Big skies, and Big heART in the Western Downs.

Client: Western Downs Regional Council (WDRC)

Partners: Dr Sue Davis OAM

Fourfold Studio partnered with WDRC and Dr Sue Davis OAM to conduct community engagement to inform the development of the first ever Arts and Culture strategy for the Western Downs region.

Beginning with a collaborative workshop with local artist champions and online engagement, we set out to gain insights and knowledge about existing perceptions of arts, culture and heritage from not just those actively engaged, but stakeholders who have not been engaged to date. Our team provided training to empower arts practitioners to run their own community workshops throughout the area in conjunction with WDRC, which led to the delivery of an additional 7 community workshops.

Deep diving into final data outputs assisted the team with understanding the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges for arts and culture in the region. It revealed that people in the Western Downs highly value social connection and bringing people together with arts and cultural activities.

The detailed information and stories from the community were combined with asset mapping and formed the basis for WDRC’s vision, principles and strategic pillars contained within the final strategy document. The Western Downs truly is a creative place of Big skies, and Big heART. We can’t wait to see them achieve their creative and cultural goals over the next five years.