Communities and culture
Sydneysiders love their art and culture and the City of Sydney sees opportunities to celebrate creativity everywhere. As you know, we support major events and festivals and produce our own. We’re also really into public art and promoting art in the community.
It’s the same deal for culture. Many of our Sydney 2030 initiatives are about communities, opportunities, and culture. For example, we’re focusing on village hubs so that residents have easy access to cultural pursuits — whether it be joining in on the activites at the local library or visiting a learning centre.
Sydney 2030 is the official sponsor of FBi Radio’s Art and Culture Guide. Listen in at 4.30pm every weekday on 94.5FM.
We have a very broad defininition of culture because it means different things to different people. Our cultural grants are distributed to all manner of endeavours. In 2011, we also offered free or negligible rent to community organisations in need of office space.
Among the groups given spaces in Redfern, Woolloomooloo and Waterloo were the Tribal Warrior Association’s Youth Mentoring Program (which promotes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture) and 107 Projects Inc, an artist’s cooperative planning to run low key film nights, poetry readings, creative working bees and workshops.
In the year to mid-2011, the City of Sydney gave $8 million worth of grants and sponsorships to cultural events large and small. These included local art exhibitions, a community storytelling event and simple neighbourhood BBQs, as well as major festivals and productions.
