Looking back 10 years

Our Director wrote this article for the Australian Library and Information Association Magazine Incite in 2015. It is curious how many of the values of being a City of Literature Office are still absolute forefront of what we do today

"There’s no one single reason why a city becomes a City of Literature or in fact any of UNESCOs 6 Creative City designations (Craft & folk art, Design, Film, Gastronomy, Literature and New Media) Your city needs to be invested across all of its designation to ensure it becoming a creative city.?

I think it’s not unlike what makes a city a city. It’s never one icon that makes the city. It’s all the little things that build up to give its city its character. Sydney isn’t Sydney just because of the harbor. It’s iconic and certainly affects the city and the way it interacts (try and get people from the Northshore to an event in Rozelle for example) but its only one part.??

Melbourne joined the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in 2008. At the time it was designated the first and only Creative City in Australia (now joined by Sydney City of Film), and the second City of Literature in the world. The Cities of Literature now number 11?

Despite what is thought, we didn’t get it because of the Wheeler Centre. That came later?

Melbourne’s designation as a?UNESCO City of Literature?was an acknowledgment of the “breadth, depth and vibrancy of the city’s literary culture.” When explaining how we received it the bids architects always point out we got it because we love books. How that’s quantified is curious. Statistically more Victorians read for pleasure than in any other State. And last year over 230,000 children participated in the Premier’s Reading Challenge, reading more than 4 million books between them.?

One question I get often is “what does an Office do” The Office fills in the gaps in the City. In Iowa City there is no writers’ festival, so the City of Literature Office runs it. Melbourne is so vastly resourced that there isn’t an obvious gap and activity for activities sake would prove more disruptive than useful.?

The Melbourne office works in three broad ways. Firstly, the Office works on strategies that ensure all the reasons we are a City of Literature remain strong. It’s easy for arts and culture to celebrate success with no for its sustainability. For example, the journals in Melbourne are a strong reason for our status a literary city but 80% of them are run by volunteers.??

Secondly the Office communicates, within the “city of literature” i.e. between the different areas. At the moment I am doing a lot of match making with libraries and arts organisation. Every literary arts organisation I speak with say they want to partner with libraries.??

Lastly the office connects internationally. Obviously being part of a network of international cities there is an easy line of communication and a standing invitation to connect. Already we have partnered the 20-minute city initiative with the Digital Writers Festival. Sitting alongside our work with our sister Cities is to make sure we encourage connection with the Countries that make Melbourne –to use two obvious examples India and China.?

The Office works in these ways for one broad goal – to make sure all the people in Melbourne, and Victoria, get the advantage of living in a City of Literature. It’s too easy for literature to become a middle-class white pastime. The Office is working to make sure this doesn’t happen.

And Libraries??

Libraries are the heartbeat of Melbourne as a literary City. They really touch all sides of the City – they engage with the publishers, interact with bookshops., program writers in events and , the most important? sometimes overlooked part of the City – they engage readers in a way which allows maximum access.??

Of course you all know that. The question is, for all of us not just in Melbourne, what more can we do to make our Cities more literary. We are so well resourced here, what more can we do? This is a question I ask often and invite you too as well"