A draft arts and culture strategy was launched last night aimed at helping Dunedin ''produce and seduce'' more creative minds.
Dunedin city councillor Jinty MacTavish, who spoke at the launch at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery, said the draft Dunedin arts and culture strategy Ara Toi Otepoti: Our Creative Future had been ''gestating'' since 2010.
The document was designed to be a platform for the growth and development of arts and culture in the city ''rather than being a prescriptive direction'', she said.
The council had worked with arts and culture collective Transforming Dunedin to create the document, which had revealed the importance of art and culture to Dunedin and its benefits to the city's residents, including social and economic wellbeing.
Cr Aaron Hawkins, who helped develop the document and compered the launch, said Dunedin had an ''amazing history of producing and seducing some of the world's finest creative minds''.
He said the more than 120 people at the launch had congregated to celebrate the city's ''creative backbone'' and discuss ways to make it stronger.
The draft was designed to stimulate discussion, he said.
''It's an invitation to fresh energy and new ideas, and a signal that now is the time to bring them on.''
The draft strategy is at www.dunedin.govt.nz/aratoi and the consultation runs until October 3.
