Sandy Anghie “Arts Mean Business”
Week 8 Campaign update.
Arts Mean Business: my plan for arts and culture in the City of Perth
If elected at the October 2023 election, I will work with council and the City to introduce the “Arts Mean Business” Plan.
With retail vacancies across the City at 20 to 25%, and around 35% in the Hay Street Mall, we need to think creatively to activate our centre and redefine our City in a post COVID world. Arts mean business.
My Arts Mean Business Plan will include:
A “Blank Canvas” program to encourage creative hubs to be established in existing vacant spaces owned by the City of Perth, starting in Perth’s East End.
Extending the Perth Cultural Centre into a “Cultural Spine” with a creative refresh of Barrack Street, joining the cultural dots from the Bell Tower, Council House Gallery, Perth Town Hall and Liberty Theatre through to AGWA and the WA Museum.
Enabling “Design for Culture” with incentives such as plot ratio bonuses and rate rebates to encourage the private sector to incorporate cultural spaces in new and existing buildings.
“Growing Culture” through multi-year sponsorship commitments, rather than one off grants, providing home grown arts and cultural events with the confidence to scale and grow.
Creating and promoting a “Creative Directory” of all City of Perth based creatives – including galleries, handcrafts and bespoke design - to help people explore our City and provide a point of difference over suburban shopping centres.
“Partnering for Culture” with significant stakeholders such as ECU City campus and the WA Museum, to spread their activities and arts and culture City wide.
And committing to work collaboratively with the State Government to reinstate the "Community Cultural Arts Facilities Fund" to provide a direct stream of funding for LGAs planning to build and refit cultural facilities.
This year Perth was ranked equal 3rd most liveable City in Australia together with Adelaide by the Economic Intelligence Unit. However, Perth consistently scores below other Australian Capital Cities in the culture and environment rating – coming 5th in Australia, behind Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide on this measure.
We can do better to embrace and enhance our creative industries and leverage off opportunities to strengthen Perth’s position as a cultural destination which will in turn build demand for inner city living, create stronger communities and make Perth a world class liveable city.
The arts and culture industry creates jobs, attracts tourists and helps provide customers for our bricks and mortar food and beverage businesses - the heart and soul of our city - helping them to flourish.
Creativity and innovation are important economic contributors around the world. In 2023 the total attendance of the Perth Festival was 207,128 people, with total direct tourism expenditure of $7 million from interstate and overseas. While attendance at the Fringe World Festival was 560,000, delivering $48 million in direct economic impact for Perth. There are other benefits too, with people often saying Perth feels safest at festival time.
Leading by example
If the City is going to ask our ratepayers to be creative about filling vacant space, then we should lead by example - and make some of the vacant spaces in the City’s property portfolio available to creatives.
There are some great examples in the private sector already, such as the Humich Group activating the Liberty Theatre and shopfronts on Hay and Barrack Streets; and the Fragrance Group on Pier Street providing cost effective space to Huzzard Photographic Studios and others. Let’s back this up.
Based on recent media reports, local arts hub The Pickle District looks set to lose their space in the Town of Vincent. Let’s welcome them into the City of Perth with space.
Once the ECU City Campus opens we will have an additional 10,000 students and staff in the city, every day. A vibrant and well set up arts and culture sector will be essential if we want those students to become residents, business owners, and long term investors and contributors to Perth.
Urbanist Richard Florida popularised the theory in the early 2000s that creativity enables urban development: artists move to inner-city areas in search accommodation and studio space. They make a place fun and interesting, which draws others in.
Wouldn't it be great to have a bit more of this in City of Perth? We certainly have some vacant space.
World Class Liveable City
Last week saw the start of FIFA Womens’ World Cup. Great to see Perth as a host city for this prestigious event thanks to the State Government.
It’s a world class sporting event right on our doorstep, but a sensible one: The only additional cost required to make Perth FIFA ready was $35 million in much needed upgrades to HBF Park, delivered by the State Government.
In fact, the only time the word “billion” gets anywhere near this competition is its viewing audience: An estimated two billion people around the globe will watch a game during this competition. Incredible.
Having said that, the most liveable cities of the world didn’t need a major sporting event to get there. In fact Vienna, ranked the most liveable city in the world, said a resounding no to the opportunity to host the Olympics.
In 2013 the Mayor of Vienna at the time held a referendum on the idea, and 72% said no - mostly on the basis of cost (estimated at the time to be around $10 billion!)
The great cities of the world are great everyday. They are 24hr cities, they are vibrant, safe and inclusive. And they are defined by their great neighbourhoods, their architecture, art and culture.
One off events are great and the right ones should be supported. But our focus, now and always, should be making Perth the most liveable city in the world every day. With the right focus, we can be number one.
Calling all City of Perth Residents and Businesses!
While the election is a few months away, now is the time to enrol to vote. To have your say, you must be enrolled to vote by Friday 25th August 2023.
While you may have enrolled previously, a number of people have found that they have slipped off the roll, as it is regularly revised by the City of Perth.
So it’s important to check that you are still on there and if not, restore your right to vote. Enrolment details below.
If you like my plans for Perth, and want to vote, you need to enrol now.
Enrol to vote
To be eligible to vote in the October local government election and have a direct say in the future of our city, all residents and businesses must be correctly enrolled by Friday 25th of August.
To enrol to vote, follow these steps:
Click the “enrol to vote” button below to go to my website. Scroll down on the home page of my website and click the “enrol to vote” button there.
This will take you to a City of Perth website. Click “How do I enrol”.
Fill out the relevant forms depending on your status as a: resident; property owner; or leaseholder.
Then send these forms back to the City of Perth.
The boundaries of the City take in the CBD, Northbridge, East Perth, Claisebrook Cove, West Perth, Crawley and part of Nedlands.
I encourage you to make sure you can have your say in who represents our capital city by enrolling to vote before the 25th of August.
A vote for Sandy Anghie as Lord Mayor is a vote for a full time, full term Lord Mayor. If you have a vision for your city, you need to stay the course so you can implement it.
It’s what voters expect, and with me – it’s what they will get.
In addition to commitments I have announced to date, I will be announcing a range of further commitments over the coming months. And I will be listening to you - our City’s residents, businesses and community groups. I look forward to hearing your ideas and feedback.
Get in touch
If you would like to hear more about my campaign platform, or have your own ideas about what the City could do better, I would be pleased to catchup. Please don’t hesitate to reach out via helloperth@sandyanghie.com
I will be back in touch with regular campaign updates. In the meantime, here is a link to my campaign website.
A vote for Sandy Anghie as Lord Mayor is a vote for a modern, progressive city, that truly grabs the opportunities in front of it. The best way forward for Perth is together.