Active Community Team - CULTURAL DIRECTIONS POLICY
This statement identifies "culture" in the context of Wollongong City Council's Cultural Plan and identifies realistic outcomes within the financial constraints of Council's budget.
This statement also acknowledges that all cultural policies need flexibility and ongoing consultation with the community.
But most importantly, this statement identifies an ongoing commitment to the Reconciliation process by acknowledging the original people of this area and their culture as essential to Wollongong's cultural identity.
The Active Community Team are aware of the importance of culture on the quality of life for residence and visitors alike. Culture is an important catalyst in creating a fresh new identity for Wollongong.
These are some of the positive actions the ACT plan to implement:
Cultural Communities
· Establish creative partnerships with communities in all Ward areas for skill development and village identity.
· Create skill development and arts training workshops for the benefit of local cultural organisations throughout all Wards
· Develop partnerships with the cultural sector and the business and industry sectors to promote a strong cultural industry, integrated into tourism, information technologies, and other appropriate industries.
· Acknowledgement that culture adds to quality of life and therefore addresses other issues of public safety, diversity and tolerance and creates a sense of local cultural pride.
· Youth arts strategy developing skills and opportunities and assist with establishing a youth arts industry by establishing and encouraging audio and video studios, and visual arts studios including print, photography.
· Review representation on all council's committee to ensure diversity of membership in the spirit of the charter of the People of Wollongong.
· Establish a Wollongong Council's Young Artist of the Year Award.
· Initiate an annual Wollongong Art Prize to encourage local emerging artists.
· Integrate local Indigenous Arts into any cultural tourism ventures particularly with National Parks and Wildlife
· Establish a multicultural writers program celebrating migration.
· Establish a writers program to assist with publishing local histories by using Council's in-house printing.
· Support and encourage local young musicians and the music industry in Council's cultural policy.
· Initiate creative partnerships with the Youth Centre, TAFE and the University's multi media resources.
· Closer monitoring of the Cultural Small Grants.
Audience Development
· Establish regular media segments with all media including community radio, commercial radio, local television and press media, to inform local and global audiences of cultural happenings in Wollongong.
· Integrate the cultural industry more effectively on to the Internet
· Initiate Sunday Afternoon concerts, showcasing local artists, in recreational spaces throughout all Wards in Wollongong.
· Create travelling exhibition of appropriate works from the Wollongong City Gallery collection into shopping centres, schools, and other public spaces throughout Wollongong and thereby improved access and relevance to the arts in Wollongong.
· Improve visitors hours for infrastructures such as the City Gallery and the Town Hall (public toilets for visitors is also a crucial issue).
· Encourage local buskers and entertainers back into the heart of the city.
· Produce a CD-ROM of the City Gallery's collection similar to the Library's historic photograph collection.
Cultural Industry
· Actively participate in the Cultural Tourism Strategy through IREDO
· Establish a cultural presence with Illawarra Business Chamber and establish creative partnerships.
· Incorporate Glennifier Brae and the Botanic Gardens, including the Conservatorium of Music, into the cultural strategy.
· Improve council's relationship with local cultural groups - such as the arts community, heritage groups, the Aboriginal community, performers and musicians, and highlight the importance of the cultural industry to tourism, the business sector, and to the community's quality of life. Council should have a preference to employing local professionals in key cultural positions.
· Build partnerships with the University of Wollongong to develop strategies in new media and technologies.
· Identify and implement links with the cultural sector and the corporate sector to create partnerships with local cultural activities.
· Treat local artist as assets to the community and involve them in cultural development.
· Involve all local artists and the local cultural industry in the cultural process, and treat local artists as an asset by employing local artists in public art, and local musicians to entertain in the Mall.
· Utilise Gallery 9 in the City Gallery (the old Wollongong Council Chamber) for Youth Council and Cultural Forums.
City Identity
· Review Wollongong's Heritage Control Plan to reflect the unique industrial heritage through migration and the indigenous cultural heritage.
· Improve our built environment to reflect the cultural identity of the region through public art and community streetscape programs.
· Create a partnership with the RTA to enhance sound barriers for residents whose homes face them and as cultural statements for passing motorists.
· Support Council in creating a position of cultural agent for the cultural industry
Cultural Infrastructure
· Identify opportunities of the S94 developer contributions to develop cultural awareness.
· Review Council's Film Location Policy and develop strategies with Tourism Wollongong to promote the area as an ideal location for film and television production.
· Review Council's leasing arrangements of cultural assets (the City Gallery, the Entertainment Centre, IPAC, and the Mall)
· Examine the future direction of McCabe Park - the Green Heart of Wollongong. Investigate concepts such as sculpture symposium to create sculpture park.
Authorised Dave Martin - ph 42 672398
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