The lack of an affordable and adequate rehearsal space has been a problem for many years that has been made worse due to Covid-19 restrictions. With the new rules and the rise in cost of school halls (the most common rehearsal space in the past), and the cost and availability of council owned venues, e.g Cavanbah Hall, has impacted local theatre productions. For both plays and musicals, there are usually 3 rehearsals per week for 3 months or more, which can cost these community groups upwards of $160 a week, and the venues are often not appropriate acoustically or spatially. The state government and council can do more to support the people who entertain and deepen us!

A focus is needed to connect large businesses with creative industry leaders to overcome issues resulting from audiences that have to travel to visit artists works, exhibitions, festivals, and performances. Coffs Harbour  plays second fiddle to Sydney and the State government can support the creative industries to boost infrastructure, networking groups, partnerships and to develop audiences. The industry can be further supported by educating local businesses and groups on the fundamentals of what is the creative industries.

As more people move to Coffs Harbour, we will attract more creative industry types but we need to create the infrastructure to make Coffs Harbour attractive to these sea/tree changers. Government should also provide venues with access to grants allowing them to maintain live performances with fewer patrons and to production companies that cannot afford to mount productions with seating restrictions in place.

There is currently no known mentorship or educational programs in our community that bring in well known national and international artists to train, educate and talk to youth about creating a business from arts and how they pursue their dreams as an artist such as game developers, musicians, lighting sound and video designers, actors, cinematographers, VFX artists, painters, dance, theatre performers, web designers and developers. Also a lot of youth from this area currently do not have financial access to partake in art exhibitions, courses, and other arts activities and this barrier makes our community health poorer.