Cultural Ribbon Strategy

ATTACHMENT A ATTACHMENT A DRAFT CULTURAL RIBBON STRATEGY The Cultural Ribbon Draft Strategy Sydney2030/Green/Global/Connected Draft The Cultural Ribbon Draft Strategy 01/ Executive Summary 1 02/ Introduction 2 03/ The Opportunity 4 04/ Background 5 05/ Developing the Idea 12 06/ Analysis 18 07/ Project Layers 29 08/ Working with stakeholders 30 09/ Priority Projects / Actions 40 10/ Case Studies 41 The Cultural Ribbon Strategy The Cultural Ribbon will support the City's identity with a Sydney harbourside cultural walking trail. Sydney will continue to offer Executive internationally recognised, unique cultural experiences. Summary Sustainable Sydney 2030 The Cultural Ribbon was identified as one of “Ten bays, four harbour peninsulas, and five harbour-side Key Project Ideas” in Sustainable Sydney 2030. The parks of differing function and landscape quality. draft Cultural Ribbon Strategy has been prepared to Further work is in progress on broader cultural precinct bring definition to the Cultural Ribbon by testing and planning and dialogue between the City and the State developing the idea and to identify a series of priority government and relevant agencies to inform actions that actions for the City to materialise the project. The Cultural the City will take to support cultural activities throughout Ribbon will deliver ‘A Cultural and Creative City’, key the LGA, outside of the geographical extent of the direction 7 of Sustainable Sydney 2030, in recognition proposed Cultural Ribbon. that arts and cultural activities are fundamental to liveability, tolerance and quality of life and increasingly to economic development. In addition, linked to the The Cultural Ribbon is Eora Journey, the Cultural Ribbon will have a broad Sydney’s nature and culture historical-interpretive dimension, utilising best practice heritage interpretation, public art, lighting and wayfinding walk along the harbour foreshore from Maritime elements to create a unique and legible experience. Museum to Woolloomooloo with a physical expression that is clear but discreet and simple. It takes walkers Since Sydney 2030, the term Cultural Ribbon has been through a series of different spatial and natural used to describe various activities and initiatives related experiences, while engaging with some of the city’s to cultural planning that extend outside of the City’s foremost cultural attractions. The project will involve remit. The uptake of the term is testament to the desire strengthening the harbourside foreshore walking to imprint some geographical and conceptual coherence and recreational cycling route through public domain to culture in Sydney in place of the more distinct cultural improvements, as well as strategies to meaningfully precincts of other international cities. With many engage walkers with the cultural and natural assets major developments around the foreshore including encountered along the way. the upgrades of many of the cultural institutions, the City has a vital role as one of coordination, facilitation and leadership to achieve the optimal public domain Principles outcome along the foreshore to benefit all users of the The Cultural Ribbon is about the cultural city. destinations and landscapes as much as it To align the Cultural Ribbon with the Liveable Green is about the paths and spaces in between Network and the greater Harbour Foreshore Walk, the project is focused on destinations and spaces along Anchored by moments of storytelling and the foreshore. It is proposed that the Cultural Ribbon interpretation including Eora Journey and be redefined as Sydney’s nature and culture walk Sydney’s maritime history along the harbour foreshore from Maritime Museum to Woolloomooloo. It is a 9km walk within the greater A layered experience made up of various 17km Harbour Foreshore Walk articulated in the Liveable components that tell a bigger picture story Green Network from Rozelle Bay to Rushcutters It is accessible for all and a great Bay. The extent between Maritime Museum and experience every day and night Woolloomooloo takes in a number of Sydney’s eminent cultural institutions and also engages with five harbour Supported by investment by the public and private sector that enhances the experience Sydney2030/Green/Global/Connected Introduction The Cultural Ribbon was identified as one of ten project interventions addressing the issues of connectivity, ideas in Sustainable Sydney 2030. It was described imagination and identity in the public domain for the as a walking trail that linked a selection of cultural harbour foreshore project with benefits to the broader venues and destinations along the harbour’s edge, also cultural life in Sydney are proposed for implementation. looping south into the city proper to include a number of additional institutions. While signage and historical information were proposed as the main tools to build the walk, the Cultural Ribbon was intended as more than an exercise in wayfinding and interpretation. It was also seen as an opportunity to “boost Sydney’s image Objectives of this strategy as a cultural city,” a means of “building participation in Sydney cultural institutions” and to “encourage sustainable recreational activities.” More ambitiously, Analyse the Cultural Ribbon as it was sketched the Cultural Ribbon was about “reinforcing equity, out as a project idea in Sustainable Sydney connectedness and social well-being.” 2030 As presented in Sustainable Sydney 2030, the Cultural Ribbon was a hybrid of ideas: a gesture to a long- standing campaign to ensure the foreshores of Sydney Examine the utility of the original concept in the Harbour were available for the recreational enjoyment of light of recent policy work, input from internal all but also a project that was not limited to the harbour and external stakeholders, as well as other edge; a signposted path to facilitate visitation to major development projects currently in train cultural destinations but equally a hope that the walk would become a destination in itself; a project to build greater awareness and participation in the creative life of the city. Redefine the Cultural Ribbon idea and provide a strategy to advance the project This strategy teases apart the complex issues that the Cultural Ribbon was said to address, suggesting clearer domains of action. It aims to reconnect the city to the water and create an experience of the harbour that Illustrate aspects of the strategy through case is varied, human in scale, exhilarating and educative. studies from around the world This project meets the original objectives of the Cultural Ribbon idea, but also reinforces other key 2030 projects such as Liveable Green Network and the Eora Journey. Identify a series of possible actions for the City International case-studies accompany the analysis in this of Sydney across the range of policy, programs study to suggest the different ways identified problems and projects can be addressed. A number of specific actions and Sydney2030/Green/Global/Connected y a B h s l The Cultural Ribbon Strategy a W , t e h s e H G a a r r e d p e O n Cultural C entre, Ob.Hill, the Rocks , s e c i t s u J & se, Police Customs H on he C ey, t ydn of S eum Mus State Libra ry, Ar t Gal lery o f NSW HP Barracks, the Mint eum Mus time Mari Australian Museum, to William St, Kings Cross Darling Harbour ast Syd creat Surry Hills and E iv e ne ig hb ou rh oo ds George Street The Goods Line C B , A TS , U FE Greater cultural network TA In its preliminary form, the Cultural Ribbon included a s d n o r detour loop from the foreshore to include a short-list of o e urh f bo d igh e ne ive R cultural destinations in the city, many of which lay along reat c s dale pen k ip r Ch and o Macquarie Street. In redefining the Cultural Ribbon as w n e w g o a t a foreshore walk, this gesture to rest of the city is not i r w r e a N C lost. Rather, cultural destinations that are both large and o small, well-known and emerging, will be considered in t a separate study that considers how the City can better support these organisations and make cultural activities more evident in the public domain. While a number of the city’s major arts institutions lie Finding culture at the harbour’s edge, an equal number are located at considerable distance. The real picture of creativity in As major infrastructure and development projects in Sydney is one of a rich dispersal of cultural locations the city come to fruition, the status of George Street as and the City itself is a “cultural precinct”. The cultural the backbone of the city is strengthened. Just as the “fine grain” of medium and small scale venues, of physical edge of the foreshore has inherent wayfinding artist-run and commercial galleries, smaller theatres and advantages, George Street presents itself as a means of playhouses, libraries, clubs and cultural centres cannot orientating people better to the rich dispersal of cultural be captured in a single line. It is therefore important locations in the City of Sydney. to identify and analyse this more expansive network George Street, the city’s major transport and wayfinding of large, medium and small scale cultural venues to spine and its honorific core, becomes a key element formulate projects and programs to strengthen the for navigating this network of creative and cultural sense of a network of distinctive but connected creative destinations. Through improved wayfinding and neighbourhoods. cultural activation, George Street will become a means to discovering and exploring more fully the cultural LGA wide cultural planning landscape of the city. Special attention is being given to how George Street can function as a wayfinding Further work is in progress on broader cultural precinct spine for cultural destinations in the city.

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