Creative Coalition made a submission to Auckland Council about the draft Auckland Plan. Here's what we submitted...

Tena Koutou, good afternoon Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Councillors and Auckland Council officers,

We represent the Creative Coalition working group: we are an interim leadership team of arts and creative sector professionals who are working to establish an arts, culture and creative sector coalition of individuals and organisations from across the city region who work to provide arts, cultural and creative sector services and events for the benefit of the wider Auckland community. Many, in fact most, of our constituents already work in alignment and in concert with Auckland Council, local boards and CCOs.

Our group came out of a series of public meetings held in 2009 and 2010, and following that we have worked with the ATA prior to transition, Auckland Council subsequently, and with our sector through a series of workshops.

The Creative Coalition is a champion for Auckland’s creative sectors, advancing the value and benefits we bring to the region and beyond, representing our diverse sectors to influencers and acting as a conduit between decision-makers and the sectors. The Coalition is also being developed as a resource – outwardly for officials and officers, and inwardly for its constituents.

We have provided a written submission to the Draft Auckland Plan process, and would like to take a few minutes today to bring the major points to your attention.

Firstly, the Creative Coalition would like to support and endorse approach taken by Auckland Council in the Draft Auckland Plan.  In the Draft Plan, the Creative Coalition is very pleased to see arts, culture and heritage priorities woven throughout most of the topic/priority-focussed chapters in some form. We can see that arts, culture, heritage and creative sectors are recognised by Auckland Council in the Draft Plan as playing a key role in the development of future Auckland, which we fully endorse and agree with.

The Creative Coalition is also extremely pleased to see in the Draft Plan a focus that includes but is not limited to the traditional view of the arts as a driver of wellbeing and community development, but also a driver of cultural, creative, social and economic wealth for the region. We know this recognition is of vital importance and will be a cornerstone for the development of the Auckland city region as a world class city. This is evident in not only the strategies, priorities and directives from Chapter 3 (Auckland’s Arts, Culture, Heritage and Lifestyle), but also in Chapter 4 ‘Auckland’s Economy’ which asserts the Plan’s priority to make Auckland a ‘creative, vibrant, world class city’. The Creative Coalition also endorses that priority and believes the arts, cultural and creative sectors are the key drivers to making this a reality.

There is a great deal of passion, smart ideas, real-world-experience and expertise amongst the Creative Coalition constituency - the people and organisations that work and practise in the arts, cultural and creative sectors in Auckland. The Creative Coalition working group agrees with the direction and approach the Draft Auckland Plan is proposing and we are an able resource and partner for the Auckland Council to help make the ideas and directives in the Plan a reality. Accordingly we would like to strongly recommend to the Auckland Council that included in the Plan is a commitment to developing an engagement process with the arts, culture and creative sectors, across all forms of Council including the local boards and CCOs, so together really identify and address sector gaps and development needs.

The Creative Coalition also strongly endorses the development of an arts and cultural strategy outlined in the Implementation Plan (Chapter 12) in reference to the priorities outlined in Chapter 3. We think this is a vital step to ensure parity of access to arts and cultural services across the region regardless of where someone may live, especially as regional, ‘sub regional’ and local arts and cultural initiatives are now delivered /provisioned differently across the city region by a contracted organisations, Auckland Council proper, local boards and CCOs.

We thank you for your time today and for your willingness to listen to what we have to say on behalf of the Creative Coalition. As a group we remain committed to working with Auckland Council in all its forms to help make Auckland a fantastic, culturally, creatively and economically rich place in which to live, work and play.

Creative Coalition Oral Submission to the Draft Auckland Plan | (written submission number 1411), 16 November 2011
Submitters: Anne Rodda, Candy Elsmore, Elise Sterback