Heart of the Nation Project

Context

 The Government’s vision is for:

 Vibrant arts and cultural activities which all New Zealanders can enjoy and through which a strong a confident cultural identity can emerge; and

 A strong and vibrant creative industry sector which provides sustainable employment and economic growth within an innovative environment.

 The Government is committed to establishing structures and processes that work in the best interest of the cultural sector.

 The Government wants to play a supportive role in relation to the cultural sector, but to do this most effectively, we believe the sector must have a clear sense of its own vision and strategies to achieve it.

 The Government is committed to ensuring proper dialogue takes place through the Heart of the Nation project, with stakeholders in the cultural sector before any firm decisions are taken which will impact on the long term development of the sector.

Heart of the Nation

 The overall aim of the Heart of the Nation project is to:

- Facilitate the development by the cultural sector of a strategic plan.

 The Heart of the Nation project will be convened by Hamish Keith and he will embark on a consultative process with key stakeholders and interest groups in the cultural sector to:

(a) Identify overarching goals for the cultural sector and the principles that underpin these.

(b) Identify objectives for the sector to achieve by 2010, which overall will contribute to the New Zealand economy and society.

(c) Recommend strategies for achieving the goals and objectives in (a) and (b) above.

(d) Identify issues for government consideration, to support the implementation of the sector plan.

 The purpose of the Heart of the Nation exercise is not to simply identify options for increased Government funding. While the Government is committed to more extensive support of the sector, the plan which is developed should not be dependent on significant increases in Government funding for its effectiveness.

 Hamish Keith will report to the Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage by May 31 2000.

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