Building stronger connections across Southside’s creative community
Southside has a rich and diverse creative community, with cultural organisations, artists and creative spaces playing an important role in the life of our community.
The City of Port Phillip Arts Collective (COPPAC) brings together many of those organisations, creating opportunities to share ideas, advocate for the sector and work collectively on the challenges and opportunities facing local arts and culture.
This initiative is timely given the squeeze in Government support for artists and venues and business models that are under extreme pressure.
COPPAC includes 14 organisations spanning music, theatre, visual arts, screen, disability arts, heritage and community practice. But like many collaborations, much of the work of bringing people together has relied on members finding time alongside their already busy day-to-day roles.
Through our 2026 Grants for Collaboration, COPPAC will receive $6,000 for Building the Infrastructure for Collaboration, helping put some of the practical foundations in place for the collective to grow and work together more effectively.
The project will support dedicated coordination for COPPAC and the development of a new website where members can share programs, events and opportunities. It will also help bring the wider Southside arts community together through sector forums and professional development workshops, map creative spaces that could be shared with emerging artists and organisations, and strengthen COPPAC’s partnership with the City of Port Phillip.
For Rod Gilbert, CEO of The National Theatre and COPPAC Co-Chair, the grant is an opportunity to turn an existing willingness to work together into something more sustainable.
“This grant is transformative for COPPAC. It enables us to build the infrastructure that our member organisations have needed to collaborate effectively and amplify our collective voice.
With dedicated coordination, a platform to connect and share resources, and a strengthened partnership with the City of Port Phillip, we can now support the delivery of the City’s Cultural Port Phillip Strategy 2026–2031.
This is exactly the kind of investment that turns goodwill into sustained impact, enabling us to be a genuine partner in shaping the cultural future of our municipality.”
Importantly, the project will reach beyond COPPAC’s existing membership. Forums and professional development opportunities will be open to arts and cultural organisations across Southside, including independent artists and artist-led groups. First Nations artists and cultural practitioners will also be engaged as part of the project, with paid cultural expertise helping shape the work.
This is what our Grants for Collaboration are about: backing local organisations to build the relationships, tools and ways of working that make collaboration easier and sectors more sustainable.
By strengthening the connections that already exist across Southside’s creative community, COPPAC can help local organisations share resources, learn from one another and speak with a stronger collective voice.
