Who Will Be on the Board of Music Australia?
The potential composition of the board which will oversee Music Australia, has been revealed.
In addition, The Music Network has been given insight into the way the Board will be appointed and how it will direct the new industry body.
Music Australia is scheduled to come into being in a matter of weeks, on July 1, as part of sweeping changes to Australia’s federal cultural policy framework.
Music Australia will sit under the new Creative Australia – a renewed and rebranded Australia Council for the Arts – and will support and invest in the development of Australian contemporary music. The Federal Government assigned $69.4 million to establish the new institution.
Speaking exclusively to The Music Network as part of the TMN Talks session on the most recent Federal Budget and what it means for music, Adrian Collette, CEO of the Australia Council for the Arts, talked about the types of professionals who would be, and who would not be, steering the organisation forward.
Post continues below TMN Talks video:
“It’s going to be light on bureaucrats, that I think I can firmly promise,” he said of the Music Australia Board.
“We’re not going from a standing start. We’ve been doing a lot of work behind the scenes, so we can get off the blocks as fast as possible,” he added.
“We’ve consulted broadly with the industry. The [Arts] Minister [Tony Burke] will then appoint the Board of Music Australia and the importance of that is, they will be advising us, Music Australia, on the strategic investments that need to be made over the next three to four years to really stand the sector in the best possible stead.”
Collette also noted that the Board would need to reflect the diversity of the industry in order to be effective.
“I think the sector will have to see itself there,” he said. “So we’ve been talking, through very broad consultation, to artists first and foremost, to managers, artist managers, the incredible people who do this work. We’ve been talking to labels, both big and independent. We’ve been talking to people who write for screen, music for screen, because we’ll work very closely with our colleagues at Screen Australia.
“And the diversity of the sector will have to see itself there, and I’m really confident. And it’s important to know that Minister Burke will make these appointments. He will take good advice from us, from others, he’s deeply connected to the sector, but they are his appointments to make. That is very, very likely. But you get a balance advising you on the strategy going forward.”