Working with QAGOMA to review the draft of their Strategic Plan.

Background

Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), is a premiere art gallery located in Queensland’s capital, Brisbane. Queensland Art Gallery moved to its current location at South Bank in 1982. It was joined by the Gallery of Modern Art in 2006 and the galleries now house a globally significant collection of contemporary art from Australia, Asia and the Pacific. This is bolstered by the Asia Pacific Triennial of contemporary art (APT). Relative Creative were engaged by QAGOMA  to design and conduct a substantive review of their draft strategic plan.

Opportunity for Futures

The project provided an opportunity to test the existing core elements of the strategy in an open, consultative and inquiring way and contribute to adjusting existing content and developing new content as a result. To achieve this we conducted in-depth research into the current trends within the GLAM sector both locally and internationally. Much of the content engaged with during this process spoke of the impact of climate change, community shifts in relation to the expectations around First Nations justice and truth telling and the connection between access to art and culture and societal wellbeing. It was an exciting opportunity to weave these components into the design of the workshops and the tools participants interacted with.

Our Approach

Our approach was multifaceted, grounded in research and our expertise in designing and delivering engaging, consultative workshops that support participants in having open discussions, and testing and challenging assumptions to analyse and co-create alternative futures. For this project this took the form of: two workshops, one in person for the Senior Leadership Team; one online (due to  COVID) for all staff; a designed stakeholder survey relating to the outcomes of the two workshops and; a presentation/workshop with QAGOMA’s Board and Foundation Committee. Each of these engagements has resulted in an outcome report capturing key learnings and recommendations. These outcome reports were utilised by the QAGOMA team to rewrite their strategic plan, in a substantive update. We then contributed further support to design and layout the strategic plan.