To help us understand, interpret, navigate and thrive amid this world of change, Melbourne is looking to the people who throughout time, across the globe, have always helped society make sense of the world around them – to creative people of all kinds, from artists, musicians and performers to industrial designers, scientists and poets.

Our roadmap to a bold, inspirational future

Melbourne is no stranger to rapid change. Our city’s enthusiasm and capacity to create and evolve has brought many of the benefits we enjoy today – high-quality public spaces, greener streets and buildings, vibrant laneways, fewer cars, more places to wander and secrets to explore.

These have not come about by chance. The city has been guided by decades of carefully thought through strategies that imagined the Melbourne that could be and systematically stepped out how to make that vision a reality.

As we approach the close of the second decade of the 21st century, Melbourne is looking again to the future and creating a new suite of strategies to steer us through the third decade and beyond.

These strategies are designed to work as an integrated and united network, to help us continue to develop bold, inspirational and sustainable approaches to managing transport, climate change, urban planning and other critical challenges and opportunities.

Central to them all will be a shared understanding and approach to harnessing Melbourne’s incredible creativity and putting it to use for the city and its citizens. This approach will build on the solid foundations of the Arts Strategy 2014–17, embedded now in our daily work, and will invite creative practitioners of all kinds to play a critical role in Melbourne’s future.

The creative strategy also will provide context and guidance for a host of related documents, existing and planned, that outline our intent in relation to particular disciplines of creative practice.