The City of Greater Bendigo has a new Public Art Policy, following adoption at last night’s Council Meeting.
The Public Art Policy is aligned with the actions in the current Council Plan (Mir wimbul) 2021-2025 and the Greater CREATIVE Bendigo Strategy.
Mayor Cr Andrea Metcalf said the policy was important to provide direction and a consistent approach for public art created by professional artists or through collaboration with community groups and emerging artists.
“Public art is any artwork within public space like parks, buildings, streets that is open to the public. It can take many forms such as sculptures, murals, digital art/projections, nature-based art, and sound art,” Cr Metcalf said.
“The region successfully presents an impressive range of permanent and temporary public art works which have either been commissioned by the City, businesses or donated to the City.
“These works have been carefully curated and public art can often inspire different responses and reactions in their bid to be curious, creative, interesting, and even thought-provoking.
“They remain an important way to activate and beautify all kinds of public spaces and contribute in different ways to support our visitor economy and provide a sense of community wellbeing and pride.
“This new policy supports a clear direction in the planning, creation and maintenance of public art.”
There are more than 100 examples in the City’s public art collection. Temporary examples include Pennyweight Walk, where the artwork changes every few years.
Sometimes artwork is loaned for a brief period such as the eight-metre-tall Marilyn Monroe sculpture that was placed in the Rosalind Park piazza in 2016.
The Public Art Policy was developed with community input and includes the following principles:
• Sustainable public art, placemaking and activations
• Design excellence in public art
• Express and represent the region’s culture visually
• Strong governance for public art
• Grow a creative economy
• Fair and sustainable arts practice
• Upskill and train emerging and practicing artists
• Create better opportunities for public art
