Celebrating our commitment to public art
The Animating Wollongong Public Art Strategy 2022-2032 will be available on Council’s website
Wollongong City Council media release: 8 November 2022
Diverse feedback from our community has been woven into Wollongong City Council’s freshly adopted Animating Wollongong Public Art Strategy 2022-2032.
The document was considered at Monday night’s Council meeting and the updated strategy will provide an ongoing framework for Council to offer and facilitate creative expression in spaces across our city.
“We’re a diverse city whether you think about our cultures, our beliefs or even how we live our lives and it’s important we have wide-ranging public art that allows for respectful creative expression,’’ Wollongong City Acting Lord Mayor Councillor Tania Brown said.
“Not every piece of art will appeal to every person, but what we’re setting out in this document is how we will work to offer a broad selection of art and artistic opportunities to cater to as many people as possible.
“For example, we’ve artworks within the local government area in the form of a sculpture, like our newest public artwork, Reflect, at Clifton, murals like that on the Karrara Bridge underpass in Dapto and the popular works in Globe Lane in Wollongong, and then there are the sculptural pieces that pop up in the Wollongong Botanic Garden every two years as part of the Sculpture in the Garden competition. They’re all different, they’re all important and they help to tell and reflect our residents’ stories, experiences and interactions with these spaces.’’
Read more about the Karrara Bridge
The Animating Wollongong Public Art Strategy 2022-2032 was informed by community feedback collected across several engagement periods. The feedback was varied and included requests to provide collaborations and opportunities for local artists, suggestions to improve the city’s approach how public art is selected, and comments on the value of public art.
“Public art can certainly provoke conversation and reflect different points of view within the community but it should also inspire, challenge and enhance our public spaces, and even make us smile,’’ Cr Brown said.
“It’s healthy to have an ongoing conversation about what works, and what doesn’t. I thank all those who took the time to provide their feedback and share their thoughts.’’
The public art strategy considers not only how we’ll look to offer new public art opportunities and to embed artistic practice into places and spaces, but also at how we will conserve, care and maintain existing pieces.
“We’ve more than 170 permanent pieces of public art across the city. And through this document we’ve made actions that commit us to ensuring our public art programs and projects will be inclusive, that people will hear through our communications channels about them, and that we’ll integrate public art into our strategic and statutory planning controls and processes,’’ Cr Brown said.
The Animating Wollongong Public Art Strategy 2022-2032 will be available on Council’s website.
