Clover Moore discusses making empty spaces available to creatives

The City of Sydney has announced its Cultural Policy and Action Plan which was passed in Council on Monday night.

The ten-year action plan for “unlocking Sydney’s creative potential and boosting the cultural life of its residents, workers and visitors” features 120 action points, including making more than 1.6 million square metres of empty commercial and residential space available to artists.

TMN spoke to Lord Mayor Clover Moore this morning about the action plan, and in particular these creative spaces.

Assuming these spaces are made available, what types of initiatives are earmarked to use these spaces?

Different spaces suit different kinds of creative practices so the uses for vacant spaces around the city would depend on the nature and location of the property and the priorities of the owner.

Over the past two years the City has made a number of empty ground and first-floor spaces in our buildings on Oxford and William Streets available to artists, cultural organisations, design, film, contemporary music, screenwriting, textile design and more.

How will the lease and rent arrangements work? Assumedly rent will be subsided substantially.

Rent would depend on the needs of the property owner, the use the property would be put to and the length of its availability. Many schemes, including Renew Newcastle, use a license – rather than leasing – model and tenants agree to vacate the premises with 30 days’ notice if a commercial tenancy or other use is found. The emphasis is on using spaces that would otherwise be vacant rather than a ‘subsidised rental’ model.

However, the City’s creative spaces on Oxford and William Streets are based on offering affordable rent in order to help nurture the economic and social potential of the area. Tenants in our Oxford Street properties were initially offered fixed-term leases of one year, which have since been extended.

Did the Renew Newcastle or Renew Melbourne initiatives prompt this idea at all?

Renew Newcastle was the forerunner of many space-based projects throughout Australia and around the world. But the City has also been inspired by other local creative initiatives in Sydney like Queen Street Studio at the Frasers development in Chippendale and our experience of making our own properties on Oxford Street and William Streets.

Another point of action is: “Working with commercial developers to incorporate creative work spaces, including sound-proofed musical practice rooms, in new developments across the city.” Are these two initiatives linked?

These are separate initiatives. As a development consent authority the City has options to encourage commercial developers to consider including creative work spaces in new developments, for example through voluntary planning agreements. Work spaces and practice rooms are the kind of cultural infrastructure we need to encourage if we are going to have a strong creative cultural.

What cultural knock-on effects do you predict or hope we’ll see from this?

Our community has also told us they want opportunities to see and do a wide variety of things, especially at night. Having a strong local creative scene means there will be a better mix of options for people to enjoy.

We want to see more artists choosing to live and work in Sydney. We also want to see creative innovation, experimentation and enterprise become a fundamental part of Sydney’s reputation.

When is it likely this will be rolled out? 

Our Cultural Policy contains actions the can be taken in the short, medium and long term. Over the next month we will be collecting more community feedback, and we expect to adopt the policy and get started in August this year.