2019-12-10 Services & Organisation Committee Agenda

SERVICES & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                   10 DECEMBER 2019


1.      Background
The Butter Factory at Cooroy is a heritage building built in 1930 and purchased by Noosa Council
in the early 1990s. Since then, the Butter Factory has fulfilled a variety of community functions as
a creative hub, an art gallery, a workshop space, an education provider, a performing arts venue
and an office space for Council’s creative and heritage staff. Groups and organisations that have
used the Butter Factory include Noosa Council, Qld TAFE, Permaculture Noosa, the Butter Factory
Arts Inc., the Queensland Museum Regional Development Officer, Creative Noosa, Tourism
Noosa and the National Trust of Australia.
Now functioning as an art gallery and performing arts venue, the facility is an important
community and cultural venue, meeting numerous goals outlined in the Noosa Cultural Plan
2019–2023. While the Noosa Regional Arts Gallery hosts national and state touring exhibitions,
museum-standard displays and hosts professional artists, the Butter Factory supports initiatives
that showcase local emerging and amateur artists. It provides a space for local creatives to
share knowledge, connect with each other and collaborate. The Butter Factory plays an
increasing role in the economic health of the local region by highlighting the creative and cultural
opportunities in the hinterland and extending the tourism experience beyond the coastal strip.
Cooroy Butter Factory History 2004 - 2019
 2004              Qld TAFE vacated the site and the ceramics studio it built was utilised by local
                   ceramic artists as a workshop space and pottery studio.
 2006-2015         The Butter Factory was operated as a Council-run gallery, exhibition and workshop
                   space under both the Noosa and Sunshine Coast Regional Councils.
 2008-2010         The Lower Mill Site was redeveloped to the north of the Butter Factory incorporating
                   the new Cooroy Library, further expanding the community facilities on the precinct.
 2014              A service review of the Noosa Regional Gallery and the BFAC was undertaken. It
                   recommended that a further review of the operations of the BFAC be conducted to
                   explore other facility uses, consider more sustainable management models, and
                   provide greater community participation in the facility.
 2015              The additional review of the BFAC included extensive community engagement and
                   considered a range of options for the future of the facility. These included:
                      Council operating the BFAC as a fully programmed space in line with previous
                        Council operations;
                      Council facilitating a community-managed model;
                      Council operating the BFAC under a ‘caretaker’ model with limited
                        programming, essentially a venue for hire;
                      Council investigating other uses for the BFAC such as leasing it out.
                   The community consultation was overwhelmingly in favour of retaining the cultural
                   and community focus of the Butter Factory and increasing community participation in
                   the management. The outcome of the review was to trial the operation of the Butter
                   Factory under a community managed model and an expression of interest process
                   was undertaken to secure a suitable community organisation to manage the facility.
 January 2016      Council entered into an agreement with the Cooroy Lower Mill Board (now the
                   Cooroy Future Group Inc) to manage and operate the Butter Factory on a twelve-
                   month trial basis to provide a reasonable period for the CFG to establish itself as the
                   management body and to determine if the community managed model was viable.
                   Council provided a twelve-month operating subsidy of $120,279 and $12,600 for
                   transition costs.
 2017-2019         Following a positive first year of operation, which demonstrated healthy exhibition
                   bookings and tight fiscal control in line with original expectations, Council approved a
                   three-year permit to CFG for overall management and operational control of the
                   Cooroy Butter Factory Arts Centre. Annual subsidies have been provided each year
                   to support operational costs.



                                                                                           Page 12 of 69