City of Moreton Bay is growing. We know cultivating performing arts is important for celebrating the stories, cultures and identities of our vibrant communities as we grow.

Council has engaged an expert consultancy team led by AEC Group Pty Ltd (AEC) to undertake a strategic assessment and options analysis into performing arts within City of Moreton Bay. On behalf of Council, AEC is leading engagement with a variety of performing arts groups to explore and understand their current operations, where they want to go and what the gaps are between current status and those future aspirations.

This investigation ranges in scale from local community theatre companies up to commercial performance opportunities within the city. AEC’s findings will bring local perspectives, experiences and insights into Council’s planning for facilities, services and advocacy to support performing arts across our growing city.

On behalf of Council, AEC has invited a sample of performing arts organisations from across the city to participate. These include a mix of local groups that:

• rehearse and perform on a regular basis
• use their own facilities, Council facilities or other facilities
• practice a mix of styles including dance, music and theatre
• are active in the city now, have recently closed, or were active in the city but have now moved elsewhere.

Your organisation has been invited to be part of the project.

In 2021, you may been invited to participate in a Council run survey about performing arts facilities. While we have the results from this survey as a reference, we feel a lot has changed since then and we want to make sure we are working with reliable and current information.

Step 1. Complete the initial survey

As a representative of your group's organising committee, we invite you to complete the 10-minute survey. Please don't distribute this survey to your members to respond to separately. We are looking for a consolidated response from your group.

The survey has been extended until 4.00pm Wednesday 9 October 2024.

Your answers will give us information about the needs and aspirations of your group. This is only the first step in the engagement process and respondents may be contacted to delve more deeply into potential solutions and opportunities (if you elect to participate in Step 2).

Step 2. Further questions about potential solutions and opportunities

At the end of the survey (Step 1), you will be asked if you would like to participate in Step 2. If you agree, a team member from AEC may contact you either via email or phone. Step 2 will focus on your ideas for potential solutions and opportunities to support performing arts across the city.

Council will be sharing with project participants a summary of the engagement findings.

We also know from Moreton Says that our communities enjoy arts and culture in all its forms, and that there are some barriers to participating. These barriers include a lack of awareness, personal interest, time, costs and distance to venues. To create more opportunities for our communities to do what they enjoy, we need to understand what support performing arts need to flourish in our city into the future.

Council currently supports our performing arts by:

• providing venues, spaces and other facilities that enhance opportunities for performers to explore their creativity, rehearse and/or perform for an audience
• delivering programming that supports performers to develop and grow their talent
• engaging local creatives and performers, where possible, to deliver opportunities for artist development
• providing funding opportunities to support performing arts development
• advocating for additional support from other levels of government to enhance the breadth of performing opportunities available to the community.