Officially, Newport’s Jane Crawley has been awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the General Division in the King’s Birthday honours for service to the arts and cultural equity.
As far as descriptions go, it’s a very broad one and the 65 year old is happy to keep it that way.
“I’ve had so many different jobs so I’m not even going to begin describing them all,” said Crawley when asked to be more specific about what she’s been honoured for.
A quick glance at her bio on the King’s Birthday honours press release proves she’s not joking.
The list of positions and achievements Crawley has notched up in her career takes up almost a full page and dates back to the 1980’s.
It also proves her award for services to arts and cultural equity is richly deserved.
Of the dozens of entries, the one constant theme is one of service to other artists, particularly those from disadvantaged or diverse backgrounds.
Despite describing herself as “semi-retired“ it’s a service that continues to the present day.
“At the moment I’m deputy chair of the Victorian Pride Centre, I’m the chair of the Artspay Foundation and I work with creatives and creative collectives whose values I align with,” said Crawley, who is in a same-sex relationship and whose values clearly include supporting other LGBTQIA+ people in the arts, such the team behind Tilda, the trains and gender diverse screen festival.
“It’s strategy, governance advice, fundraising and partnerships,” said Crawley of the work she does with Tilda and which describes much of the rest of her career too.
“I’ve worked all my career to enable and support artists and to make space for anyone without power and privilege,” she said.
“I basically try and open any gate that I have access to.
“That’s really my passion.”
It’s passion she turned to in the early 1980’s after originally starting out as a poet.
“I had to make a living,” said Crawley of why she moved from artist to arts administrator.
It’s a background that has helped her understand what other creatives battling to make ends meet are going through and also that those from wealthy backgrounds are at a distinct advantage.
Crawley said the arts sector has always favoured those with wealth and privilege, though at least today there is an awareness of it and willingness to discuss it that didn’t exist before.
“People are continually making new ways to make careers. It’s still very, very hard, but it always has been,” she said, adding that the arts sector in Victoria had still not recovered from Covid19.
“I think people are still really exhausted and depleted financially and emotionally.”
Despite these hurdles, Crawley has survived in the arts sector for 40 years, something she partly credits to living and working in Hobsons Bay.
“One of the very early jobs I had was at the old Williamstown council as an arts officer and I remember commissioning the public art that’s still on Newport Railway Station,” said Crawley, who has lived in Newport since 2000.
“I just think the west and Hobsons Bay is incredible. For the environment and creativity.”
