Stage one engagement outcomes

We had a strong response from the community for the Public Art Framework Review engagement with 659 visits to the Your Say page by 528 unique visitors. We had a total of 228 contributions to the survey from 217 contributors.

Of the respondents to the survey:

• 92 per cent live in the City of Onkaparinga
• 57 per cent own a property in the City of Onkaparinga
• 9 per cent own a business in the City of Onkaparinga.

When asked whether they thought public art adds value to our public spaces:

• 87 per cent of survey respondents said yes, it adds value
• 8 per cent of survey respondents said no, it doesn’t add value
• 5 per cent of survey respondents said they were not sure.

The most common themes from survey respondents who thought public art adds value to our public spaces, fall into three strong value areas:

• beautification
• community connection
• cultural storytelling.

The most common themes from survey respondents who reported they do not believe public art adds value to public spaces or that they were not sure were:

• cost concerns and preference for funding to be spent on essential services
• art placement and suitability issues
• art is subjective and its value varies from person to person.

By far the most popular form of public art was murals (75 per cent) with other popular forms being:

• sculptures (48 per cent )
• community created artworks (47 per cent )
• culturally significant artwork (41 per cent ).

Of the 40 artists who responded to the survey, 28 per cent reported they were public artists.

The key barriers to positive public art outcomes they identified were:

• sufficient funding (73 per cent )
• appropriate timeframes (64 per cent )
• realistic community engagement expectations (64 per cent )
• technical help (36 per cent ).

They also commented on the need for trust, fairness and transparency in processes, support for emerging artists and community representation and inclusion.