduced through graphic design and multi-media.

Contributors to GDP
The 2007 Senate Inquiry, “Indigenous Arts – Securing the Future” identified that: ‘More recent estimates place the value of the Indigenous visual arts sector at $400- $500 million’.

Our Art Centre Members

The DAAF Foundation is owned and operated by a membership of more than 70 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Centres from across Australia.