Cultural Strategy released for public comment by City of Launceston council

At Thursday's meeting, the council unanimously passed releasing the draft strategy for public comment, with the councillors saying it has been a long three-year journey.

The strategy outlines possible actions to see the strategic focus areas come to life.

The focus areas are based around valuing and respecting Aboriginal Culture, the potential of cultural places and assets, fostering creative practice, revealing cultural stories and building and extending partnerships.

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Each focus area has a number of desired actions, however none of the desired actions have been committed to yet, as it is still the draft strategy.

The councillors said the strategy was the beginning of a transformative document, with Danny Gibson saying it is about who we are.

"Arts and culture are not extras, they're fundamental to a contemporary, functional, friendly and fabulous city," he said.

"This document and its origins ... has really seen us come up with a document that if enacted to its best possible self will be able to continue to place our city at the fore of a place where people want to work, play, and recreate and do this thing that helps develop and shape our communities."

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Cr Gibson said the strategy is something the city can be proud of and could be a leader in this space in the state, and potentially in Australia.

"Most importantly it's about recognising this is a lens that we now look through that makes Launceston one of the best places in the world to live," he said.

The strategy has taken so long to create because it is a huge strategy to transform the city, councillor Hugh McKenzie said.

Councillor Janie Finlay said the way culture had been defined in the strategy was really important.

"It is who we are as a community ... that's been broken down into five really strong themes," she said.

She said it was important to get as many people involved during the feedback period as possible, so it was not just the regular people.

The strategy will be open for public comment for four weeks. After the consultation, the council will define its actions and processes within the first year, with the implementation and monitoring to follow.

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