Past Events
Home /
The Australian Government is currently developing a new policy to ‘shape the future direction of the creative and cultural sector’, building on the previous policy, Revive: A place for every story, a story for every place. Between 23 March and 24 May 2026, Australian individuals and organisations were invited to share their views and help guide the next National Cultural Policy. The Australian Youth Orchestra took part in the national conversation, making a number of submissions to reflect different perspectives across our programs and our commitment to ensuring a diversity of voices is represented in this process. Together, they draw on our experience working with young musicians across the country, highlighting their role in sustaining the cultural ecosystem and the importance of aligning education and the arts to strengthen participation.
For AYO, the invitation by the Government to review our National Cultural Policy was an important opportunity to reflect on the achievements of the existing framework and to articulate AYO’s role in its next iteration. From our position at the intersection of education, training and professional cultural practice, AYO’s submission offered a longitudinal view of how young people are entering pathways to cultural careers, their professional development needs and how their talents and skill are sustaining the broader cultural ecosystem into the future. From this perspective, over a span of nearly 80 years, we are also positioned to identify opportunities for better alignment of the cultural and education sectors in order to strengthen and clarify pathways to cultural participation.
Empowering and inspiring young musicians begins in the classroom and our Music in Me program builds this foundation by supporting primary teachers to deliver music in the classroom every day. In 11 years, the program has reached 598 schools and 1131 teachers in metropolitan, regional and remote Australia, in public, Catholic and independent settings. In our submission, we recommend a Federal-State partnership to enable this program to be scaled nationally, benefiting children and teachers alike.
A person’s engagement with music is rarely linear. Learning, performance, professional work and community participation are interconnected and play out over the course of a lifetime. At its core, AYO provides excellence in orchestral training and this work places the organisation in a connective role within the arts ecology: bringing together opportunities to learn, perform, teach and lead. In the AYO Youth Council’s independent submission to the review, they articulate their vision for a vibrant, connected and sustainable cultural landscape. In their hands, as current cultural practitioners, they are shaping arts practice today and must be awarded the same status, mobility and fairness any artist would expect under the policy.
Taken together, AYO’s submissions make a clear case for a cultural policy that recognises young people not only as future artists and audiences, but as vital contributors to Australia’s cultural life right now. By strengthening the connections between education, training and professional practice, the next National Cultural Policy has the opportunity to support more coherent, equitable and sustainable pathways to participation—ensuring that talent can be nurtured, developed and shared across the full breadth of Australia’s cultural ecosystem.
Read the submissions in full:
AYO Submission to the National Cultural Policy Review
AYO Music in Me Submission to the National Cultural Policy Review
AYO Youth Council Submission to the National Cultural Policy Review