Draft Library Museum Gallery Strategy 2020-2023

A Draft Strategic Plan to enhance the value of Coffs Harbour’s cultural services for residents and visitors into the future is to go out for public comment from December 4, 2019, until January 29, 2020.

It was developed in response to Council’s adopted ‘Creative Coffs – Cultural Strategic Plan 2017-2022’, which identified in particular the need to support the development, preservation and promotion of Coffs Harbour cultural collections.

The Draft Library Museum Gallery (LMG) Strategy covers the city’s three libraries, the Regional Museum and Regional Gallery.

The Draft Strategy has three primary objectives:

Improving LMG services to accommodate changing community expectations and regional growth; Experimenting with new service platforms and programs during the transition of the service to the new Cultural and Civic Space; and Consolidating the gains made by creating an integrated LMG team and continuing ongoing initiatives to enhance access to the museum, library and art collections.

Initial community and stakeholder engagement has been undertaken to develop the Strategy. Over 1,000 people participated in online surveys, workshops, interviews and meetings. The engagement found that residents and stakeholders have:

optimism about the future of the Coffs Harbour Region; consistent views that social cohesion and inclusion will benefit from more places, spaces and opportunities for people to interact; a desire to contribute to the community and its natural environment; and a perception that Library Museum Gallery services, while valued, are struggling to meet community expectations and are at risk of falling behind the cultural offerings in other regional cities.

The Draft LMG Strategy is not only designed to meet the current and future needs of the local community, it also provides a roadmap to successfully move into and establish improved cultural services at the Cultural and Civic Space in the CBD.

Submissions are invited on the Draft LMG Strategy from December 4, 2019, to January 29, 2020. To view the Draft Strategy and/or to make a submission, please go to Council’s Have Your Say website at haveyoursay.coffsharbour.nsw.gov.au Hardcopies can also be viewed at the Council Customer Service Centre in Castle Street or at local libraries.