Northern Beaches Council last night adopted the draft Manly Art Gallery and Museum Fundraising Strategy 2024-2030 to maximise opportunities by local creatives to showcase our arts and culture, to support public art and to continue growing our creative spaces.

Northern Beaches Mayor Sue Heins said the long-term strategy is hoped to raise funds that contribute to the development and exposure of the arts and culture sector not only on the Beaches but wider afield.

“MAG&M is a treasured local icon that has been a vital part of Sydney’s cultural life on the Northern Beaches for almost 100 year – celebrating its centenary of collections next year,” Mayor Heins said. 

“We know through our recent Culture Map Live which has over 1200 listings, that art and culture is a thriving on the Beaches and we support this industry of creatives. Council also values public art through the Northern Beaches Walk Art Trail which we have continued to make additions to.

“Sadly, the capacity for local government to provide for arts and culture has traditionally been limited to self-funding, income generating activities, grants from other levels of government, and business partnerships which means we have limited capacity to develop new programs or seek further exposure to wider audiences.

“This new strategy will give priority to minimise cost to Council and give the opportunity to use funding received for specialised staff to increase initiatives to fundraise, build and maintain donor relationships and broad marketing initiatives to promote MAG&M, its programs and collections, the Coast Walk Art Trail, and other arts and cultural experiences across the area.”

MAG&M is the oldest metropolitan purpose-built regional gallery in New South Wales. Both a proud gallery and museum with a nationally significant collection of over 5,000 objects including painting, ceramics, works on paper, photographs museum objects, documents and public art.

Council is also considering participation in the Sydney Film Festival, Sydney Writers Festival, Festival of Sydney and VIVID, in addition to our current participation in Heritage week and NAIDOC Week.  Further investigation is required before Council can commit to these additional activities.

The Strategy was prepared in consultation with many local arts and culture organisations and will evolve over time, depending on the fundraising climate over the next 5 years.

Find out more about MAG&M here.