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Arts forum confirms the magic

I have always known the Central Coast was a magic place and the recent Arts and Culture Forum presented at the Peninsula community centre has confirmed this.

Following the formal opening which featured an Indigenous dance group, the Mayor of Gosford welcomed the 100 participants to the newly developed Peninsula Theatre complex and invited them to join in the spirit of collaboration in helping shape the future of the Arts and Culture on the Central Coast.

Michelle Hall, the cultural policy officer for the Local Government and Shires Association, inspired the gathering with the wonderful news that the Central Coast has been recognised as being an area in need of assistance for the development of arts and culture.

Michelle spoke on how the arts and culture were important to communities and that non-government organizations should become actively involved in the planning process.

Clarissa Arndt gave a visual presentation of the newly-developed Blacktown Arts Centre.

Alan Glover, the president of the Wollombi Artists, gave an entertaining insight into how an independent theatre company can not only help a community find its unique identity but how it can also progress toward becoming a viable organization.

It not only provided entertainment for its region but it also generated employment opportunities through sustainable projects such as its annual arts festival.

The workshop that I participated in dealt specifically with public art. It was facilitated by a current member of the Fusion organising committee and the groups included amateur and professional artists as well as community workers and council officers.

In the short time, we were given we recognised the need for community consultation when planning and designing facilities for public art and we drafted recommendations for how this could be achieved.

The group recognised that strategic planning was fundamental to the success of any project and suggestions were documented as to how planning could be facilitated and the community could contribute to these plans in a coherent manner.

One suggestion was for the development of a tool kit that would give community organizations a level of expertise that would enable them to actively contribute to the planning of public buildings, arts events and projects and therefore ensuring community ownership of these.

The council officer gave an example of a newly -developed park where the local households had each designed there own unique mosaic for the pathway that had been designed to represent one of the endangered reptile species of the area.

He described the enthusiasm the residents demonstrated toward this project and how it was one of the few parks that had not been vandalised.

Each person in this workshop agreed that the success of any arts projects often depended on how well that project was co-ordinated and developed and how it was both important that the Central Coast recognise and project its unique identity while at the same time making certain it did not become insular.

The equal importance of both permanent and ephemeral art was noted as well as the need to maintain a balance of the types of art that are shown and used in public places.

The final sessions of the day saw the gathering split into faculty meetings where each artistic discipline was represented.

The dance faculty involved representatives from a diverse range of dance styles and the first thing that the group agreed on was that participation in dance could be social, training or performance and that it was an art form in its own right.

The group agreed also that when planning dance activities that more attention needed to be given to the development of these events and that more awareness was needed regarding safe dance requirements, project funding and administration and the quality of presentation.

I presented a draft proposal for the development of dance in the area which was adopted by this meeting as being a good starting point for further work in this area and was submitted as the list of suggestions from the dance faculty.

I would be more than pleased to be contacted by any dance artist or arts worker who would like to be involved in this process of dance development on the Central Coast.

As Gosford Council will be facilitating this development as much as possible I feel that this is a great opportunity for innovative work to be done in this area and from the dancers I have spoken to, it will be a very welcome move.

Finally, I will also be participating in a survey sent out from the NSW Premier's Department concerning non-government organizations capacity building.

This is another great initiative for this area and is focused on exploring ways that organisational support services could be utilised at a local level.

Once again there will be a forum concerning this which will this time be held at Wyong.

My participation in the survey and the forum will once again be as an advocate for dance and I will be looking at ways of linking this initiative to the those demonstrated by Gosford Council.

This all appears very promising for dance on the Central Coast and it is crucial that I present informed discussions regarding dance and the needs of dancers.

Please do not hesitate to contact me with any suggestions or expressions of interest at celticenergy@bigpond.com

Judith Chestnut, Erina