Written with Lee Salomone exploring the utilisation of prominent billboards on the tram track in Adelaide for the term of one year at no cost for them to be used as public art spaces.
They may not have been characterised as 'artist run initiatives' but exhibition spaces run by artists have been around, in one form, or another for a long time.
"If you are real lucky you got CDEP or your are making it selling your art and then you got a good art centre too, maybe. If you are real lucky just when you turn up with a couple of week's art production, maybe yours, maybe the families, the centre's got cash, no one's a bastard, everyone's happy, the store has even got some decent food, even new bikes, toy guns, tape decks and a few tins of Log Cabin. Shit, life's good - sometimes anyway." A personal view of art making in indigenous communities.
The Premier of Victoria may claim that his government has opened Victoria for business, but it is the important role of local government and the Federal Government in developing arts training and facilities that is really making the running. Artists are no longer in their garrets but in front of pcs in their offices.
The Raw Material Curatorial Development Program was designed to provide training opportunities for curators without experience, but with plenty of potential. Based at Gertrude Street Victoria. Featured artwork by Marie Sierra-Hughes.
The transforming role of local government. More enlightened attitudes towards art making are coming from all levels of government and from property developers and others - often at the urging of those various levels of government.
Operating both as an industry training ground and as a space for creative experimentation, low budget film and video production must be thought of as an economic and a cultural investment.
A brief guide to Melbourne's artist run galleries: Ether Ohnetitel, The Women's Gallery, Gallery Gecko, The COOP, A For Art Space, Making Sense Contemporary Art Space, The Basement Project, Argyle Street Studios, West Space, Arts Post, RedPlanet, Another Planet Posters, Red Letter Community Workshop, A.R.T. (artaroundtown), First Floor, Store 5, Room 4, ROAR Studio, Temple 29 and 41 Gold Street.
Review The Festival of Perth presented two major exhibitions of Western Australian Aboriginal art Bush Women at the Fremantle Arts Centre and This is my country at the exciting new exhibition venue 'Artplace' in Claremont.
Museums and larger arts spaces are increasingly looking at ways to improve access to their exhibitions for a wider range of people. Contemporary art spaces face a more difficult battle than museums in trying to become more relevant to their diverse communities.
Every State has one - a local council that is outstanding in its commitment to the arts and in Western Australia, the credit for innovation and energy goes to the City of Gosnells, who have arguably led the pack for the last 5 years in interesting community arts projects...