Strategic Plan

PONRABBEL: Strategic Plan Friday, 7 November 2014

PURPOSE: To create a space the Tamar Esk region where innovative possibilities can be developed and considered. Moreover, do so via the facilitation of the publication, distribution and promotion of cultural production, in all its manifestations.

OBJECTIVES

1. To celebrate the ‘placedness’ of the Tamar Esk region of Tasmania and the work of cultural producers who belong to the region and celebrate those things that comes together to shape the region’s cultural landscape.

2. To acknowledge and celebrate the cultural diversity to be found in the Tamar Esk region.

3. To publish and disseminate the cultural production of the region in digital formats supported by occasional hardcopy compilations and were appropriate exhibitions and installations of various kinds.

4. To proactively advocate the concepts of Deep Mapping and Placescaping in their 21st Century contexts.

5. To exploit freely available technologies, platforms and networks to get ‘work’ to audiences in the Tamar/Esk region and beyond.

6. To market the cultural production of the region to as extensive rhizomic network as is possible and as wide as possible readership in the region and beyond.

7. To proactively work towards establishing income generation opportunities for cultural producers in the Tamar Esk region.

8. To establish a network of cultural producers and cultural venues in the Tamar Esk region.

GUIDING PRINCIPLES

1.  The Tamar Esk Region of Tasmania is rich in stories and histories plus multi-dimensional cultural realities. These things, and the cultural landscapes they contribute to, give substance to the regions placedness. All this is a treasure trove for the region’s cultural producers, the people who regard the region as home and the visitors who travel from elsewhere to share for a time those things the people of the regions both take for granted and celebrate.

2.  The Tamar Esk Region of Tasmania has been home for millennia for Tasmania’s Aboriginal people who are a part of the oldest living culture on the planet. Since European settlement a diversity of peoples have come to Tasmania and the Tamar Esk region bringing with them their stories of elsewhere and cultural sensitivities and sensibilities that become a part of the region’s storytelling and in turn the region’s uniqueness. 

3.  The Tamar Esk Region of Tasmania has a rich ladder of cultural producers many of whom struggle to find their audience. 21st C publishing paradigms are more inclusive and accessible than has been the case prior to the Internet and the advent of ‘new’ digital technologies. POONRABBEL is dedicate to exploring the opportunities these things open up.

4.  Deep Mapping and Placescaping in a 21st Century context allows for a diversity of story telling. While the search for ‘truths’, however they are variously understood, is an underlying principle, deep mapping allows for the myths, ‘tall tales’, the rumours, the innuendos, ‘folk tales’ and myths to be retold and become a part of a place’s cultural reality. Leaving out the under layers of story telling devalues the stories that belong to places.

5.   So called new technologies and digital platforms offer ever expanding opportunities to establish interfacing networks to build a community focused ‘publishing’ enterprise upon. As time passes it can be expected that new and unanticipated opportunities will arise and likewise as older paradigms fade this too will provide opportunities. Together these things can be expected to form a foundation to get Tamar Esk cultural production to audiences in the region and beyond.

6.  As the possibilities to reach an increasingly globalised market grow so too do the opportunities to reach smaller an idiosyncratic region markets grow. In order to fully participate in the cultural networks available to Tamar Esk cultural producers they need the vehicles to do so. PONRABBEL aims to be at least one of those available to them. Rhizomic networking offers possibilities for serendipitous opportunities to open up for all engaged in the networking and PONRABBEL sees this as a key rationale for establishing its networks.

7.  Too often regionally based cultural producers’ income opportunities are constrained by local imperatives. Increasingly digital networks and social media are facilitating the development of new and expanded markets. Proactively developing income opportunities for cultural producers should both open up new opportunities for PONRABBEL and the cultural producers in its networks alike.

8.  In the Tamar Esk region there is the foundation for a network of cultural producers to take on collaborative and cooperative projects. Likewise, there are cultural venues in the Tamar Esk region that can facilitate enhanced participatory cultural programs at a expanded and professional level once these collaborative networks expand their programming in line with the new opportunities that present themselves.

STRATEGIES

FOREWORD: In the initial phase of the PONRABBEL ‘operation’ it is envisaged that it will be managed by a Steering Committee under the auspices of the Heritage Protection Society and/or other incorporated bodies as appropriate. The Steering Committee will stay in place until such time as the ‘membership’ determines that it is necessary to incorporate as a not-for-profit organisation or  to establish  some other corporate entity. 

1.  By constraining the range of cultural production published to that produced in the Tamar Esk Region, or in some way having a connection to the region, it will be possible to not only celebrate the largely unacknowledged diversity and depth of the region’s cultural realities but also foster cultural development in the region.

2.  The Tamar Esk region has a rich cultural landscape invested with a wealth of stories. By engaging with the Tasmanian Aboriginal community opportunities to publish the community’s cultural production will follow. Likewise the diversity of cultural expressions post European settlement offers opportunities to acknowledge and celebrate the diversity of these cultural realities that exist side by side but often little known to each other.

3.   Establish PONRABBEL as an online publication in the form of a BLOG and use this platform to gather material and make linkages with other Tamar Esk focused online entities. Drawing upon the material gathered via BLOG contributions, from time to time publish in hardcopy formats pamphlets, journals, anthologies, posters, cards, etc. Similarly, use this information to mount exhibitions, performance and displays in the region and beyond when and where appropriate. Furthermore, PONRABBEL will offer authors a ‘peer reviewing’ mechanism/s when and where appropriate.

4.  In each manifestation of a PONRABBEL publication ensure that with it there is a 21st Century exemplar of Deep Mapping tat explores and interrogates the cultural realities, mythologies and storytelling that belongs to the Tamar Esk region.

5.    Rather than relying upon digital technologists to realise PONRABBEL publications, use off-the-shelf technologies to disseminate material published under the PONRABBEL banner. Further to that, use online social networking to disseminate information about hardcopy publications, which will be printed on demand and distributed via Tamar Esk venues and via appropriate outlets further afield.

6.   To market the cultural production of the region to as extensive rhizomic network as is possible and as wide as possible readership in the region, the Tamar Esk Diaspora and beyond where appropriate. By using this extended word-of-mouth networking it should be possible to reach an ever-increasing audience and build a strong Community of Ownership & Interest for PONRABBEL publications in the region and beyond.

7.   Proactively seek funding for projects and recurrent expenses via Crowdfunding, sponsorships, grants and sales. In doing so, it is envisaged that PONRABBEL may well grow into a viable Community Cultural Enterprise.

8.   In order to establish a network of cultural producers and cultural venues it is envisaged that PONRABBEL will establish a network of Tamar Institute independent collaborators, associates, writers and editors who collectively will be a part of the Tamar Institute and in the longer term form a ‘college’ that will facilitate peer reviews etc.