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Community feedback wanted on Wellington Shire Council culture strategy by 14 February 2023

Our Culture, Our Place is an engagement opportunity for the Wellington community to talk about how broadly we think about the arts and our culture.

By news@gippsland - 13th January 2023 - Back to News

Wellington Shire Council is working with the community to bring together new ideas about 'Our Culture' and to show how it is supported by Wellington's diverse and creative communities. Culture is experienced and enhanced through libraries, sporting clubs and societies, schools, churches and in the places where we live and enjoy life.

Have your say about Our Culture, Our Play to inform future Arts and Culture in Wellington until 14 February 2023

Acknowledging diversity

Wellington already has exciting arts and culture facilities housing fine and contemporary art, staging quality performances and events, and delivering extensive library services to communities across the municipality, but we need to recognise just how broad culture is and talk about the many creative ways we show what is important to us.

There are many different groups in our community that meet to talk about what they have in common and to contribute to our culture, whether at a Men's Shed, Car Club, Book Club, Arts Group, Youth Group or Parents Club. The events we support and the places where we enjoy our environment also contribute to who we are.

Engagement opportunities

We are using five key ideas to help form the Our Culture, Our Place Strategy, help the community to participate in upcoming events, and to provide feedback.

• Discover Cultural Beginnings so we can recognise our heritage, identity, and place in Wellington, as well as understand the beginnings of others
• Create Cultural Expressions so that we can be part of and enrich the life of the Wellington community
• Share Cultures and Creativity so that our lives are enriched by the exchange with others
• Enjoy Cultural Resources and Spaces so that we can be inspired, educated, and refreshed
• Protect Cultural Resources so that we can benefit from them, today and in years to come

These engagement opportunities help shape our understanding of relationships, and of how to deal with the conflict and harmony that are always present whenever two or more people come together.

Ensuring opportunity access

Wellington Shire Council Mayor Ian Bye said that Our Culture, Our Place is an important next step for council to take. "The 'Our Culture, Our Place' Strategy will guide the next phase of arts and culture in Wellington."

"We hope to reinvigorate the community and work closely together to ensure that individuals and groups have access to the places and opportunities that will enrich their lives, create community connections, and lead to diverse cultural experiences for everyone." Cr Bye said.

Celebrating Aboriginal community

Wellington also has a rich creative community - arts is a way of expressing that creativity, especially that which reflects our diverse cultures, and explores both our common understandings and important differences.

We celebrate our Aboriginal community as holders of a creative heritage that has shaped the land and continues to encourage us to think about a shared love of our environment and the places we hold as important. Aboriginal communities also have a spiritual connection to the land just as many of us have a spiritual community that is part of our culture.

Feedback wanted

All of these examples and many more tell us who we are and help us to identify our place in the broader Wellington culture, and how that changes over the years and in different places.

We are asking the community to be active in how Our Culture, Our Place develops over the coming months. The first step is a survey that will gather information about how we think about the five key ideas and opportunities for specific groups to talk about their contributions to arts and culture.

The survey and more information is available at Our Culture, Our Place page or hard copies can be collected at library branches and council's Customer Service Centres in Sale and Yarram.

Pictures from Wellington Shire Council website.

Source: www.gippsland.com

Published by: news@gippsland.com