SUPPORT ARTS AND CULTURE
IN YOUR COMMUNITY
Auckland’s local boards are inviting you to have your say on their three-year long term plans. If you are in an arts organisation, you are an artist, or you just enjoy local arts and culture, it’s time to let your local board know how important arts and culture are to your community!
What is a ‘local board’ and why should I care?
Auckland Council has 21 local boards across the region. Each local board represents its local communities and makes decisions on their behalf – this means that the plans your local board makes for the future will direct impact you.
Local boards make decisions about local issues, activities and services, and they contribute to regional strategies, policies, plans and decisions. This includes community programmes, event spaces, public art, and much more that directly effects the arts sector. Local boards have provided support and funding for lots of awesome things:
Henderson-Massey Local Board supports the Corban Estate Arts Centre and community-led arts activities through Creative Henderson-Massey . An Arts Broker helps enable community arts activities such as the Ranui Community Centre Graffiti Arts Programme.
Māngere Ōtāhuhu Local Board supports the Māngere Arts Centre Ngā Tohu o Uenuku, a community hub for performances, exhibitions and events.
Whau Local Board supports ArtsWhau, which facilitates projects from Hui Kōrero – Waka journeys to free community pottery classes to local music events for NZ Music Month.
Howick Local Board provides funding and grants for local arts centres, theatres and music groups such as the Howick Little Theatre
Find out which local board you belong to here!
What are ‘local board plans’?
Every three years, the boards ask their communities to have their say on what their priorities are for local board spending – that means you can have a say on the priorities, budgets, and direction of your local board.
This is an opportunity to reinforce the value of arts and culture in building community connections and enriching our lives. That includes celebrating toi Māori, our many Moana Pacifica arts communities, and the city’s cultural diversity.
The arts can also support other local board initiatives around their key focus areas of environment, economic development and transport. So have your say about what you like about what your board is already doing, and why you think support for arts and culture should be a priority.
How do I know what my local board is planning for arts and culture?
We have compiled a handy spreadsheet here that summarises what your local board already does for arts and culture, and what their plans are for the next three years.
Click here to discover all the ways your local board supports the arts in your community and their vision for the future!
A step-by-step guide to having your say on local board plans
Head to AkCouncilHaveYourSay. There will be a list of local boards, and links to each board’s online feedback form.
On your local board page, you will find:
Your local board’s plan
a summary of the plan
a simple online feedback form
If you would like to give feedback in person, you will also find dates and venues for in-person meetings with local board members.
If you have limited time to provide feedback, the online forms provide simple descriptions of each board’s plans, and questions about these in the key focus areas of:
Community
Natural environment
Built environment
Economic development
Transport
You do not need to answer all the questions! You can choose to focus on just the one or two areas that are important to you.
If you want to comment on the importance of arts and culture, the themes and plans around Community are most likely to be appropriate. While some board plans include specific statements about arts and culture, most have general statements and themes which arts and culture can support including:
Celebrating diversity
Building community connections / participation/ making people feel welcome
Reflecting Māori identity and culture
Free activities and events
Safe public spaces
Some key arts and culture messages that address these themes might include:
Arts events bring communities together
Providing opportunities for diverse communities to celebrate their cultures with the wider community makes people feel welcome and builds community connections
Arts and culture events bring public spaces to life
You can use simple messages such as these to answer questions – and you can draw on your own experience to highlight arts and culture events in your community that have been successful.
