The conference will be held at the University of South Australia in conjunction with the Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre, UniSA Business School, and the Asia Pacific Centre for Arts and Cultural Leadership, a joint venture between the Adelaide Festival Centre and UniSA.

The theme of the conference is to explore how individuals, organisations and institutions can expand and strengthen the capability of the arts and cultural sectors to create value for different stakeholders in society.

The conference opening keynote addresses by Distinguished Professor of Economics at Macquarie University, David Throsby and Professor Julian Meyrick from Flinders University will explore this theme of measuring the value of arts and culture.

With the recent disestablishment of the National Program for Excellence in the Arts (NPEA) and formation of its replacement Catalyst – Australian Arts and Culture Fund, a discussion on the broader value of arts and culture to Australian society is timely.

Contemporary issues in arts and culture in the Asia Pacific region will form the focus of the second day of the conference, with Douglas Gautier delivering a keynote on the role of cultural institutions in a multicultural society followed by a panel of prominent international speakers drawn from academia and cultural institutions across the Asia Pacific. The panel will be sponsored by the Asia Pacific Centre for Arts and Cultural Leadership. The closing plenary will be delivered by Karl Telfer, Director of PAITYA Dance Group and Co-Founder of CRED: Cultural Research, Education and Design.

The conference program will include over 100 speakers drawn from arts management, cultural policy and economics to art history and museum studies and representing institutions from the US, the UK, Europe, Canada, South Africa, and across the Asia Pacific including Korea, Japan, China, Singapore, and Australia. Papers will explore a range of themes including cultural policy and labour; popular culture; cultural economics; audience engagement; arts and social inclusion; cultural evaluation and postcolonial issues in arts and culture.

‘We’re excited to be bringing this prestigious conference to Adelaide, and to the Asia Pacific region for the first time’ says Conference Chair and Asia Pacific Centre for Arts and Cultural Leadership Deputy Director, Associate Professor Stephen Boyle. ‘Adelaide with its vibrant and growing arts and culture scene is the perfect location to host this conference and we’re looking forward to welcoming local and international delegates in December.’

Registrations for the conference close 30 November 2015. For further information and to register please visit the STP&A website.

The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre in conjunction with STP&A is pleased to offer the public FREE access to three keynote lectures as part of the conference. These include the Opening Plenary with Professor David Throsby AO, Distinguished Professor in Economics of Art and Culture and Professor Julian Meyrick, Strategic Professor of Creative Arts at Flinders University and the Plenary and the Arts Panel with Douglas Gautier, CEO & Artistic Director of the Adelaide Festival Centre.

FREE Registration: Social Theory, Politics and The Arts Conference – Keynote Addresses
Friday 11 – Saturday 12 December 2015
Allan Scott Auditorium, University of South Australia, City West campus

Presented by The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre, The University of South Australia and The Asia Pacific Centre for Arts and Cultural Leadership.