The establishment of the blog is absolutely linked to my fast approaching departure to the UK and Ireland to investigate approaches to public arts development, including strategic plans and policies, funding and community involvement.
As the arts officer at the Rotorua District Council (RDC) I am responsible for developing and implementing arts policies. These policies enable Council to support a huge range of programmes and projects. If you are curious about what these projects might be then I invite you to visit www.creativerotorua.org.nz.
RDC's Art in Public Policy was revised last in 2008. As with all public arts policies and plans around the country, approaches or strategies from other territorial authorities both in and outside of NZ, influenced the original policy development. There are some familiar strands through public arts policies everywhere, with notable variations usually around selection, staffing and funding.
For a small city of 65,000+ people, my feeling is that Rotorua has a reasonably strong collection of public art, including murals, carving and sculpture. Of course this is a reflection of an area which has been a cultural destination for well over 100 years.
I will be looking at how we can further develop and improve our public arts programme. Maintaining this blog will be fulfil part of my responsibility to share the experiences and learning while abroad.
A Winston Churchill Fellowship is enabling this investigation, for which I am hugely grateful.
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