People’s Cinema, Urban Dream Brokerage, Manners Street, 2013-15
Tuesday 12 March 2019, 10am-5pm
Atrium, Te Aro Campus, Victoria University of Wellington, Vivian Street
Temporary art projects in cities are well and good while there’s space for them. As seen in Wellington with Urban Dream Brokerage, Letting Space over the last 9 years, and in numerous independent examples over decades: they enliven, develop city identity, transform spaces and seed new arts infrastructure.
But, when a city is gentrified – with artists’ residence safely contained within events – the ability to enable the change artists inspire and provide in a city is limited. It is in allowing for the common spaces that things seed in vibrant, resilient cities.
This is a call to artists of all stripes to join Letting Space and the artists in the city for a day to sprint-write a manifesto of actions to support artists with space in Wellington to be presented to Wellington City Council for its Decade of Culture (2018-2028).
This is our shared development space for independent artists in Wellington. What models do you like? What has worked here? What are the opportunities we could be taking up? How do we seed more permanent development space?
From big ideas – taxes on empty buildings – to the more immediate actions - guidelines on working with property owners. From new performance residency spaces to artist group housing, these models have proven to be vital to cultural cities’ vibrancy.
Let’s empower change together.
Best, Sophie Jerram and Mark Amery
February 2019