Cultural Planning Handbook

An essential Australian guide

David Grogan, Colin Mercer, David Engwicht

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9780367717865
• eBook ISBN: 9781000319392
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Cultural planning is as important to communities as roads, rates and rubbish. Local councils and urban planners are increasingly recognising the value of community cultural resources as a means of improving the quality of life and economic vitality of a region, city or town, as well as consolidating identity and sense of place. Until now, however, there has been little Australian-based information to assist cultural planners in their task.

The Cultural Planning Handbook fills the information gap with practical guidelines for mapping the cultural resources of communities and devising and implementing appropriate cultural development strategies. It is an essential guide for community development workers, planning professionals, tourism operators, artists and cultural workers as well as all community members involved in cultural development.

1
Introduction

1 Introduction

Who is this handbook for?

What will it help you do?

What will be the final product?

Why have a cultural plan?

How long will it take?

The Mayor of Bulla-Bulla had ignored calls for a cultural development plan … one week too long. But that is to get ahead of the story.

Cultural planning is a relatively new field. Local authorities are coming under increasing pressure to get involved in cultural planning as community groups and business interests begin to understand the economic and livability benefits of cultural planning. Many progressive councils now view cultural planning as essential core business—as important as roads, rates and rubbish. Many see cultural planning as a valuable tool for achieving integrated local area planning.

Who is this handbook for?

This handbook is a practical tool for helping local authorities evolve a cultural development strategy It will therefore be of primary interest to:

• local authority officials
• planning professionals (all disciplines)
• tourism-based businesses
• civic-minded citizens
• arts and cultural industries.

The handbook contains detailed, step-by-step instructions which a project manager, steering committee and small team of workers (with average levels of skill and experience in planning and community work) should be able to follow with a minimum of outside assistance. The first two chapters will also serve to provide lay readers with an overview of the nature and benefits of cultural planning.

What will it help do?

This handbook will guide you through a process of:

• reaching a common understanding of the importance of cultural planning to economic and community life
• assessing your current cultural resources
• creating a community vision for the future
• devising a strategy to take you to your preferred future
• implementing the strategy.

What will be the final product?

The final product is a cultural development action plan,, which when implemented should:

• improve quality of life through improving the availability, diversity and quality of cultural resources
• improve equity in access to cultural resources
• create a more robust and vital, local and regional economy
• coordinate cultural activities
• lead to a better utilisation and coordination of scarce local government resources
• create a framework for professional development for those individuals or groups wishing to make a career in the arts and cultural industries.

Why have a cultural plan?

Cultural development enables people to feel that they belong in a community—a community which has a distinctive personality and identity In this context, culture and the arts have two very important and simultaneous roles to play in the broad areas of economic development and social development. Cultural policy can be viewed as a ‘mediator’ between the profit and efficiency objectives of economic policy and the human development, access and participation objectives of a social policy.

Economic advantages

On his 1990 visit to Brisbane, Robert McNulty, the President of the US organisation Partners for Livable Communities, suggested that every level of government should have an agency that corresponds to a ‘Ministry for the Quality of Life’. He proposed that the major concerns of such an agency should be the arts, culture, leisure and entertainment activities and all those things that add to the attractiveness and quality of amenity in a particular community. He argued that due to advances in telecommunications and transport, companies are not so limited when choosing where to establish their operations. ‘Quality of life’ may be the most important consideration for many of these businesses. Those cities, towns or regions with the greatest livability will gain an economic advantage due to shifting priorities for companies making locational choices.

Turnover in the arts and cultural industries in Australia amounts to around $20 billion per annum with value added around $9 billion. On the most recent figures this was the second fastest growth sector for employment. The cultural industries comprise not only traditional arts and crafts, but also the print and electronic media, including: publishing; film; television and video-production; graphic art and design; the leisure and recreation sectors; music and advertising. Cultural planning can lead to imaginative new strategies for local economic development in this growing industry sector.

Tourism

Culture and the arts have a strategic role to play in the dynamic environmental/cultural tourism industry. Many national and international indicators suggest that tourists are increasingly less interested in ‘showpiece’ resorts and destinations and more interested in environmental, cultural, heritage, ethnic and historical features. Cultural tourism is a strategy designed to satisfy the requirements of economic development in an industry which now represents 6% of the nation’s GDP—without sacrificing environmental and cultural quality. Given the importance of tourism to Australia’s current and future economic development, and the notorious vacillations of the existing industry, cultural tourism may provide some elements of stability beyond the transient fads of theme parks, resorts and luxury complexes. It may also have the spin-off benefit of improving the quantity and quality of local cultural resources.

While fishing with his son, Cr Jones had a flash of inspiration. What Bulla-Bulla needed was a cultural development plan. He would raise the matter at the next council meeting.

Social and community development

Cultural resources play a fundamental role in all those elements that create a sense of ‘community’—individual affirmation, identity, communication between individuals and between groups, participation, and a sense of place. Management of cultural resources is also intimately linked to the issues of social justice and community development. These issues should be seen as integral—rather than as marginal or supplementary—to cultural development.

The availability and quality of cultural resources can determine whether or not people think their area is a ‘good place to live’. The goal of a cultural development strategy is to manage and improve these resources.

Integrated local area planning

State and federal governments are placing an increasing emphasis on the integration of planning at the local level in order to tailor services and planning to the particular needs of each community, and in order to avoid duplication between the various levels of government. Cultural planning, as outlined in this handbook, is seen as one tool for achieving integrated planning at the local level. All planning and activity—whether at government, business or private levels—has cultural and social impacts. Cultural planning provides a holistic framework in which those working in different disciplines can grasp the ‘big picture’.

How long will it take?

Developing a cultural plan may take as long as you choose, depending on the resources available, what areas you wish to cover in your plan, to what depth you want to cover them, and the size of the community you are planning for. The process suggested here will typically take from 12 to 18 months.

There may be instances where plans have been prepared in substantially less time than this, but building a sense of community ownership through good consultation often takes longer and is ultimately more successful. It must also be recognised that because the cultural activities that normally take place in your community will continue, people will only have a limited amount of time to contribute to the planning processes outlined. It is also likely that other strategic planning exercises will be underway, each of them making demands on people’s time. Each community wil have a pace that it feels comfortable with, and this should dictate the duration of the process, not some artificially imposed deadline.

2
Setting the scene

2 Setting the scene

What is culture?

What are cultural resources?

What is cultural assessment?

What is cultural development?

How does it fit with other strategic planning?

Why is local government a key player in cultural planning?

Who should we involve?

Getting started

Summary of recommended methodology

Not everyone in Bulla-Bulla was convinced of the need for a cultural development strategy. Some suffered from cultural blindness.

Most people and communities suffer from ‘cultural blindness’. Ask them about the culture of their town or city and they are likely to respond: ‘What culture? We don’t have a culture.’ This cultural blindness is understandable. We grow up with the things that make our place and our way of life different. To us they are the norm. To the tourists or visitors they are unique. They may have come halfway around the world just to experience our unique architecture, topography, history, customs and the way we conduct our everyday life. It is these things that form our distinctive culture. Just as we are fascinated by other people’s cultures, they are fascinated by ours.

What is culture?

An outside-work gang at the Maroochy Shire Council defined culture as ’the personality of a particular place’. A t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Foreword
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Setting the scene
• 3 Quantitative cultural assessment
• 4 Qualitative cultural assessment
• 5 Vision, strategy and implementation
• Appendix A: Facilitating small groups
• Appendix B: Livability resources and indicators
• Appendix C: Going further—helpful resources
• Select bibliography
• Index