By-roads and Hidden Treasures: Mapping Cultural Assets in Regional Australia

Marc Notes: Service fee may apply outside Australia.; Includes bibliographical references. Publisher Marketing: In 2008, the Cultural Asset Mapping for Regional Australia (CAMRA) project was born with the very simple question: how can we best map regional culture in contemporary Australia, so that we can assess that culture's value? In the five years that followed, what transpired was an unpredictable journey into unlikely places and too-often neglected communities across regional Australia, from western Sydney to the central desert, from east coast surfboard-shapers to Torres Straight hip-hop musicians. Their experiences, stories, and insights confronted existing assumptions, and challenged many of the cherished precepts of cultural policy and creative industries research. By-Roads and Hidden Treasures brings together the CAMRA project's researchers - along with cultural critics and arts and creative industry figures - to discuss culture and its connection to community, particularly in isolated circumstances and under-populated locales. Including Indigenous and non-Indigenous voices, the book contains thought-provoking discussions on regional Australia's colonial and cultural heritage, and it details innovative new methods for measuring cultural assets. The book also reflects on the collaborations with peak cultural bodies in order to inform imminent policy and planning decisions for regional Australia. Contributor Bio:  Ashton, Paul, Captain Paul Ashton is the Development Producer at BBC Writersroom. He has assessed thousands of scripts, developed hundreds of writers, and written, produced and directed new writing across theatre, radio, film and television. Contributor Bio:  Gibson, Chris In 1978 his interest in aircraft took Chris Gibson into the Royal Observer Corps where he represented his group, area and country in aircraft recognition competitions between 1980 and 1991. On the standing down of the ROC in 1991, Chris began researching historical aviation and has written several books on un-built projects, particularly guided weapons. Contributor Bio:  Gibson, Ross Ross Gibson is an Australian writer and researcher who also makes films and multi-media environments, and is currently Professor of Contemporary Arts in the Sydney College of the Arts, at the University of Sydney. His main interests are contemporary arts, communication and the history of environmental consciousness in colonial cultures, particularly in Australia and the Pacific. Ross was previously the Creative Director at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) and spent several years as a Consultant Producer for the Museum of Sydney.