OUR VISION: By 2020 Octapod is a valued community cultural resource hub with a reputation for inspiring new ideas in arts and media practice whilst making a real contribution to cultural vitality in the Hunter region.

OCTAPOD’S MISSION: Our mission is to plan and manage Octapod as an efficient and well resourced cultural organisation according to best practice standards in order to advance our Vision and deliver core functions.

OCTAPOD CORE BUSINESS: Our core business is:

Community Cultural Resource Hub – where Octapod provides resources and services to Newcastle and the Hunter region including information, advice/referrals, meeting space, grants auspicing, and a Residency Program (offering 24/7 access to office and meeting space), a Media Space (offering low-cost video editing facilities) and a Zine Library.

Sustainable Projects Program – where Octapod provides leadership, governance, management and operational supervision whilst fostering and respecting quality production values for a limited number of projects. Sustainable Projects in 2011 include This Is Not Art Festival (TINA), CultureHunter.org and PODspace Gallery.

Community Partnerships Program – where Octapod works in collaboration with partners to facilitate or manage an annual program that encourages and fosters community-initiated arts and media initiatives and projects. In the longer term, Octapod aims to provide pathways to viability for start-up projects that can demonstrate over a 12 month period that they are sustainable and have a longer term future. Projects will be supported with both physical and administrative resources, and knowledge gained will be shared for mutual benefit.

OUR CORE BUSINESS IN ACTION Octapod’s core business activities are underpinned by our values. The following summarises our priorities:

SUPPORTING PARTICIPATION IN ARTS AND CULTURAL ACTIVITIES Our focus here is on encouraging participation by diverse communities in arts and cultural activities as creators, participants and audiences.  

STIMULATING ARTS AND CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT Octapod supports a creative and diverse arts sector, with a particular emphasis on artform development within independent, emerging and experimental arts and media practices. 

IMPROVING INDUSTRY CAPACITY AND SUSTAINABILITY As an innovative model of arts/cultural/media resource delivery, Octapod seeks to develop infrastructure that improves industry capacity and supports the sustainability of Hunter-based cultural programs.