Make Space. Photo by Edwina Richards
How did Renew Newcastle come about and what is its current role?
Renew Newcastle was established in 2008 to activate otherwise empty buildings in the Newcastle CBD as incubation spaces for arts projects, creative enterprises, cultural activities and community groups. It was the first of creative enterprise hub to be developed in Australia.
Renew Newcastle finds short and medium term uses for buildings that are vacant, disused, or awaiting redevelopment. We support arts projects, creative enterprises, cultural activities and community undertakings to utilise these spaces and to develop their practices.
It is a not for profit company limited by guarantee. Its partners include the Department of Trade & Investment, Hunter Development Corporation, the GPT Group, Arts NSW, City of Newcastle, Newcastle City Centre Committee, Sparke Helmore, APP Corporation. It has a board, a general manager and a part-time founder and creative director.
What are your current projects?
Renew Newcastle is supporting 28 projects in 21 otherwise vacant properties:
- Studio and office space for visual artists, graphic design, web design, web publishing, photography, tv and video production, film and sound production, interior design, architectural design, sustainability designers & consultants.
- Shop and gallery space for fashion design and production, jewellery, art wearables, homewares, toys, soft sculpture, accessories, painting, photography, illustration, ceramics, installation, vintage upcycling.
We are in the final stage of a Creative Enterprise Incubation & Development program providing professional development opportunities for the projects: business reviews, mentoring, training courses, workshops & forums, TAFE tailor made digital media workshops and marketing seed funding. The project is co-funded by the City of Newcastle and the Department of Trade & Investment and concludes in October 2011.
We are providing consultation, advice and support to local creative community-led initiatives such as:
- Street Art Walking (public art project promoting design, stencil, paste up on inner city walls);
- Red Lantern Night Market (annual art & cultural market);
- Look Hear 2011 (art & design forums & exhibitions);
- This Is Not Art festival (national arts & media festival);
- TEDxNewy event (ideas worth sharing).
We are feeding into the national Empty Spaces movement, working closely with Renew Townsville and Renew Adelaide to contribute to the establishment of Renew Australia organisation, launching in October 2011.
The Board has commenced a strategic planning process, to be completed by September 2011.
We are undertaking an economic evaluation of the Renew Newcastle project in partnership with Independent Design Commission which will provide a cost benefit analysis, to be completed in September 2011.
What have been your main achievements to date?
- We have supported a total of 70 projects in 42 otherwise vacant properties, working with seven different property owners. Those 70 projects have enabled more than 200 artists, creative professionals, curators, event managers and volunteer organisers to take the reins on delivering their enterprises and projects. Their activity has then provided an outlet for more than 600 artists to participate, exhibit, produce and sell their work.
- Visitor numbers at exhibitions and events average 1,000 per month, with at least 25,000 attendances to date. Many thousands more have visited the retail spaces as customers and the office spaces as clients.
- We have received more than 350 formal applications and many more expressions of interests in the program.
- We have supported three small businesses to graduate from the Renew Newcastle program and take on their own commercial lease elsewhere in the city.
- We have provided advice on renewal initiatives to approximately 50 individuals and groups across Australia.
- The GPT Group and Renew Newcastle were awarded the ‘NSW Toyota Community Award’ and the ‘Partnership of the Year’ at the 2010 ABAF? awards.
- Lonely Planet rates Newcastle #9 on its Top 10 Places to Visit in 2011 citing the “dozens of disused city-centre buildings occupied by photographers, fashion designers, digital artists and more as part of the inner-city regeneration scheme, Renew Newcastle” as a major factor.
What are your plans for the future?
Our major focus is to increase the number of properties under care and being activated under the initiative. Funding and sponsorship from the Department of Trade & Investment and the Hunter Development Corporation over the next three years provides resources for bringing more properties into the scheme – increasing specialised staff to secure property partnerships, and providing the budget to make properties compliant with the building code to to enable their use.
We wish to address operational issues highlighted in the strategic planning process especially in terms of organisational capacity and sustainable income streams.
There is considerable unmet demand for this scheme in Newcastle – plenty of empty spaces and plenty of creatives wanting access to space. We intend to continue this program of activity over the next few years. We would like to contribute to a wider cultural revitalisation through involvement in key cultural events across the city in 2012, and possible collaborations to create new events and festivals in 2013.
What are your main challenges?
Balancing expectations from the community, media and funding bodies, with what we can achieve sustainably with finite resources.
Want to contact Renew Newcastle?
Email: hello@renewnewcastle.org
Website: www.renewnewcastle.org
