Another Renew Oz blog, this one from Ailsa Brackley du Bois (click her name for her ArtsAtlas profile).
Picture yourself having your own studio (or retail) space for your work (shared with a handful of other artists engaged in compatible practice to yours) in a prime possie in the CBD for something like $15 per week rent, and no overheads… no public liability insurance; no water rates; not too much tedious administration and best of all no more than a 30 day commitment. All you have to do is doll up the appearance of the space as best you can, or as sparingly as you wish, with recycled and donated materials, populate it with your best work and turn up regularly, on some sort of rotating roster that you work out with your fellow artists. Treat it as your own business. In fact, make it your business.
This is the model that Renew Newcastle advocates. The organisation has helped over 108 clusters of artists achieve viable and meaningful artistic activity in various buildings across central Newcastle. They’ve cleared the barriers and created access to amazing heritage relevant spaces for the real talent to rejuvenate: the creative types, the makers and creators. They’re inhabiting previously vacant, neglected or under-appreciated spaces in order to workshop, exhibit and sell their goods and services (and build their own brand in the process).
The initiative has helped artists come out of their back rooms, their cold, drafty skillions, their shared lounge rooms, their garages, the corner of their dining room, or where ever… It’s cleared spaces instead in which artists can do their work, collaborate, share ideas, make their stuff visible to the world and get some serious momentum happening. It’s fostered an extraordinary opportunity for crafting and populating user-friendly work-spaces, built greater recognition for the region’s artists and ensured unprecedented network support from like-minded people.
It’s about harnessing the power of the creative people to rise up and create their own opportunities for growth: personal, community-based and professional growth that will then roll on to cultivate potential commercial growth. This whole thing is premised on the concept of creating a fertile ground that enables the artistic community to grow from what they have already, and to help all sorts of artists truly emerge and develop their skills, self-esteem and income-earning capacity. The best part is that all of these artists are effectively self-employed. No-one is telling them what to do, or how to do it.
The group of people behind Renew Australia invested significant time and effort in negotiating with a diverse range of real estate owners, property development groups, local council members, and their own local artistic constituency to work out a way to secure space that was otherwise being left idle or in decay. There were often restrictions placed on the spaces being inhabited, and they’re often not in ideal condition, but in a commercial world in which location does matter, all of these spaces offered a superior platform for artists to work with, than their own wildly varied and often cramped domestic spaces.
A trickle down cultural bonus of this whole movement is that with considerate use of old spaces, significant heritage buildings are often saved and enlivened in the process. City street-scapes are beautified in turn, and over time whole city precincts begin to appear more vibrant than they were prior to the creative presence. Sounds a tad utopian, I know, but with some determination, it really does work that way.
We can do this here in Ballarat. The management team at Ballarat Arts Alive and their tiny army of entirely voluntary helpers really want to see this happen. Still, as was often mentioned at this conference, “It’s not just about doing the right thing, but it’s about doing the thing right.” Robust relationships, careful negotiations, legally binding agreements, considered contractual guide-lines and workable processes need to be put in place.
This takes time, hard work and energy, all unpaid, on the part of the people who are passionate about this prospect of creating better working environments for Ballarat artists. We know we have the abundant talent in this city to bring the creative industries to the fore. We just need to pull together and help make this happen. The spaces sub-committee and the BAA management team are busily working on a plan for activating this vision, as I type…
It won’t happen over-night, but as Rachel Hunter assured us in that gloriously memorable Pantene ad from 1990… it will happen! Maybe with Pantone colour this time, instead of Pantene shampoo… Oh dear… I do amuse myself, at least.
So, anyway, if you’re interested in jumping on board and becoming involved with this early phase of discussions about ‘space creation,’ please join us. Our next BAA spaces sub-committee meeting is at 3pm, Friday 12th April at the Swallow’s Nest café on Lydiard Street. We’re currently putting together a survey for BAA members on this very topic, to find out what type of space you would find most useful. So if you can’t make the meeting, please know that we’ll be circulating the survey for your consideration in a few weeks time.
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