At the moment we don’t have a policy that guides how we make decisions about our public art. To ensure clarity in the way we deliver our public art, we're developing a public art policy for the city.
We asked for feedback from you to help us shape the draft.
Draft policy now in development
The purpose of this initial feedback phase was to gather views and feedback from the community and stakeholders, such as the arts sector and other organisations we work with, to inform a draft public art policy.
We're using the feedback we received to develop the draft policy. Once it’s ready we’ll put it out for formal public consultation. At that time you'll have the opportunity to make a submission on the proposal to let us know if you think that we got it right. Council will the consider the draft and all submissions before deciding whether to adopt the policy.
Palmy gets public art in a range of ways
We're fortunate to have many public artworks that enhance our community spaces. Council currently delivers public art in Palmerston North in different ways – through partnerships with our arts sector, direct commissions from artists, community initiatives, and sometimes as gifts or loans to the city from private donors.
We’re looking at how we make decisions on public art
We're developing a public art policy as part of the arts and heritage section of our next long-term plan. The policy will guide Council decisions on acquiring and maintaining public art, and how we infuse creativity into our infrastructure projects.
As part of this process we are thinking about the way we deliver public art for the community in our city. In particular we want to look into the ways that public art is chosen, where it's put, who gets to participate in the process, and what the art can or should be.
We had an initial workshop with our Elected Members on developing this policy, then asked for your input to make sure we’re covering all the most important things.
The benefits of a public art policy
We know that public art contributes to the vibrancy of our city and the wellbeing of our communities. Public art makes spaces interesting and welcoming. It expresses and supports a sense of neighbourhood history, culture and identity, and helps drive economic vitality.
We want our public art to be as inclusive as possible. Developing a policy for how we acquire and care for our public art means that we can deliver public art in partnership with and for our community.
It will mean we can ensure the art is suitable for the place it’s located, and the people who will engage with it. A policy will also help us plan long-term for the ongoing maintenance of our art.