Creative communities

![CDATA[This paper discusses how creativity is identified as the central theme in analyzing how cultural policy has evolved within an Australian context. It is drawn from a larger study exploring creative expression in the ordinary and everyday. The discussion demonstrates that in the absence of an integrated national approach to cultural planning founded on an articulation of collectively shared values, current government cultural planning practice views professional creative practitioners as valuable human assets fuelling economic growth. Arts service providers are increasingly required to provide evidence of the economic impact of their professional practice where government policy features economic factors as central to planning. Although there is an increasing recognition of the arts promoting social capital, innovation is viewed as a key resource in policy planning with creative industries driving cultural growth and development. Articulating how the arts present opportunities for negotiating shared understandings in promoting community cultural growth provides a basis for developing alternative models of cultural planning which address cultural, economic, social and environmental concerns.]]