Introducing Dunedin Broker - Tamsin Cooper

Hi, I’m Tamsin Cooper and I feel very honoured to have been appointed broker for the inaugural Urban Dream Brokerage Dunedin pilot.

I grew up in the small rural town of Waikouaiti where I was fortunate to have had a wonderfully creative childhood. In fact it was my father and his work that first introduced me at just 8 years old to the idea that art can transform and engage the community. He helped set up The Creative Arts Trust who worked with mentally disabled people, recognising creative expression as a basic human right.

I worked away from Dunedin for many years but have come back in the last few to live with my sons Hugo & Louis and we love it here! There is just so much going on for such a small city, it affords an amazing lifestyle and education, with access to a stunning natural environment and an ever inspiring creative community.

I have had my own fashion label for the past 12 years and during the course of my business have worked on several creative collaborations on a national and international level. Highlights have been working with the Royal New Zealand Ballet on several projects and just last month helping manage the first ever NZ/Vietnam Fashion show and competition for design students in Ho Chi Minh City to mark our 40th Anniversary of bilateral relations. In the past I have worked as Community Arts Advisor and Business Development Advisor for Film & Fashion for Dunedin City, managed Planet Media at Otago University, marketed the International Science Festival and worked as the Youth Coordinator for Dunedin. I am a theatre graduate and have a personal passion for performance, public speaking and TV presenting.

I firmly believe that public art can lift the soul of a city and those that reside within it. I love collaborations and working across disciplines to create the truly extraordinary. I welcome wholeheartedly all the knowledge, talent and experience that the Letting Space team and founders have and hope that I can learn much from them to help broker some fantastic projects for Dunedin.

Submissions are now open for projects starting in 2016.

Please apply on-line at: http://urbandreambrokerage.org.nz/dunedin/

Introducing Wellington Broker - Robbie Whyte

I am almost as proud as my Dad to introduce myself as Urban Dream Brokerage Wellington’s new Broker, Robbie Whyte. 

As many of you will know, I am stepping into some rather large and particularly competent shoes. I would firstly like to make it known how appreciative I am of the opportunity, but more than that, what an incredible job Helen Kirlew Smith has done and continues to do as Manager of the Urban Dream Brokerage over the last two and a half years. 

I have arrived as a bright eyed Bachelor of Fine Arts graduate, passionate about social and public art. As I was described just the other night, I am a bit of a dreamer, the kid who wants to change the world, today! I imagine this is one of the reasons I am perfect for this job. My enthusiasm is going to be integral to my journey with UDB if I have any chance at keeping up with Helen, Mark and Sophie. These three passionate and tenacious individuals have made an influence on Wellington’s Art and Community landscape that is hard to ignore. The work that has been done thus far between Letting Space and UDB is exactly as both projects describe in their mission statement - significant and innovative - I believe they are part of a radical change within our culture. One that is centred around social consciousness, sustainability and hopefully; a public that is actively engaged in the arts and the betterment of our society. These are the things that I am passionate about as an artist and agent for social change. 

As an artist I am interested in the intersection between art and social practice. What does it mean to take a conceptual artwork, an idea, and engage a community or public? I can tell you right now, I don’t have the answer, but I am on a mission to find out.  

Puke Ahu / Cooks Mount - Robbie Whyte, 2014.

I want to make significant work that activates space, people and public beyond the white walls of the gallery. Work that actively makes a difference to the world. You can only imagine what it means to be working with this inspiring bunch then. My hope is that the Brokerage continues to see projects and people proposing that have a similar mission, to make the world a better place. The interesting thing about social practice, is, that it never looks like anything. It doesn't have a shape, or form, or an aesthetic. It is genuine. It is accessible. It is real. This is why I love what UDB do, and why I would like more people to get involved, make projects and proposal, to contribute to our social space. Because community engaged art isn't exclusive to any type of art or artist. It is for any art, any artist that wants to actively engage people and communities with their work. 

The Colourist’s - Sophia McKinnon, 2014.

For their work, Urban Dream Brokerage has just received revised funding from Wellington City Council. This revised funding has put a focus on art and culture. The terms art and culture, are pretty expansive, how I read that is, basically anything that is relative to engaging people through ideas! I would encourage anyone thinking about proposing to consider how they can engage their community, to expand their idea, its reach and effect. We are lucky to have an abundance of creatives actives in the CBD, now lets come together and see how we can engage the rest of our city. Helen said something today that eloquently described what I feel when she said, “art changed my life and as a result of this, the majority of my work has been about breaking down barriers for others to engage in or participate in it too”.

For me, that quote speaks to amazing projects that the Urban Dream Brokerage has facilitated, like the Mood Bank, and Letting Space’s Projected Fields by Siv Fjaerestad. 

Mood Bank - Dr. Sarah Elsie Baker and Vanessa Crowe, 2014.

Projected Fields - Siv Fjaerestad, 2014 (Letting Space).

We are calling for proposals now, and I know there are plenty of Artists and ambitious members of our community with projects developing as we speak! So if you do have an idea, get a proposal in here: http://urbandreambrokerage.org.nz/for-applicants/

Tamsin Cooper comes to new rôle as Broker for Dunedin

Urban Dream Brokerage opens for business in Dunedin

For immediate release Monday October 5th 2015

Letting Space public art organisation has appointed well known designer Tamsin Cooper to become the broker for creative projects and empty commercial sites through the Urban Dream Brokerage, Dunedin from this week.

“It is a bit of a coup to be able to work with someone as experienced as Tamsin Cooper” says Letting Space co-director Sophie Jerram.  “With her creative as well as business networks, Tamsin is a dream broker for getting rapid action in this terrific city.” 

Cooper has run her own international fashion label, Tamsin Cooper, and is known to the arts community through being the Community Arts Advisor for Dunedin in the late 1990s.  She will continue to keep her fashion interests alongside the part time broker role.

The Urban Dream Brokerage service has been running in Wellington for 3 years and brokered 36 projects in this time.   In Dunedin the service is funded from Ara Toi Otepoti – Our Creative Future, Dunedin’s Arts and Culture Strategy.  The service will be seeking engaging projects and willing landlords this month.

Dunedin City Council Group Manager Arts and Culture Bernie Hawke says “We’re really looking forward to the brokerage connecting landlords with local artists, writers, performers and members of Dunedin’s arts and culture community to enliven vacant spaces around the city.”    

“Dunedin has a strong history of collaborative partnerships and urban revitalisation and it’s great to be able to speed up the connections through this pilot brokerage,” says Sophie Jerram.

People with ideas for projects should consider how their ideas open and enliven public space when proposing themes.  Ideas are considered by a panel consisting of artistic, academic, and property interests.  

See www.urbandreambrokerage.org.nz/dunedin

For more information or photographs please contact lettingspace@gmail.com, or Sophie Jerram on 029 934 9749 ENDS

Broker for Dunedin - job applicatioNS closE 25th September

We are looking for someone to help us with a pilot brokerage for Dunedin!  READ ON for the job description. 

Advertised Position: Broker

Want to help revitalise Dunedin City? Are you passionate about the role the arts can play in society? Feel you can talk to both artists and property owners as equals? This is a role to create new opportunities for the arts in Dunedin and help change the face of the city.

Letting Space is a public art organisation looking to employ a self-motivated person to make a real contribution to the revitalisation of Dunedin city. Through the Urban Dream Brokerage service the Broker will process applications by artists and creative thinkers with dynamic projects for vacant properties. They will work with owners of suitable properties, liaise with owners and agents, and negotiate with both parties to secure properties under temporary licensing arrangements.  They will promote Brokerage projects through strategically designed communications.

The broker will be strong at making contacts with business people, artists and the media. They will be good at spreading the word about this innovative programme. This is a paid part-time contract available on flexible terms.

Application due:     5pm, Friday 25 September, 2015

Interviews:         Between 9-5pm, Wednesday 30 September, 2015

Start work:    5th October 2015, reviewed December 2015, anticipated to continue until June 2016
 

Job description

Broker Role

The primary purpose of the role is to successfully coordinate the placement of fresh, unique and creative projects into vacant commercial spaces within the Dunedin city region.

The secondary purpose will be to advocate and promote these projects, helping lead to the revitalisation of Dunedin city in the eyes of the arts, property and business worlds alike.

Your role will involve:

1. Implementing strategies to maintain buy-in from property owners and to promote the benefits of the brokerage.
2. Developing a marketing strategy with assistance from Letting Space and promoting successfully brokered projects to a wide audience.  

3. Promoting the brokerage to artists, meeting and discussing criteria with potential applicants. 

4. Liaising with other key stakeholders such as the Property Council of New Zealand Dunedin branch, arts and business groups, Dunedin City Council Chamber of Commerce and key individual affiliates connected to the property industry.

5. Research, document and maintain a database of applicants and property owners.

6. Develop and write editorial relating to successful projects, and develop newsletters or other informative material. 

7. Negotiate License Agreements and Special Conditions with property owners

8. Arrange property inspections to assess condition of sites and suitability for their use.

9. Coordinate repair and maintenance works and contribute to Property Risk Management procedures

10. Develop initial relationships with further potential funders/partners of the Brokerage.

11. Maintaining excellent relationships with property owners and artists.

Reporting

The Broker will be expected to be able to work independently, but will be briefed and guided by the Brokerage's manager Sophie Jerram, in consultation with the Brokerage's advisory board and Letting Space producers Helen Kirlew Smith and Mark Amery, and the trustees of the Wellington Independent Arts Trust.

Contract

This is a position for an Independent contractor for an Initial Period of three months (12 weeks) with the potential to extend for a nine month period (45 weeks approximately) until 1 July 2016.

This is a part-time contract for service available on flexible terms but averaging 25 hours per week (pro rata $52 000 pa).

The position is expected to start on 5th October and run until at least the end of June 2016.

Selection Criteria

This position involves being able to work across the creative, property and business worlds. The successful applicant may have their principal experience in either of these areas, but in bridging these interests will bring an understanding and appreciation of all of them.

Essential

1. Passion for the renewal and revitalisation of Dunedin city and a belief in the important role that artists play as agents of change.

2. Excellent verbal, and written and personal communication skills

3. Good thorough documentation skills

4. Good budgeting and project management skills

5. Confident, dynamic, tenacious and self-motivated personal qualities

Important

1. Understanding and appreciation of the business and property worlds

2. Project management/coordination experience

3. Understanding and appreciating of the role public art can play in urban development

4. Experience/background in real estate, creative and property industries or urban development

5. Experience in negotiations

6. Experience with maintenance/building/property service providers

To apply

Please email urbandreambrokerage@gmail.com the following documents:

1. CV – no more than 2 pages

2. Your written response to all the Selection Criteria

In the subject of your email please include the words: Job Application: Brokerage Coordinator [insert your name]

Enquiries

Email as above or phone Helen Kirlew Smith 027 378 7432

The Wellington Independent Arts Trust supports experienced Dunedin arts managers by providing an umbrella for significant independent arts projects. Mark Amery, Sophie Jerram and Helen Kirlew Smith are also managers of Letting Space (for more information see www.lettingspace.org.nz).

This position is funded with the support of the Dunedin City Council.

Community Award

Trumpet time! On August 25 at Te Papa Letting Space was the Arts and Culture category winner and the Supreme Winner at the Wellington Airport Regional Community Awards for Wellington City. We'd like to thank all the artists we've worked with over the last six years, and the hundreds of volunteers who have helped realised Letting Space public art projects and the Urban Dream Brokerage - this award is for you all. Its wonderful to get recognition as a contemporary art programme alongside so many amazing community organisations as we work to explore how artists can be agents of social change and work to make cities living spaces.

Dawn Sanders and mayor Celia Wade Brown with Letting Space's Sophie Jerram and Helen Kirlew Smith (Mark Amery absent)

Wellington City Council mayor Celia Wade Brown comments on the award here.

Looking for a new broker for Wellington

Kia ora te whanau

It's time for us to add some more fabulousness to the mix at Letting Space by recruiting a part time Urban Dream Broker.

We are advertising for a broker who will work along existing Brokerage manager, Helen Kirlew Smith and receive some communications direction from Sophie and Mark.

Job applications close on Monday 24th August.   The job is for two days (16 hours) at present and after 3 momths we will review the position with view to keeping it going til June 2016.

Advertised Position: Broker

 Want to help revitalise Wellington city? Are you passionate about the role the arts can play in society? Feel you can talk to both artists and property owners as equals? This is a role to create new opportunities for the arts in Wellington and help change the face of the city.

see http://www.thebigidea.co.nz/work/jobs-opportunities/public-community-arts/visual-arts-projects/167940-broker-urban-dream-brokera

UDB pilot for Porirua

Current work by Michel Tuffery in Cobham Place, Porirua

With the support of the Porirua Chamber of Commerce Letting Space are piloting an Urban Dream Brokerage programme in Porirua for the second half of 2015. Ideas for innovative creative and community projects are being sought for vacant retail premises in the Porirua city centre - initial proposals are due by Monday 20 July. 

As part of the programme in vacant spaces a multipurpose pop-up space is also planned. Called Open Plan it is for the use by the community for events and gatherings that don’t exist in the city centre currently.

Celebrating its 50th year, Porirua is diverse and has the youngest population in the country but the oldest part of its city centre has struggled in the shadow of the building of a shopping centre, Megacentre and new public facilities like Pataka, and Te Rauparaha arena and park. At the same time this centre with a remarkable range of cultures and small businesses provides space for needed community initiatives and commons areas - to draw together the energy of a city of many villages. Meanwhile Porirua City Council are encouraging inner city living.

“This project is part of a new chapter in the story of our city centre development,” says Porirua Chamber of Commerce CEO Tracy Johnson. “It’s about experimenting with what works to assist everyone, so everyone can see positive change. We want to see empty space used creatively to attract communities into the CBD, and from that attract business. This will also bring new interest to existing businesses.”

Proposals for Urban Dream Brokerage Porirua need to be different to existing services in the city centre - fresh, dynamic, and accessible to Porirua’s diverse communities and identity. Ideas are welcome from outside of Porirua City but it’s vital they involve strong local collaboration. Projects may look to activate a space temporarily (for a matter of days, weeks or months) or look to negotiate for longer term. 

One of these planned spaces is Open Plan, a multipurpose pop-up space created for the use by the community, free of charge, for events, discussions, gatherings, exhibits, workshops, rehearsals, meetings, classes, exchanges, and services - in fact Letting Space want you to add to the list, helping shape the city with what you’re passionate about. “This is about making connections and exchanging ideas, with the people of Porirua helping shape the future of the city,” says Amery.

The Porirua Chamber of Commerce is a business network designed to create, promote and seek opportunities for Porirua businesses to be their best.

Letting Space are also developing a major public art event for the end of this year in Porirua which will bring together artists, both local and visiting with local community groups to explore through innovative art projects new ways of working together across the city’s diversity. More details on this are to be released soon.

Public Programme at the Surveillance Awareness Bureau

Surveillance Awareness Bureau, Modelab, 1 Grey Street, Wellington, 27 May - 13 June 2015.

1 Grey Street, Wellington CBD

Open Talk: Thursday, June 4, 5.30 pm.
Ubiquitous surveillance: The digital footprint of lost privacy

Thomas Beagle is the spokesperson for Tech Liberty NZ, defending civil liberties in the digital age. He works in IT and is also the chairperson of the NZ Council for Civil Liberties.

Kathleen M Kuehn is a lecturer in media studies at Victoria University. Her research centres on digital media and cultural production. She is currently working on a book about mass surveillance and privacy in New Zealand.

Moderated by arts writer Mark Amery

Privacy enhancing tools workshop (BYOD): Saturday, June 13, 2.00pm

Matthew Holloway is a part-time security researcher and programmer. He recently launched https://insiderer.com/ to reveal information about leaked information in files.

Artists' talk: Saturday, June 13, 3.00pm
Hemi Macgregor, Terri Te Tau and curator Claudia Arozqueta

For project details go here.

Help make winter in the city more interesting

Wellington’s Urban Dream Brokerage are calling for proposals by Friday 22 May for the innovative use of Wellington’s vacant retail spaces this winter. The call is out to community groups, artists, fledgling businesses or anyone with something new to share with the city.

 “As more people live in the city and retail changes our needs in cities change,” says the Brokerage’s Helen Kirlew Smith. “We’re interested in helping ensure Wellington is a diverse, creative and people-centred city by giving space to new ideas that need to meet their public - as well as providing a showcase of the potential of these spaces to new kinds of tenants.”

With new applications priority is being given to projects commencing in June but enquiries, say the Brokerage, are welcome anytime. Since March 2013 there have been 34 Urban Dream Brokerage assisted projects in 24 different properties across the city. they have included a people-run cinema, a hairdressing salon where your political views are canvassed, open arts workshops, a yoga taster space, a koha cafe, a mood bank, a youth carving space, and a provocative fashion boutique.

“We also see this as a way of developing new talent,” says Kirlew-Smith, “the innovative businesses and creatives that will help shape the identity of the city in the future.”

Urban Dream Brokerage is run by Letting Space and funded by Wellington City Council and Wellington Community Trust. It is one of many such publicly funded initiatives occurring worldwide, and in recent years say the brokerage, there has been increasing interest from other local authorities in establishing schemes to assist urban revitalisation through the use of vacant space.