Australian Creative Histories & Futures (ACHF) has released its first major research report, From Creative Histories to Futures: Mapping the Cultural Data Sector in Australia. The landmark study is the first of its kind to provide a comprehensive picture of how the arts, creative and cultural sector creates, manages, shares and uses data. The report aims to strengthen cross-sector collaboration and support the development of a more accessible, interoperable and ethical cultural data infrastructure for the future.
"Data plays an increasingly important role in artistic and cultural life, shaping how creative work is documented, shared, understood and valued," said report co-authors and ACHF co-leads A/Prof Bryoni Trezise and Dr Caroline Wake. "This report provides the first national picture of Australia's cultural data sector, identifying both its strengths and the challenges that need to be addressed. By bringing together the experiences of artists, researchers, cultural institutions and policy makers, we hope to support more informed decision-making and build the foundations for a cultural data ecosystem that is ethical, inclusive and fit for the future."
The report reveals the transformative potential of cultural data to strengthen research, inform policy and generate new opportunities for creativity. It highlights the powerful connections between Australia's creative histories and the futures they help shape.
Understanding Australia's creative data cultures
More than a study of data, From Creative Histories to Futures: Mapping the Cultural Data Sector in Australia draws on expertise from 33 national interviewees and 209 survey respondents to understand more about how artists, archivists, programmers, curators and researchers within Australia's creative sector use cultural data to deepen knowledge about the arts.
Authored by ACHF co-leads A/Prof Bryoni Trezise and Dr Caroline Wake, with Neenah Gray, Asli Günel and Aayush Fuskelay, the report shifts the conversation from simply observing cultural data to understanding Australia's diverse data cultures: the ways artists, creative professionals and cultural institutions work with data.
The report identifies key strengths, challenges and inequities within the cultural data ecosystem, offering new and important insights that help to understand the relationship between Australia's data cultures and creative cultures. The data cultures explored in the report are all underpinned by Indigenous data and Indigenous data governance.
Jenny Fewster, Director of the HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons at the Australian Research Data Commons commented, "This report is the first of its kind in Australia and a landmark contribution to our understanding of how the arts and cultural sector creates, uses and shares data.
"Australia's cultural and creative sector contributes $67.4 billion to the national economy and employs over 591,000 people*, yet the data infrastructure needed to understand, measure and grow that sector has until now been fragmented and poorly mapped.
"This report changes that. It gives researchers, policymakers and cultural institutions a shared foundation to work from, and it directly informs the infrastructure the ACHF and HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons are building to make Australia's rich creative heritage more accessible, interoperable and future-ready."
An intergenerational responsibility
The report highlights the significant value of cultural data, with several research participants viewing the stewardship of cultural data as an intergenerational responsibility.
To strengthen the nation's cultural data ecosystem, the report outlines a series of recommendations, including support for Indigenous data governance, ethical data practices, nationally significant datasets, improved interoperability between government and sector datasets, long-term collaborative research partnerships, and greater sector capability in data literacy and use. It also advocates for continued development of cultural statistics and new approaches to understanding the long-term public value of arts and culture.
