Minute by the Lord Mayor
To Council:
Many cities
in Australia and overseas face the challenge of making space for creativity and
culture. Rapid urban development, competing demands for land, pressures to
maximise financial return and complex rules and regulations governing the use
of land are all factors.
But it’s a
challenge we must meet because a rich creative and cultural community is not
peripheral but vital in the creation of a strong, thriving and prosperous city.
Proximity
to new ideas and new activities provides greater opportunities for artists,
designers, architects, musicians, curators, producers, writers and other
creative workers. And while our major institutions are anchors, we also need
the seed-beds formed by the clusters of new creatives, the ones who refresh the
cultural mix, forge new paths and who, of course, are also significant
audiences for the major institutions.
As Lord
Mayor, I’ve been determined to support these seedbeds of culture, whether by
investing in major infrastructure like The Eternity Playhouse or temporary
public art projects – and that’s why as a city, we’ve elected to invest more
than $35 million in Sydney’s cultural life each year.
We are
employing all of the tools at our disposal, from planning and regulation to
grants and sponsorship, to making use of our City properties, to foster a
genuinely creative city culture – because we want our city to be recognised
internationally for its cultural life, just as it is already recognised for its
natural beauty.
And at a
time when support from our State and Federal Government has waned, the City is
currently providing roughly half of all government subsidised creative work
spaces in Sydney through our creative spaces and accommodation grants programs.
Our new
plan for Sydney’s nightlife, currently on public exhibition, proposes the creation of a new 24 hour
cultural precinct in the Alexandria industrial area. As part of the plan,
venues will be able to apply for an additional hour of trading on the nights
they provide live performance. The City’s
live music and performance grants program also provides an incentive to make unused and underused spaces
available.
We’ve
transformed the former Heffron Hall as the East
Sydney Community and Arts Centre, opened the Joynton
Avenue Creative Centre
in Green Square, and turned the former Baptist Tabernacle into the Eternity
Playhouse. The former Reg Murphy Hall in Potts Point is now the Hayes
Theatre, Australia’s
leading home of independent musical theatre. We transferred management of the City
Recital Hall to a new not for profit company, leading to
its increased use and attracting more diverse audiences. The Sydney Fringe has
used Erskineville Town Hall as a live performance venue every September since 2015, and Glebe
Town Hall is used
periodically for musical performances.
We also
work with the private sector, encouraging developers and property owners to
make their properties available for cultural and creative purposes. One early
venture was the FraserStudios
project, which
provided residencies for numerous visual and performance artists during the
construction of Central Park. We supported the inclusion of a new theatre in
Darling Quarter, home to Monkey Baa Theatre Company for young audiences. And our planning staff
worked with The Sydney Fringe to enable an Alexandria warehouse awaiting
redevelopment to be used for live performances.
One of our
most significant achievements was securing five
floors of new creative space as part of the Greenland development in the Sydney CBD for a peppercorn
rent, due to open in 2021.
We are
pursuing changes that we can make to the regulatory framework to make it easier
to use space for creative and cultural purposes. Many of these changes were
proposed in the City’s discussion paper, An Open and Creative
City, placed on public
exhibition in late 2017.
Council is
however limited in the changes we can make. Numerous reports have identified
changes that the State Government must also make to NSW planning policy and the
regulatory framework. It should also be addressed nationally and
internationally – the provision of creative space and cultural infrastructure
is something most, if not all, capital cities are facing.
As a member
of Council of Capital City Lord Mayors (CCCLM) we can work with the other cities
to advocate for a national policy that looks at the impacts of the National
Construction Code, the tax system and national cultural funding policies on the
provision of creative spaces in capital cities.
The City is
also an active participant in the World Cities Cultural Forum. The Forum recently released its latest
Making Space for Culture paper, which sets out several models to increase
creative space. The 2017 edition of this paper included several case studies,
including the City’s work in reforming planning policies to support creative
industries.
A
Shortage of Creative Spaces
The
Creative Spaces database has around 2,000 subscribers actively seeking space in
our city. The highest demand is for studio and work space, spaces for creation
and production and rehearsal space.
This lack
of space reduces the ability of creative industries such as fashion, craft and
industrial design, to create new products; it decreases opportunities for
community cultural participation and inhibits the supply of uniquely Australian
cultural work.
There is
also a shortage of performance spaces, ranging from affordable small to medium
venues at 200-500 seats, to Broadway-style 1,500 seat lyric theatres. This
means small independent companies are restricted in their ability to develop
new work. Shows developed by independent companies are rarely able to transfer
to larger venues and expand their audiences. Complementing this is the shortage
of affordable rehearsal space, particularly for small independent companies.
While
temporary or pop up spaces can be helpful, they are not the answer - many
artists, designers and other makers invest in equipment which is often large,
expensive and not easy to move, while theatre, music and arts venues require
longer and more stable access to build audiences and program effectively.
NSW
Cultural Infrastructure Action Plan
Earlier
this year, the City along with many other councils, cultural and community
organisations and individuals, participated in the NSW Government’s
consultation for the NSW Cultural Infrastructure Action Plan. The plan is yet
to be released.
Legislative
Council Inquiry into Music and the Arts Economy
The
recently released Legislative Council’s Planning and
Environment Portfolio report into the Music and Arts Economy in NSW contained
five findings and 60 recommendations, many of which reflect concern about the
creative space crisis.
The report
and its recommendations extensively draw on the City’s work supporting creative
space in Sydney. Many reflect issues the City already identified in the
development of our Live Music and Performance Action Plan, our Creative City
and Cultural Strategy and our discussion paper, An Open and Creative City.
The
Government is yet to respond to the report.
Re-open
the Theatre Royal campaign
There is
currently a campaign underway calling on the owners of the MLC Centre to
re-open the Theatre Royal which has been closed since May 2016.
The
campaign is led by Live Performance Australia (Australia’s peak body for the
performing arts) and Equity (the actors’ union).
A theatre
has existed on the MLC site almost continuously since 1872. The previous
Theatre Royal, which opened in 1875, closed on 29 April 1971, prior to its
planned demolition for the MLC Centre redevelopment. Within 24 hours of its
final performance a “Save the Theatre Royal” committee was established with
community support. The campaign gained the support of Jack Mundey and the
Builders Labourers Federation which placed a green ban on the site. The green
ban was lifted when the developers agreed to include a new theatre in the
development.
The
developers and subsequent owners of the MLC Centre have received significant
financial benefits from this decision. The Council at the time allowed the
developers to build an additional two square feet of commercial space for every
square foot of the theatre. The total income the owners have received from this
additional floor space could well exceed $100 million. The current owners
continue to enjoy this financial benefit even though the theatre has been
closed for over two years.
While there
is no legal requirement for the current owners to operate the theatre, they
have a strong social, civic and moral obligation.
In a recent
newspaper advertisement, the Presidents of Live Performance Australia, Andrew
Kay, and Equity, Chloe Dallimore, referred to this
arrangement as an agreement with the people of NSW and called upon the owners
to honour it.
It is resolved that:
(A) Council commend the NSW Government for its work to develop the NSW Cultural Infrastructure Plan and request the release of the Plan as well as a response to the final report of the Legislative Inquiry into the Music and Arts Economy;
(B) the Lord Mayor write to the Chair of the Council of Capital City Lord Mayors asking that our group of city leaders advocate for a national policy that looks at the impacts of the National Construction Code, the tax system and national cultural funding policies on the provision of creative spaces in capital cities; and
(C) Council endorse the campaign calling on the owners of the MLC Centre to re-open the Theatre Royal to be used for live theatre performances.
COUNCILLOR CLOVER MOORE
Lord Mayor
Moved by the Chair (the Lord Mayor), seconded by Councillor Scully –
That the minute by the Lord Mayor be endorsed and adopted.
Carried unanimously.
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