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Ellis (2002) argues that an overwrought focus on community relevance can be
counterproductive.
‘Organizations that are freighted down by wider civic responsibilities and the
financial obligations that are required to exercise them risk losing that ability to
make choices— especially when financial survival is dependent upon the ability
to demonstrate effectiveness as an instrument of someone else’s policy.’
In May 2014, the Australia Council launched the ‘Community Relevance
Guide’, an online resource for arts organisations looking to explore and develop
community connections (www.cr.australiacouncil.gov.au).
Excellence in curating and capacity to innovate
At the very heart of every cultural organisation is a process of conceptualising and
curating imaginative programmes. This element of creative capacity addresses
the health of the process of conceiving and developing public programmes, and
speaks to both staff capacity and an organisational culture that fosters creativity in
programming. What are the inputs to programming decisions Who can suggest
ideas for programmes What process is used for vetting programme ideas Are
alternative settings and formats considered Are the right creative minds and
artistic voices at the table Boerner (2004) identifies ‘profile quality’—the selection
of works that the company performs— as a complement to ‘performance quality’,
implying that the process of curating is central to quality. Tobias’s approach to
adjudicating quality relies on expert reviewers’ consideration of the quality of
work (ie, the output of the curatorial process), but we were unable to find quality
models that explicitly incorporate indicators of the health of the creative process
itself.
An organisation’s capacity to innovate is another aspect of creative capacity
explored by researchers. In an article on the determinants of artistic innovation,
Xavier Castañer and Lorenzo Campos (2002) move beyond the discussion of
‘repertoire innovation’, arguing that new works of art are not necessarily innovative
and presentations of old works may be highly innovative (2002, 32-33). While
other studies have examined the role of qualities such as size, age and organisa-
CREATIVE CAPACITY OF AN ORGANISATION 118
UNDERSTANDING the value and impacts of cultural experiences