While Sydney is a powerhouse of culture for the nation, what makes that possible is at risk. Our creative workforce increasingly can’t afford to live or work here.
Sydney is the only capital city in Australia that has seen a decrease in the artist population in the last 5 years, even though our overall workforce has grown. The average weekly rent in Sydney is the equivalent of 62% of the average artist income and from 2012 to 2022, the creative floorspace of our local area reduced by over 170,000 square metres.
That’s why we’re committing a proposed $20 million of new funding for artists and creative spaces, as well as the $34 million we already invest in arts and culture each year.
We’ve published our draft cultural strategy 2025–2035 and it’s open for your comment. The strategy is a plan to retain, rebuild and reimagine the cultural and creative life of our city – but what’s in it and why do we need it?
The draft strategy outlines 4 key areas of focus:
- Growing and protecting creative spaces
- Supporting our creative workforce
- Broadening creative participation in the community
- Respecting and celebrating the right to culture of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the diverse communities of Sydney.
One of the key actions of the strategy is to provide seed funding to support the establishment of a creative land trust.
A creative land trust is a not-for-profit body that secures and maintains properties to be used as creative spaces such as artist studios, rehearsal rooms, theatres, and housing for artists and creatives.
The creative land trust model has been successful in London and San Francisco, supported by funds from multiple levels of government and philanthropy to grow and protect creative spaces.
We’re also investigating how to work with the property industry to put underused commercial real estate to creative use and build artist housing.
Other actions proposed in the strategy include:
- offer artist fellowships to retain a diverse range of creatives that produce work in Sydney
- establish grants programs to help maintain creative spaces, upgrade venues and help open new creative spaces with fit-out and startup costs
- introduce a planning aid service to help creatives navigate approval processes for venues and events
- install writers’ rooms, artist studios and performance infrastructure in public spaces, libraries and community venues
- develop a community curators program to design and present creative programs
- explore a funding program that supports local cultural organisations to recruit strategic and diverse teams.
These are just some of the many actions outlined in the draft cultural strategy 2025–2035.
Have a great idea for how we can reimagine the cultural and creative life of our city? Tell us about it.
Complete our short survey or share your feedback on the draft cultural strategy on the Sydney Your Say website.
Published 12 July 2024
