Our incredible place strategy

We recognise that investing in events, the arts and culture will create better places and better spaces and, in turn, will increase a sense of community and security as well as improve the health and wellbeing of our residents.

We are acutely aware, from the feedback we’ve received, that our most important and valuable asset is the environment in which we live. This speaks volumes for the immense passion residents hold for their natural environment as a place to express themselves. It is Council’s role to cultivate new experiences and offerings linked to local food, art and performance.

It is our hope to create places for people and promote new ways to repurpose our spaces for leisure, for business and most of all... for fun.

Download:

Our role in events, arts and culture

A new Community Grants and Sponsorship Program provides opportunity for business and the community to work together to deliver short and long term programs which promote creativity, enterprise and innovation. The program supports both short term, low cost initiatives along with more strategic projects aimed at building capacity across the community,

Well executed public art in our streets, buildings and public spaces has the potential to transform our places, create new experiences and celebrate our community identity.

Our role is to integrate art into major infrastructure projects, support artists and new programs and promote high quality art in new developments. This art could take the form of freestanding sculpture, environmental art, architectural design elements, lighting installations, decorative paving, artist-designed privacy screens or landscaping elements.

We invest, and are responsible for, the design, delivery and management of community infrastructure in the public domain.

Quality public infrastructure and public spaces that strive for design excellence is embedded with culture. This relationship enables participation in the events, the arts and culture and effects how the spaces function and attract people.

Projects such as town centre revitalisations, new sporting facilities and park upgrades will need to consider how the space can be used for events, how public art can be integrated, how it creates spaces for people gatherings and how the new infrastructure can support the cultural stories of Port Stephens.

For us, cultural development is the way we manage cultural sites and facilities, how we integrate culture into our strategic planning, how we fund collaborative projects, celebrate and tell our cultural stories and how we encourage, attract and support events which build participation across the community.

Through a place-based approach, we will continue to build on the local identity of our towns and villages. Investment in quality social infrastructure and open space will provide the foundation for positive social, economic, cultural and environmental outcomes.

We provide strategic support to community based events to help ensure success and grow the sustainability of events. This is also supported through event marketing and communications.

We also invests in supporting an integrated event approval process (or a one stop shop) for event assessments across the LGA. This simplified application process is designed to encourage events across Port Stephens by providing a transparent, efficient, more streamlined process which considers the impacts of an event on our community, business and the environment.