Towards an Auckland Arts & Culture Advisory Group

Dear Colleague,

In the transition to the new Auckland governance, the creation of an Auckland Arts & Culture Advisory Group by Auckland’s arts and culture sector was strongly recommended by members of the ATA.  (The sports and recreation sector have undertaken this type of regional strategy development some time ago.)  

To help progress the initiative the Working party formed out of the sector wide TAPAC meetings in 2009 wishes to facilitate three sessions to explore and collectively work towards the foundation of an Auckland Arts & Culture Advisory Group.

The concept has since been favourably received by outgoing council senior officers and Creative NZ. The new Manager Arts, Culture and Events, Gail Richards and Manager, Community  Development Arts and Culture, Louise Mason  of Auckland Council are also supportive of the discussion and are interested to see the outcomes of the workshops from our sector.

We invite you to the first of these sessions (with The Big Idea Assist’s Elisabeth Vaneveld facilitating) on Wednesday 24 November 3:00 – 6:00pm, Town Hall Reception Room, entry off Queen St at the clock tower end.

The Agenda:

Background:  how this mission came about
Defining the purpose of the Auckland Arts & Culture Advisory Group
The vision of the Auckland Arts & Culture Advisory Group
We may get as far as beginning the goals and objectives – or at least sow the seeds for the next meeting…..
We are pleased to announce that Kerry Harvey from the Ministry of Culture and Heritage and Elizabeth Beale from Creative New Zealand will be in attendance.

The intended participants in this work-shopping process are representatives from any of greater Auckland's arts and cultural organisations. We welcome those of you who want to take part and wish to work actively and collaboratively with their peers to co-create the Advisory Group and define its purpose and approach.

Ideally from your organisation a senior manager and a board member will attend.  As this will be a working meeting /workshop, it is highly desirable that all attendees are well-informed and to this end, the Working Group is working on some background documents intended to bring the meeting participants to the same starting line, which will be circulated to those who have RSVP’d prior to the workshop.

Please rsvp your attendance by Friday 19 November to Maggie at maggie@artistsalliance.org.nz

Our intention is to circulate this invitation as widely as possible, so please forward it to any peers you think may not already be on our circulation list.  It will also be posted on www.thebigidea.co.nz

We hope to see you on the 24th of November.

The Auckland Arts and Culture Working Group:

Maggie Gresson, Anne Rodda, James McCarthy, Candy Elsmore