After three years of work the City of Launceston council has released its cultural strategy, but the public will have to wait to see how it will be implemented.
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The concept was sparked in 2017 by Prospect-born artist Robyn Archer, who introduced the idea of a place's culture, and after years of work the council's Cultural Strategy 2020-2030 will face its final hurdle on Thursday - an endorsement from councillors.
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A draft strategy was released in February, before public comment was delayed on it until August due to COVID-19.
Although the strategy has been finalised, if the council endorse it at its meeting on Thursday, implementation framework and an advisory committee still need to be established.
The strategy's five focus areas, which remained the same as the draft, to guide the implementation framework are:
- to value and respect Aboriginal culture
- to realise the potential of cultural places and assets
- to foster creative practices
- to reveal cultural stories
- to build and extend partnerships
In the strategy's foreword, Mayor Albert van Zetten said almost every decision a council made had an impact on the municipality's culture.
"So why do we need a cultural strategy as a local government body? Why not concentrate on the traditional roads, rates and rubbish and let the city's culture be what it is? Simply because local government does operate in the cultural realm," he said.
"Further, the council owns and maintains important cultural assets such as historic buildings, theatres, stadiums and supports a vibrant events scene which all contribute to the culture of our great city.
"This strategy is filled with the voices of the people who make Launceston's culture what it is."
He said the strategy was built through many conversations with the community over a number of years including surveys, one-on-one conversations.
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If endorsed, the next step in the first 12 months is to define actions and processes including the framework, advisory committee, to prioritise actions for each theme and to allocate existing resources.
The next step after that will be ongoing and it looks to implement and monitor the strategy through agreed and resourced actions, advocate for new resources as required, undertake annual planning and reporting with the cultural advisory committee and integrate ongoing evaluation into planning processes.
The strategy states its purpose is to articulate the city's cultural strengths, to inspire and motivate people and organisations to build on these strengths, to express the essential role of cultural vitality in planning for the city's future, to assert the council's commitment to cultural development and to make explicit the relationship between delivering cultural outcomes and the Greater Launceston Plan Community Vision.
The council will decide whether to endorse the strategy or not at its meeting on Thursday.
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