How to Become a Community Arts Worker in Australia

 A Community Arts Worker in Australia may be the best opportunity if you want to pursue a meaningful and creative career. This position is a combination of art and social change- assisting communities in gaining access to and participating in and enjoying the arts.


The Role: Key Tasks & Skills

Typical Tasks

The following are some of the fundamental community arts worker activities they can anticipate:

  • Studying and examining neighborhood problems, wants, and desires. 

  • Creating, instigating, and reevaluating community arts programs (workshops, festivals, exhibitions, public art) together with community members and artists. 

  • Drafting funding applications, budget control, and communication with stakeholders (artists, funders, local communities, local government). 

  • Coordinating and facilitating workshops, involvement of people, volunteering, and interaction with the partner organisations. 

  • Enhancing arts practices, reporting and analysing the results, writing reports about social/cultural contribution. 

  • Keeping alive to cultural policy, arts practice, community development trends; adjusting to diverse communities, contexts.

Essential Skills

A combination of creative, facilitative, and analytical ability will be required to achieve success as a Community Arts Worker. Some key ones include:

  • Good interpersonal and communication skills: you will interact with very different people, such as community members, artists, funders, and local government.

  • Project management: budgeting, evaluation, planning, and execution.

  • Artistic or creative competence: such credibility in an art form or a wide practice in creativity is usually appreciated.

  • Community interaction and facilitation: listening skills, empowerment, participation, and inclusion.

  • Cultural flexibility and cultural sensitivity: collaboration with diverse cultural communities, arts, and community intersection.

  • Research, writing, and evaluation: most probably, you will have to present funding proposals, measure outcomes, and report on impact.

  • Digital and media skills: social media, promotional, and engagement digital means are getting more significant.

Community Arts Worker in Australia Qualifications

Formal Qualifications

Regarding the qualifications for a Community Arts Worker in Australia, the information in the following table is presented:

  • The ANZSCO and occupation data: in the category of Welfare, Recreation and Community Arts Workers, the most qualification achieved by most workers was the Bachelor's degree (38.5) and post-graduate (19) in that larger group. 

  • In the case of specific Community Arts Worker classification, employment statistics indicated: 32 percent had post-graduate/graduate diploma or graduate certificate; 34.4 percent had a Bachelor's degree; 13.3 percent had an advanced diploma/ diploma; 7.3 percent had Certificate III/IV. 

  • With the formal description of occupation through VETASSESS, the occupation (ANZSCO 272611) is a Skill Level 1 job (i.e., the same as a Bachelor’s degree or higher). 

  • Information that is given by training providers would imply that you would be able to get in through diplomas or creative arts courses; however, higher qualifications or a lot of related experience would be required of you, so that you can shine through. 

Recommended Education Pathways

The following are the steps that may be common:

Undergraduate degree or diploma: E.g., Bachelor of Arts (Community Arts), Bachelor of Creative Arts and Community Wellbeing, or any other combination of arts and community activity. 

Specialised postgraduate or graduate certificate: In case you already have a degree in the creative or arts, a postgraduate certificate in community cultural development, arts management, or community arts can enhance your qualifications.

Vocational education/training: Diplomas or Certificates in Community Services, Arts, Community Cultural Development, or other similar areas can offer a path, especially when it is supported by experience. 

Acquire appropriate experience: Internships, volunteering, arts projects, community workshops, festivals, and local government programs. Formal study is often not as significant as experience.

Ongoing professional growth: Arts facilitation workshops, community building, cultural competency workshops, assessment techniques, and digital media arts.

Additional Considerations

  • In case you want to work in regional, remote, or Indigenous community-based areas, you will find the knowledge of local cultural protocols, Indigenous arts, and cross-cultural practice, and remote community engagement useful.

  • Most of the positions will require that you are not shy to work beyond the normal working hours (evenings/weekends) as arts events and community workshops tend to be held after 9-5. 

  • To migrate to Australia and pursue this occupation, the skills assessment criteria required through VETASSESS will be: e.g. Bachelor's degree or higher or equivalent and relevant work experience. 

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