3 September 2014

The Project Space - Ainslie and Gorman Arts Centres

| Samara Gentle
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Earlier this year the Gorman Arts Centre was presented with an opportunity to run a short program ‘The Project Space‘ in a temporarily vacated Currong Theatre wing. They decided to explore using the space as a co-working area for creatives.

They put a call out for applicants in July and by mid August they made a decision on the 15 creatives who would get to move in for 8 weeks. They are:

  • Sean Davey – Photographer
  • Andrew Galan – Poet
  • Samara Gentle – Publisher
  • Ellen Harvey – Writer
  • Marianne Mettes – Puppeteer
  • Struthers Murray – Screenplay Writer
  • Rosina Wainwright – Sculptor
  • Lucy Neave – Writer
  • Rachel Nielsen – Writer
  • Zoya Patel – Writer
  • Jacob Potter – Visual Artist
  • Farz Edraki & Yasmin Nasri – RIP Publishing
  • Payal Sehgal – Writer & Visual Artist
  • Ashley Thomson – Writer

I was one of the fortunate applicants selected and I can tell you that a program like this doesn’t come up often. In fact for any arts program to run it takes dedicated individuals organising things (funding, approval etc) behind the scenes to get it off the ground.

For me being given the opportunity to have a dedicated working space has essentially given me the time and validation that what I’m doing matters.

In The Project Space there are 5 rooms and a large hall space. In the rooms there are two creatives sharing while the more hands on artists get to use the large hall space to spread out their paint, clay and photography equipment.

Not only has the space so far been great to escape and work solely on my magazine it’s been an amazing way to connect with other creatives in Canberra. Normally you’d think we all know who each other are as we’re working the creative field. The truth is that the creative field in Canberra is so large and diverse you’d be surprised who we share our city with.

Marianne is a ridiculously talented puppeteer, so much so that she’s worked with Sesame Street, pretty much the holy grail of puppeteering. Rosina is a sculptor who discovered her passion later in life and has had several exhibitions of her work. RIP Publishing is a newly formed independent publishing label who recently launched their latest book ‘Jumble’.

Did you know these things? Did you know this talent was here?

The Project Space is not only helping to foster this talent but through their website introduce you to each creative and their passion and skill so you can get to know the more creative side of Canberra.

Find out more about the project space: http://www.agac.com.au/whats-on/the-project-space/

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