Members of South Australia’s creative community will come together next week to begin forming a vision for the arts for the next 40 years.

A two-day forum at the Adelaide Town Hall has been organised by the Arts Industry Council of SA (AICSA), with co-chair Gail Kovatseff saying participants will be able to “talk, rant, share and dream together” to create a blueprint for a bigger and bolder state arts scene.

Kovatseff says there is currently no over-arching cultural policy for the state, with the last attempt to create one occurring with a series of strategies proposed by the State Government in the late 1990s.

“There’s not an overview of where we want to go, what the future might look like, what plans we want to see come to fruition, what the priorities are,” she says.

“We’ve got a very established structure and it’s been historically well-resourced, comparatively, but decisions will need to be made in the future.”

The forum will include up to 200 participants, including representatives from Arts SA, local government, the Adelaide Festival Centre, the Art Gallery of SA, the Adelaide Film Festival, Carclew, the Media Resource Centre, SALA, small and medium arts organisations, and freelance artists.

It is open to anyone with a passion for the arts, and there is no set program. Instead, the event will use Open Space Technology so participants can set the agenda themselves, with discussion facilitated by Nick Sweeting, from London theatre company Improbable.

Kovatseff says every aspect and genre of the arts will be covered, including film, theatre, dance, visual art, music, community arts and festivals.

While reluctant to pre-empt discussions, she says the type of issues likely to be canvassed include infrastructure priorities (for example: Does Adelaide need more theatre space?); funding distribution; support for emerging artists, and the delivery of services beyond the city centre.

“We are at a time of contracting resources, so we need to look at how those resources are used and what the priorities are.

“There are massive changes in the way culture is consumed and made.”

The forum has the support of the State Government, with Arts Minister Jack Snelling saying it is important that people get together and consider how they envisage the future of arts in the state.

“Without a vision there is no way forward and I encourage all South Australians passionate about the arts to have a think as to what they want arts in our great state to look like in 40 years’ time,” he says. “We need people to engage in debate and share their ideas.”

Kovatseff says the proposed blueprint, to be refined over the next 12 months, will form the basis of the arts industry’s representations to government in coming years.

“At the end of two days we hope to capture how the independent arts industry wants to see its future.

“The reason it’s 40 years is that we want to imagine beyond the present, so we are not only trapped in the parameters we are in, but we can see a future we are working towards.”

Chris Drummond, artistic director of Adelaide theatre company Brink Productions and a member of the Arts Industry Council of SA’s committee, believes it is vital to create a document that looks at practical outcomes for the short term as well as a big-picture vision for the longer term.

“As a society, as a city, as a state, everybody is dealing with immediate concerns on a daily basis and it’s really hard to find the time to stop and think about what we’re doing, where were going and what kind of legacy we’re leaving.

“Every artist needs to dream a little … we went for a 40-year vision because it removed ourselves from the conversation a little so we could sidestep any personal and career issues and look at what we want the city’s culture to look like in 40 years.

“One of the challenges is to walk the line between finding a long-term vision but also being seen to look for practical outcomes as well. If it’s too idealistic, then people will stop engaging with it as a conversation.”

The arts vision won’t necessarily require more funding, but it could looks at ways to free up resources.

Drummond says one question that might be canvassed is the relationship between urban planning and the arts/creative industries, and whether more can be done to encourage artistic practices in city hubs.

“In larger cities, these things happen organically; in a smaller city, it needs more strategic thinking.”

For further information or to register for the forum, which will take place at the Adelaide Town Hall on November 5 and 6, from 9am-5pm, visit the Arts Industry Council website. Registrations close on Saturday, November 1.