News Alert |

The Ballarat community’s aspirations for a creative city have been revealed in the Draft Creative City Strategy released today. 

Throughout 2018, the Ballarat community has had its say on how best to support the place they live, work, study, create and visit by establishing a world-class creative city.    Ballarat Mayor Samantha McIntosh said Ballarat’s Draft Creative City Strategy and the accompanying Creative Precinct Master Plan is the community’s shared commitment to take something that is already great about the city and make it even greater.    “Ballarat has always been full of creative energy, and we’re ready to showcase this to the world,” she said.    “But this is not something we can do ourselves – We acknowledge that to achieve our ambitions, we all need to celebrate what we have, nurture our talent, collaborate on realising our visions and support our creative industries.     “Our residents and creatives have told us of their aspirations for Ballarat’s Creative City Strategy and how it will contribute to a Ballarat that is proud, bold and thriving.     “After such constructive community consultation, we’re proud to release the Draft Creative City Strategy – a wonderful work of collaboration which supports the aspirations and ideals of our community.”    So far more than 60 people have told us online how, as part of a coordinated approach, we can position ourselves as Australia’s leading regional creative city.    More than 100 local artists, creatives, business leaders, industry and community groups have also taken part in a series of stakeholder workshops and targeted interviews about how supporting our arts and creative industries will play an important role in shaping the city’s future identity.    The conversations have helped inform the development of the Draft Creative City Strategy – a long-term vision to guide the ongoing development of arts and culture and other creative industries in Ballarat.    The Draft Creative City Strategy focusses on how Ballarat can be an inherently creative city in all it does - demonstrating this to our community and visitors, and celebrating innovation in all its forms.    Cr McIntosh said the strategy also highlights a mission to develop Ballarat as an economy and a community powered by science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM). 

“Developing our STEAM core will equip us to deal positively and productively with our 21st century global challenges – and more importantly, our opportunities,” she said. 

“We want to grow and expand our creative industries sector to digital games developers, fashion designers, architects, film makers, publishers, jewellery makers, advertisers so it becomes a key economic sector in Ballarat.     The stakeholder and community discussions have also equipped the City of Ballarat with the information needed to develop a precinct master plan to guide the future development of the area surrounding Lydiard and Camp Streets as a world-class creative precinct in the heart of the city.    This master plan suggests how Ballarat’s adaptable streets and public spaces will support a broad program of activities, showcasing the city’s assets and expressing the creative energy of the community.    It makes recommendations for future improvements to our precinct's public realm and reimagined use of the precinct's buildings and spaces.    The master plan suggests how four key areas within the precinct might be developed over time: the Civic Hall neighbourhood, Camp Street neighbourhood, Town Hall and the theatre and Innovation neighbourhoods. 

When asked to envision the future of Ballarat as a creative city, stakeholders from across the sector pointed to ways to support, nurture and leverage the local creative community from the grassroots level upwards in a way that binds the sector.     Some of the key themes that were discussed included Ballarat as a place for incubating, educating and establishing creative talent; Ballarat as a place where doing and being creative is embraced, valued and nurtured as a business; and tapping into unique characteristics and strengths of the city to build a strong narrative and growth across creative industries.    Cr McIntosh said it was important to recognise the whole-community approach that has been undertaken to deliver this vision.    “When a community works together anything can be achieved, so it makes sense why the strategy makes suggestions for how different players in the community – be they community members, artists, the City of Ballarat, businesses and organisations, the creative industries or government - might contribute to delivering a range of actions.    The Draft Creative City Strategy is now available to view online at mysay.ballarat.vic.gov.au 

All members of the community are invited to a gathering to share their thoughts about the drafts and to discuss their ideas with a range of creative industry ambassadors and each other. This will be hosted by the City of Ballarat at Housey Housey.  To register your interest in attending visit our Event Page(External link).