Ballarat’s creativity continues to evolve

The City of Ballarat is on track to meet almost all of its goals outlined in the 2019 Creative City Strategy.

Ballarat City Council on Wednesday night endorsed the results of the 2022/23 Creative City Strategy Report Card, noting the progress that has been made towards achieving the seven targets outlined in the strategy.

The Strategy includes ambitious targets for the City of Ballarat’s Creative City unit to reach by 2030, which seeks to make Ballarat a city that nurtures the creative spark, builds sustainability within the creative industries, and actively grows the creative economy and practitioners.

Some of the targets designed to deliver positive effects for the sector have already been met and most are on track for completion well in advance of 2030.

The targets that are performing well are based around increasing community participation in creative programs, increasing the numbers of employed artists, tripling attendances at events, increasing cultural tourism and foot traffic in the creative precinct and attracting more qualified professionals to Ballarat’s labour force.

However, there was a downward trend in the target to achieve 3000 jobs in creative industries by 2030.

In line with a national downward trend in creative job losses, there has been a 15 per cent drop in full-time creative jobs, however more positively there has been an 18 per cent increase in self-employed creative jobs, bringing the overall total to 2427 creative jobs in Ballarat.  

City of Ballarat Mayor, Cr Des Hudson said there was incredible progress being made towards making Ballarat “the home of the sustainable practitioner”.  

“Every year we are seeing Ballarat become increasingly creative as the city establishes itself as a city with creativity at its heart,” he said.

“It’s extremely promising to see the goals that were set back in 2019 coming to fruition and while we acknowledge there is still plenty of work ahead of us, the positive signs are there.

“There are still a number of challenges facing the creative industry, including economic downturns, dramatic changes in audience behaviour, and continued recovery from the pandemic, but it is crucial the work we have started continues.”

A full breakdown of the 2022/23 Creative City Strategy Report Card can be found on the Creative Ballarat website.