01/05/2026
New research emerging from the Vital Arts project highlights the transformative potential of creative, co-produced methodologies.
Published in the Journal of Applied Youth Studies by Associate Professor Rimi Khan, this article builds on collaborative work with young people, demonstrating how arts-based practices can challenge exclusionary norms but also occur in contexts where diversity is commodified in problematic ways. Creative approaches can open up pathways into employment, confidence-building and social change by challenging entrenched prejudice, but can also involve the commodification of cultural difference which is a limited and problematic model.
At a time when higher education and arts provision face increasing pressure, this research underscores what is at stake: not only access to creative practice, but access to voice, agency, and genuine recognition.
📄 Read the article here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s43151-026-00211-7
RMIT University Deakin University Maynooth University Australian Research Council The Push Clock Your Skills Creative Australia
Diversity, Credibility and Cultural Labour as ‘Skill’: Racialised Experiences of Young People in the Creative Industries - Journal of Applied Youth Studies This article investigates how diversity agendas in the creative industries shape systems of value and credibility for racialised young workers. It asks whe