The Casey Council has unanimously voted to endorse a new Public Art Policy and revoke the existing Arts Acquisition policy at last night’s council meeting, due to the former art policy not aligning with current council priorities.
The aim of the new policy would be to integrate public art into Casey’s natural environment, commission high quality art pieces, as well as foster diversity, equality, innovative and progressive pieces of public art.
It also raised the threshold for the project for arts scheme, aiming for more impactful work.
It also aims to commission public art that is low to no maintenance wherever possible.
The former Arts Acquisitions Policy was originally intended to combine public art commissioning with plans to develop a public art collection for Bunjil Place Gallery.
During the meeting, Cr Kim Ross of the Casuarina Ward supported this motion, praising the rotating nature of Bunjil Place’s art collection and the withdrawal from the previous councillor’s intention to create a permanent art collection at the gallery.
“Public art is a powerful way to connect communities, challenge thinking and encourage deeper conversations,” said Cr Ross.
Mayor Stefan Koomen echoed this sentiment.
“I was quite taken aback when he found out about the desires from the old council to retain a private art collection,” he said.
“I’m very supportive of this change.
“I think what we do really well at Bunjil Place as a regional art gallery is bringing in works and partnering with different galleries.”
Over the past 20 years as part of A Percent for Art program, Casey has commissioned more than 200 public art works across the municipality that were also guided by the former policy.
