Near the corner of Burelli and Kembla Streets in Wollongong lies a door to a secret garden of creativity.
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Wollongong City Council has transformed disused spaces under the Town Hall into a playground for thriving artists, part of their strategy to energise Wollongong’s city centre and in turn generate economic activity.
“We are aiming to support new contemporary artists, help foster their professional development and bring artists from different disciplines to the attention of the community,” Manager Community Culture and Economic Development [Acting] Sue Savage said
Woonona author and publisher Sarah Nicholson is one of several artists to be chosen by council to utilise the studio spaces.
She previously lived in Newcastle and saw the positive benefits a similar initiative (the Renew Newcastle project) had there.
“It really invigorated the centre of the town by bringing creatives into that space,” Ms Nicholson said.
“It really brings [life] to a city when you have a flourishing, creative sector right in the heart of it.”
She said Wollongong has “enourmous” potential for the arts and in the past had to hunt it out.
“This project will bring it more out into the open and [will] connect people and spark collaborations; it’s a really positive thing,” Ms Nicholson said.
Mount Keira children’s book illustrator Dale Newman was grateful for the opportunity to finally separate her home life with her work and to be in a “community” of creatives.
“It’s an exciting place to be and I think it will really grow,” she said.
Ms Newman likened the creative process to compost, explaining an artist needs to digest many different thoughts to compose the finished product, and being among other like-minded people helped that process along.
“It’s a place of possibility and that’s where a lot of creative work comes from, you know, things being thrown in the pot,” she said.
“It kind of opens your mind a bit and it can feed into your own practice.”