Create Georges River – Cultural Strategy

Thank you to everyone who provided feedback on the draft Create Georges River Cultural Strategy.

Formal submissions have now closed, however this strategy is a living document, intended to reflect and guide culture in our community. If you have any thoughts on the Strategy, the Cultural Services team would still love to hear them, and can be reached on (02) 9330 6444 or museumgallery@georgesriver.nsw.gov.au

Next Steps

The suggestions you made will be reviewed and incorporated where appropriate into the final Create Georges River Cultural Strategy. This Strategy is intended to be formally adopted in September, however from what you've told us, we've already started to put some things in place to increase the cultural vibrancy of the area, such as the public art in Hurstville Plaza. If you'd like to know more about what's happening with the development and implementation of Create Georges River, contact us on museumgallery@georgesriver.nsw.gov.au.

Development of Create Georges River Cultural Strategy

On 24 June 2019, Council resolved to publicly exhibit the draft Create Georges River Cultural Strategy for community feedback.

The Create Georges River Cultural Strategy will provide a strategic focus for Council to deliver on its commitment to developing and supporting arts and culture in the area. The draft Strategy articulates ideas and aspirations, developed in close consultation with the Georges River community, key stakeholders and cultural professionals, that will provide Council with a clear vision and actions to be delivered over the next ten years.

Community consultation revealed three key needs related to the growth and development of culture in the Georges River area - communication, sustainability and access. From these key needs, the draft Strategy puts forward four strategic directions:

• CONNECT Georges River speaks to the need to make connections between communities and cultural organisations throughout and beyond the Georges River local government area (LGA) to develop a strong cultural identity and connected cultural ecology;
• CREATE Georges River aims to reimagine the LGA as a place of cultural production, innovation and experimentation. This direction articulates the conditions needed to foster the creation of art and culture; it acknowledges the paucity of fit for purpose creative spaces in the LGA; and it describes how Council can directly and indirectly meet the community’s growing needs;
• EXPRESS Georges River is concerned with the expression of the cultural life of the Georges River LGA. How can the existing forms of cultural activity be more successfully demonstrated both within the LGA and further afield, and how can the LGA better attract high calibre artists and performers;
• SUSTAIN Georges River promotes the sustainability of cultural life in the Georges River LGA.

Cultural Mapping

As part of preparing the draft Create Georges River Cultural Strategy, we have undertaken a cultural mapping process. A snapshot of this can be found on pages 55 – 60 in the draft Strategy or document library on this page.

Cultural mapping is an evolving process. This map is intended as an initial point of reference at a particular point in time. If you would like to add to this map, please email museumgallery@georgesriver.nsw.gov.au