The New South Wales Government is calling on artists and workers in the creative industries to help draft the state’s first Arts, Culture and Creative Industries Policy, set to be delivered in December 2023.

In a speech in the new North Building of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Minister for the Arts John Graham launched a discussion paper and consultation process that will see a series of ‘Town Hall’ meetings take place state-wide (starting in Lismore, 18 July, and ending in Broken Hill on 29 August) and a channel for online submissions open up until 31 August.

Consultations and submissions will then be incorporated into a new, grassroots-focused policy approach that will involve considering ways to better support artists through the creation of more secure career pathways, new and sustainable infrastructure and research into growing audiences for cultural experiences of all kinds.

Photo © Sam Moghadam Khamseh/Unsplash

The review will also include an examination of the ways in which the state’s marketing and events agency Destination NSW spends its $200m+ annual budget and also see the immediate axing of two Sydney festivals considered to be under-performing and poor value-for-state money: the pre-Christmas Noel...