Update, and response to Jillian’s comment in the previous post.
The visit was a field trip by Kim Spinks in order to be shown around the Central Coast to assess the arts and culture situation.
At least that is what I could glean from her comments at an afternoon tea she had with the Regional Gallery Advisory Committee. Her intention is to write an internal report.
It seems that she spent most of her time with local government people (Wyong and Gosford Council employees) as well as holding some meetings with groups organized by Christine Bramble (Wyong Council). Contemporary art groups were not amongst those included.
The report will not be public, but will be available to local government staff.
Her take home message was that a Central Coast arts strategy will not come from ArtsNSW, but that they would support a unified, and politically backed, strategy if one could be developed in the region.
The impression I had was that ArtsNSW preferred to deal with local government as the representatives of the community. It will be interesting to see how the Councils move forward, if they do, given that they have no communicative structure with contemporary art groups at this time.
As it was, so it will be.
In contemporary art it is “D.I.Y. or Die”, as a New York group recently put it.
(Remembering the positive aspects of autonomy in this statement)
These are just my personal observations of the meeting.
The next official “Arts Futures” event will be feedback to stakeholder groups meeting, on the 6th of August, by the consultants employed to carry out the “Cultural Spaces and Places Framework” report.
Neil Berecry-Brown
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Thanks Neil - While I was away I attended a talk by Peter Demediuk discussing "The Costs and Benefits of Community Engagement by Local Government" It stressed the connection and links local councils need to make with the community, while planning strategies for the future. He gave some really diverse examples, however, he mention that some councillors dislike public involvement in the decision making process. Why do councillors think they can take our tax dollars to exclude specialist consultation from members of the public, to make decisions that don't make any sense? The guys from Wyong and Gosford councils need to remove their heads from their arse, to see the great stuff councils are doing for the arts in other areas and states.
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