Local Government Toolkit

Love Your Local is a practical guide for artists, arts workers and organisations to working with Local Government Authorities (LGAs) to achieve creative and professional development goals and deliver on local council policy drivers.

LGAs are among the strongest champions of the arts in Australia – and there are mutual benefits for artists collaborating with councils.

The toolkit explores the many different ways that artists can build win-win collaborations with LGAs, from grants and studio space to professional development, marketing and brokering relationships with businesses. It also advises on what councils need from artists and arts workers in return so they can deliver value to the communities they represent. 

Thank you to the great number of artists, arts workers and local governments for their support and assistance in the drafting of the toolkit.

Cover: Laurel Nannup, First Contact, 2016. Five-metre tall cast aluminium sculpture, Perth’s Elizabeth Quay waterfront precinct. Commissioned for the Perth Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority (MRA) and coordinated by FORM and Urban Art Projects (UAP). Project managed and facilitated by FORM Building a State of Creativity. Photo by Robert Frith, Acorn Photo.

Author: Monique Choy, Nettle Soup.

Accessible PDF designer: Kathryn Collins, KC & the Graphics Bandwagon.

This project has been assisted by Daniel Besen as part of NAVA’s Arts Day on the Hill program.

The National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA) acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and knowledge holders of the unceded lands on which we live, learn and work.

We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first artists and storytellers on this continent, and pay respect to First Nations communities’ Ancestors and Elders.
Sovereignty was never ceded.