This week, even as the final community event on the centenary calendar was held, Archer was still showing an indefatigable commitment to the cause, attending multiple functions from early morning to late at night.

As Labor MLA Mick Gentleman noted of Archer at one event this week: ''She's been working the hardest of any of us over the last 12 months.''

Archer, who was paid about $1.2 million over four years to commission and oversee events for the centenary celebrations, was clear right from the start of her appointment, in mid-2009, about what she wanted to achieve in 2013.

She aimed to ''enable a wide range of people to participate in a broad program of activity'' while leaving a legacy for the future of Canberra and making a statement to the rest of Australia about the richness and diversity within the national capital.

''I feel the city itself is primed for a cultural renaissance and the centenary is the perfect opportunity to encourage and enable it,'' she said, at the time.

While Archer is reluctant to declare ''job done'' - saying it may be five to 10 years before Canberra realises the true, lasting effect of the centenary celebrations - she is leaving the position with a certain amount of satisfaction.

''There are any number of things you could point to as things to be pleased with. There are literally thousands of individual projects and the majority have been incredibly successful,'' she said.

After a year that included Skywhale, international cricket, One Very Big Day by the lake, Australian Open women's golf, ballet, theatre, parties at the shops, You Are Here, fashion, art, Spin and Windows to the World, the official centenary calendar ended quite gently on Wednesday, with the launch of Centenary Stories, an oral history project recording the personal history of Canberrans.

Chief Minister Katy Gallagher said there had been more than 1000 community events held throughout the year. ''We live in one of Australia's most diverse communities and I was pleased to see that the program for the centenary provided opportunities for all Canberrans to take part in a festival or event that aligned with their unique interest,'' she said.

Archer said the measure of the success was how the blueprint for the centenary was embraced by the community.

''You can say we're going to do this but people might not come. But they did. And they kept on coming,'' she said.

One of her favourite events was the parties in the shops, where people gathered to celebrate their little corner of the ACT in a movement that will continue.

''It reinvigorated the communities at that grassroots level,'' she said.

Archer was also thrilled by what she regards as the more intangible benefits of the centenary. She pointed to a study during the year that found pride in Canberra stood at 91 per cent, while 94 per cent of respondents felt ''there is more to Canberra than people know''.

''Our chief role was to increase pride in the national capital, and to see [those statistics] just validates the approach that I took, which is, 'We're just going to expose Canberra for what it really is, rather than for what people think it is','' she said.

''And while I certainly haven't stopped the press using 'Canberra' for federal government, there are other stories, as I go around the country now, there are other awarenesses of Canberra.

''And I think it would be very difficult for all but the very ignorant to say that this is somehow barren or empty or there is nothing to do.''

Yet the centenary has not been without its critics. It has been routinely lambasted as too elitist and arty. The taxpayer-funded hot-air balloon Skywhale and the questionable day-time entertainment and on-the-ground organisation during One Big Day in March attracted the most vehement brickbats.

The controversy around Skywhale, designed by Canberra-raised artist Patricia Piccinini, was heightened by the initial reluctance of centenary organisers to reveal its full cost. And One Big Day, which cost $3 million, or 10 per cent of the centenary's $30 million budget, was seen by many to be really One Big Night, with the day-time events lacking and food and water for such an enormous crowd completely inadequate.

Not that Archer will accept criticisms of either.

''In the end, I think on both of them, the vast majority were in favour of both,'' she said.

''I think there was a little bit of media frenzy, 'Here's some nice bit of negativity we can jump on to get more listeners or viewers'.''

She maintains Skywhale, which cost taxpayers $300,000 but remains in the private ownership of its pilot, was her most successful commission ever, attracting media attention from around the world.

''It's become part of the iconic landscape of Canberra,'' she said.

Of One Big Day, Archer says simply: ''You can't please every one of the 150,000 people who attended.

''Again the detractors were in the minority and people now even write to say they had a fantastic time,'' she said.

''Somebody said to me only yesterday that people will be saying in five or 10 years , 'I was in Canberra at that time and I was there on that day'. It will become a monumental memory.''

Archer said it was up to Canberra to maintain the momentum created during the centenary year.

''In a sense it would be great if the Canberra community said, 'We love our city being that active' and then creating a demand for more activity. It's sort of over to Canberra to say now, 'This is what we'd like all the time' and maybe it can't ever be at that absolute peak, but we would like to feel this active and have lots of new things and fresh ideas,'' she said.

''If they can demand those things, then there is a clear message to government and entrepreneurs alike that 'Yes, this is a city that can absolutely do that'.''

As to what she will do next, Archer says her diary is already filling up for next year. She has completed some workshops on the Gold Coast, which she says may develop into something bigger as that city, like Canberra, tries to develop a deeper profile beyond the stereotype. She already has eight international engagements booked for next year, speaking or performing. And she will continue projects including as director of the Light in Winter festival in Melbourne's Federation Square and as deputy chair of the Australia Council for the Arts.

Archer says she would tackle a year-long festival again (''Well, absolutely. It's been an amazing project'') but believes the centenary of Canberra may have fundamentally changed her.

''To tell you the truth, there have been a few moments when I've been thinking, 'I don't even know if I would want to go back into just an arts festival'. I've been able to taste what it's like to range around culture in a much broader sense, and I've really, really enjoyed that.

''It may feel constrained just to go back into arts and that's been a great lesson for me to learn.''