The Strategy will serve as a roadmap to unlock the creative potential of Greater Shepparton, enabling creativity in all its forms to enrich lives and to enhance liveability, economic growth and community wellbeing in the region.
To drive and support delivery of the strategy, Council has appointed a new Creative City Coordinator and welcomes Anita Larkin to the team at Riverlinks. Anita brings over 20 years’ of experience in the arts and looks forward to working collaboratively to support, strengthen and build new pathways, networks and opportunities for our local creative sector.
At the heart of the strategy’s success will be active engagement of the community in planning and development of creative programs. Council has appointed a Creative City Advisory Group that will convene several times each year, to advise on key strategic directions of the Strategy. The Advisory Group includes diverse representation from key local cultural organisations alongside individual representatives from our local creative community.
The Advisory Group recently met for the first time and identified several priorities for the coming year including: championing the development of First Nations arts and culture through the lens of truth telling; activating new creative spaces around the region; scoping development of a new community arts hub; building new opportunities for creative engagement of young people; and building networks that support creative practice.
The Creative City Strategy can be found on Council’s website here.