Dr. Antonio Cuyler Presents in Adelaide, Australia

Dr. Cuyler with panel mate Cecilia Cmielewski

This past December, Dr. Antonio Cuyler traveled to Australia to attend the 41st International Conference on Social Theory, Politics, and the Arts (STP&A). Dr. Cuyler’s panel mate, Cecelia Cmielewski, formerly worked for the Australia Council for the Arts. While in attendance, Dr. Cuyler presented two papers: Access, Equity, and Inclusion: Building Bridges Through Advocacy and Leadership in Public Funding for Culture and An Exploratory Study of Demographic Diversity in the U.S. Arts Management Workforce. Grantmakers in the Arts (GIA) published Dr. Cuyler’s second paper which can be viewed online.

The conference drew attendees from around the world from a multitude of disciplines including “political science, sociology, economics, law, arts management, arts education, art history, museum studies, cultural studies, education, and policy studies as well as arts managers and artists” (STP&A).  Although he has attended previous STP&A conferences in Baton Rouge, Seattle, and Ottowa, when asked about the experience, Dr. Cuyler stated that this conference was set apart by the opportunities to “immerse one’s self in Australian culture.” In fact, according to the STP&A, 2015’s conference was the first to take place in the Asia Pacific region. Dr. Cuyler explained that the STP&A conference is “one of the only international gatherings of cultural policy and arts management scholars and practitioners,” and added that “the value of sharing ideas helps to inspire creative and critical thinking to solutions that affect how people gain access to culture or not.”

Photo credit http://stpaconference.org/

More information about the 2015  STP&A conference as well as past events can be found on the organization’s website.