Welcome to the introductory course on NAVA's Code of Practice specifically designed for artists.

Course summary

This course can help you maintain an informed understanding of good practice when engaging in decision-making, establishing agreements and fostering productive working relationships. 

The purpose of this course is to familiarise you with the Code and demonstrate how it can be useful in everyday tasks, but also help with more fundamental questions and challenges. The Code sets out equitable, ethical and self-reflective standards for the professional Australian contemporary arts sector.

Learning outcomes include:

• Master Code access and navigation.
• Recognise the Code’s usefulness.
• Understand the contents of the Code.
• Effectively apply the Code’s principles.

There are a series of short pre-recorded videos summarising the Code and selected chapters from within the Code, as well as a short number of exercises that will help you apply what you have learned to your work. 

Community

Linked to the course is a Community message board where students can see some of the NAVA suggested answers to the exercises and contribute to the topics discussed. Any related Community posts/answers will be linked in the exercises as you move through the course, or you can wait until course completion to have a look. You are welcome to post your own thoughts or new topics related to the Code of Practice on the Community message board.

Time

This is a self-paced course and can be undertaken in one block or stretched out over a period of time. It is not intended to be dense or overwhelming, but serve as an introduction to how the Code can benefit your work and the professional relationships you maintain. 

Depending on the time spent on the exercises, the course can take approximately between 30 to 90 minutes.

Materials

You may want to have a notepad and pen handy, but most importantly you will need a computer and access to the internet so you can explore the Code of Practice while undertaking this course.

Accessibility

Each video will include both captions as well as a transcript written below. The Code of Practice website includes an accessibility widget to the bottom right corner of the pages, please click on the person symbol to adjust how the Code website is viewed.

Glossary

For discussion of terms and language used in the Code, please refer to the Code glossary. In particular the word ‘artist’ is used throughout the Code to refer to visual artists, craft practitioners, designers and makers.