ArtsHub recently caught up with Artspace Executive Director Alexie Glass-Kantor as she stepped off a plane from Tokyo, where she had been delivering a paper in her role with Art Basel Hong Kong and as an ambassador for Artspace.
As she moved through the doors into a revitalised new home for the contemporary art organisation, it was also within days of her 10-year anniversary with Artspace. ‘It’s weird to come back because it’s a totally different building,’ she tells ArtsHub.
Artspace’s mission, “ever changing, ever challenging” is more apt than ever, as it now occupies all three floors of The Gunnery. It has been 40 years since Artspace was formed (1983), and moved into the iconic Woolloomooloo building as an inaugural tenant in 1992.
The building was showing its age – it was dusty, draughty and leaked. Pretty much nothing was up to code. In November 2020, the NSW Government announced a $5 million investment to transform The Gunnery into a state-of-the-art facility. The rest has been a journey of fundraising.
Last week, the 10 One-Year Studio Artists were on-boarded into the new space, which DunnHillam Architects has transformed. It is the first step ahead of Artspace reopening its doors on 15 December with a whopping party.
As ArtsHub sits with Glass-Kantor and Deputy Director Michelle Newton in the shell of the space pregnant with opportunity, the pair – who have worked in tandem in shaping the vision for Artspace over the past decade – spoke of the value that the new studio spaces offer artists, but also a national arts ecology.
Dedicated archive space, multi-use learning spaces, meeting spaces, spaces for hire, spaces for live performance – and, of course, the studios – make up the $19.2 million transformation. ‘I don’t think people really know what we’ve done,’ says Glass-Kantor.
The building’s functionality has been totally reoriented towards the city skyline, and the spill of natural light floods in – giant windows can open up to a public space. While a program of exhibitions will animate the lower levels, the constant in the ethos of this organisation is its studio residencies.
Where this story is exceptional is in the way Artspace has negotiated a 35-year lease to secure the position of artists, by offering free one-year studio residencies to 10 artists over the next 35 years.
Learn more about the transformation ahead of its unveiling.
First 10 of 350 free artist studios
Unlike any other organisation in Australia, Artspace has offered one-year studio residencies entirely rent free since 2015. While other studio programs are starting to following suit in Australia – recognising the pressures on studio rentals in our cities – Artspace has cemented its place as a visionary and leader, and a regular pitstop for visiting international curators.
The redevelopment has allowed for three extra studios. ‘Everything’s been done properly. It’s an international standard residency program. We can really be a high-functioning institution now,’ says Glass-Kantor.
While the new studios are not living/workspaces, Glass-Kantor says they have access to two apartments in Waterloo to allow for visiting artists and curators. It would have cost an additional $45 million to make them compliant as living spaces.
However, there is no compromise. The artists have access 24/7; they have an extensive lounge area, a kitchen with million-dollar views to the city skyline, and a long table for gathering. ‘And, if you squander it, you squander it, you use it, you use it. It’s up to them,’ Glass-Kantor continues.
Philanthropists funding studios
Glass-Kantor explains, ‘Every studio will be supported by a benefactor for five years. And those benefactors and philanthropists will get to know those artists – so they’re not only supporting the organisation for five years, but are supporting individual artists.’
She continues, ‘So the transformation campaign was about investing with a five-year commitment. And we’ll keep building upon that. Benefactors will pay annually over five years, rather than making a one-off donation. This allows the organisation to build capacity in income generation’.
‘We also made it so that artists don’t have to serve as “philanthropy artists”, but can those benefactors can build relationships with different artists over the five-year period. They may even collect their work over that relationship. So again, it’s using the spaces to build capacity and relationships. It’s a unique model,’ added Newton.
The first 10 studio artists are: Jack Ball, Brian Fuata, Julia Gutman, Jazz Money, Thea Anamara Perkins, Gemma Smith, Tina Havelock Stevens, Leyla Stevens, Latai Taumoepeau, David M Thomas.
The benefactors will be announced with the opening of the space in December.
Studio artists remember Artspace
Speaking with 2023 Archibald Winner Julia Gutman, who moved into her Artspace studio this week, ArtsHub learns that her first memory of Artspace was, ‘a uni excursion – we came to see the Biennale. Ugo Rondinone had made these beautiful wonky little birds. Each one had so much personality, I loved them. It must have been around 2014. Six years later, I had my first exhibition of textiles here as a part of the visual arts fellowship.’
David M Thomas’ history as an Artspace studio artists reaches deep. He tells ArtsHub: ‘My first memories of Artspace are from when I started an internship at its previous location in Randall Street, Surry Hills in 1988. I worked in the Archive to prepare it for the move to The Gunnery.’ That original location burned down earlier this year.
Picking up on another stalwart in Artspace programming, studio artist Leyla Stevens says her first memory was seeing the annual Helen Lempriere Award, ‘which has since morphed into the NSW Visual Arts Fellowship Emerging Award. I remember each year that exhibition and the anticipation around who would win was huge.’
She continues, ‘I also thought of Artspace as this really exciting space particularly for video practice, and to be exposed to new expressions within the medium.’ Many years later Stevens was a finalist in that very award, ‘which felt surreal and a moment of validation in my practice.’
Why residencies are important to artistic practice
Settling into her new studio, Gutman says that having so much space to work is a real dream. ‘It’s given me the opportunity to upgrade my tools, and I think the scope of what I’m able to produce is going to grow exponentially.’
She adds, ‘The community is the best part. Being surrounded by so many great artists, curators, installers and arts workers – it’s a real brain trust!’
Jack Ball recently moved from Perth to Sydney. ‘Having an Artspace studio is a great opportunity to connect with people here,’ he says. ‘I’m developing work for a solo exhibition at the Perth Institute for Contemporary Art in 2024 and having a large studio space will make a huge difference to what is possible. In the past, I often developed my installs digitally before printing, and I think this has limited my ability to experiment. I’m looking forward to having the space to build more layered and complex sculptural photographic works,’ he tells ArtsHub.
Like Ball, Thomas is looking forward to connecting. ‘The residency will help my practice by connecting it to other practitioners, institutions and networks in the city of Sydney – one of the most exciting cultural hubs in the southern hemisphere.’
Stevens, who is in the early stages of a research project spring-boarding from the Australian Museums collection, says, ‘Up until now my practice has been mostly confined to a home studio or working from temporary spaces. Allowing my process to physically take up space and being able to cohesively connect different aspects of my studio practice across research, collaboration, fabrication, editing, and production phases is a revelation.’
She will be working towards a major new work to be exhibited in 2025.
‘This group will have 15 months because of the cycle starting in February each year,’ says Glass-Kantor. Once an artist has been given a studio, they cannot reapply for another seven years.
Are residencies becoming fewer with rising costs?
‘Yes, in some cases,’ says Glass-Kantor, adding that the pandemic was tough on artist residency programs globally, and with ‘the demise of Asialink, we have seen more contraction’.
‘Making our studios free set a particular benchmark, and we’re seeing more organisations making their studios free. I think that’s interesting, because of that change from user-pay being enough to subsidise the demand for affordable studio space.
‘What is different about this residency as well, [is that] you see a lot of placemaking strategies happening from local councils and other initiatives – maybe in developer spaces – but what they don’t offer is the professional development and networking aspect that we do. The artists here will be sharing a kitchen with Artspace staff and curators, and we’ll be looking at their work every day, engaging in conversations,’ says Newton.
‘Whenever anyone comes to Australia, they come to Artspace, people know us internationally,’ Glass-Kantor adds. ‘It’s really not to be underestimated.’ She adds that the proximity to the Art Gallery of NSW and the Sydney Modern Project also has allowed for greater partnership building, and the chance to annex opportunities with visiting international artists, curators and collector groups.
‘You would have seen our signage today from the gallery – I don’t think that can be underestimated. People don’t have to go far to know that they’re going to be able to do studio visits with 10 artists who represent varied approaches to contemporary art in Australia,’ she says.
‘We’ve raised $2.8 million. We had a $2 million target. We’ve stretched it to $4 million with inflation – but that’s for five years. So we’re OK. And when Michelle and I leave (we won’t stay forever), they’ll have an endowment, they’ll have a 35-year lease, they’ll have everything functioning, and the money in place.’
It is an incredible selfless style of management that has assured Artspace’s future. It is also one that pays a respectful nod to the past – to histories and legacies – with a full-access Archive sitting alongside current programming and the studios.
‘I think it all sits together,’ says Glass-Kantor, adding that the opening program will also reflect that holistic journey of Artspace.
Opening celebrations and Artspace’s 40th birthday will be held 15-16 December 2023.
Studio artist Jazz Money will present a performance piece over the opening celebrations. Jonathan Jones: untitled (transcriptions of country) will be the exhibition opening in the main space, which will continue through to 11 February 2024.
