The Casey Council has unanimously voted to endorse a new Public Art Policy and revoke the existing Arts Acquisition policy at this month’s council meeting.
According to the council, this is due to the former art policy not aligning with current council priorities.
The new policy aims 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 that requires less maintenance.
The former Arts Acquisitions Policy was originally intended to combine public art commissioning with plans to develop an art collection for Bunjil Place Gallery.
During the meeting, Cr Kim Ross of the Casuarina Ward supported the 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 I 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.
