A hydrological metaphor suits this distribution better. The metaphor offers us a progression from source, to creek, to stream, to river and eventually to sea. In a sense, we didn't have to look far to find this metaphor. This metaphor is already part of how we conceive of culture, with its 'mainstream'. Let's then lay out our visual arts ecology along this hydrological matrix.
Source is where the work springs.
Typically, this is the artist's studio. This is the point where the artist has more or less sole voice. This voice is expressed most often in interviews. Creek is a showing to initiates. This is most often fellow artists, such as one of the small artist-run spaces that can be found in capital cities around Australia.