Cereal Box in collaboration withe Newcastle’s Electrofringe and JCU facilitated a workshop with Sydney sound artists and ToyDeath member Nick Wishart.  A diverse group of circuit bending enthusiasts spent two days with Nick creating their new instruments and participated in an improvised performance on the Sunday afternoon.

The Organi Gallery has been busy facilitating its vast membership of creatives with their ever evolving space while also holding numerous workshops and information sessions for the local community.  They were even lucky enough to host SBS’s very own Costa from Costa’s Garden Odyssey.  The Food for Thought meetings have been hugely successful and appear to be going from strength to strength.

The ever busy Katelyn Aslett has been holding some great events in her space particularly her workshop in March when she shared her design secrets and lead an enthusiastic group through her felt making techniques which have lead her to such acclaim here and around the world.  Her Sunday Tea Party was also a special event as Katelyn played host for the morning delighting her regulars and inspiring new traffic through her shop at the western end of the mall precinct.

There are too many opportunities, too many highlights and too many stories to share in just one post but we will endeavor to stay on top of what’s happening with Renew Townsville and their member spaces over the coming months and keep you in the loop.Click to view slideshow.

After many weeks of careful planning, design and development the ETC Team (Emerging Townsville Creatives) have pulled off an extraordinary feat.

Featuring photography, visual arts, graph work, fashion, jewellery, video projection and hand made ephemera the Cereal Box space also revealed itself to be a warm, inviting and comfortable space to spend a little time catching up with friends, cooking up new ideas and – especially for the ETC Team – a moment to reflect on a significant achievement.

Elly Murrell launches the Cereal Box

The space was officially opened by Project Manager Elly Murrell who had also invited reps from other CBD cultural sites to spruik their own operations to a diverse cross section of the Townsville community.  “In the spirit of cooperation”, Elly noted “it is hoped that this moment will prove to be a significant step towards a cross city collaboration by all the groups operating out of the CBD.”

With the space in its first phase of construction, Cereal Box offered plenty of room to explore and investigate the talent of local emerging artists.  The Renew Townsville team  look forward to seeing how the space develops over the coming months!

A huge thankyou must go out to the musicians who performed on the night – Elle Graham,  Cahill Kelly and Michael Galloway; all the generous people who brought along food and nibblies; Ben Gasser and Peter Bullis for their bar acumen; the numerous folks who disposed of bottles and cups throughout the night; Dave Sutherland for his muscle work on the door; Jess Nickson, Hiedi Hatherell and Kristoff Schrader for their documentation efforts and Aaron Ashley for the last minute beer run to the Herbert Hotel.

These are the first images of the evening.  We hope to post video from Jess and photos by Kristoff soon.  Watch this space!

If you have any images from the night you would like to see on this site please contact the Renew Townsville team who will make sure that they find their way onto the site.

These images courtesy of Mitch Goodwin & Tali Dunnage-Burke.

A big thankyou to all those who donated their time and colour, especially the RUN crew who have done such an awesome job with the front of the Box.

‘Cereal Box’ is Townsville’s newest alternative multi-arts space designed and built from the ground up by ETC (Emerging Townsville Creatives) and eNQue Productions, who have worked tirelessly – through the humidity, the silly season and the perils of Yasi –  to create a funky and irreverent zone for emerging artists to exhibit, perform and collaborate on new artistic adventures – or just to hang out, drink coffee and design the future.

Cereal Box is an unconventional interpretation of a gallery space with a strong focus on young emerging artists hosting exhibitions, music performances, media displays, workshops and creative exchanges.   The ETC crew hope that Cereal Box will not only be a venue for people to bring their ideas and creative wares into the CBD but to provide a focal point for young emerging artists to redefine notions of arts practice in an urban setting.

everyone welcome    |     licensed bar     |      live music      |     random stuff

Flinders Mall     |     (next to Commonwealth Bank)     |     Townsville     |     CBD

Look for Cereal Box on Facebook or :

contact@RobertCrispe.com
0414 204 017

Elly.Murrell@jcu.edu.au
0466 532 722

Now can anyone recall three spaces opening on the same day in the Townsville City Mall recently?  Hmmm…

Photography : Tali Dunnage-Burke

The OrganiGallery, The Brush & Press Studio and Katelyn Aslett’s store all opened their doors to a very happy and festive clientele of about 150 people.  The ARgoT Collective’s project also opened it’s portals to an inquisitive curb side as patrons of the arts, local retailers, TCC councillors and a merry throng of the artist’s friends and families wandered up and down the footpath exploring the new spaces and their wares.

We will be publishing more pictures and videos between rounds of pudding and champagne over the festive season so be sure to drop by and check them out.  Better still subscribe to our RSS feed at the top of this page so you are always in the know. 

And PLEASE, if you have any pics from the night you’d like for us to publish on the blog and for Renew TSV to keep for their records please get in contact with Mitch or Donna or drop them in to any of the spaces and they will be sure to pass them on.  Thankyou!

Once again, thanks to everyone who helped out on the night.  Your considerable efforts were very much appreciated.

From 6:30pm December 17 we will be meeting in the OrganiGallery for a few speeches and the chance for the CBD community to meet our first round of artists.

Please then join us for a wander through the other spaces and a chance to celebrate all the hard work of Jo, Jan, Jamie and Katelyn (and their exceptionally supportive entourage of helpers) who have put in an amazing number of hours over the last couple of weeks to have their spaces ready for Friday night.

After what has been a rollercoaster six months or so of negotiations and careful planning for the Renew TSV team we cannot satisfactorily express how grateful we are of everyone who has helped us get to this critical point in the life of the project.

We hope to see you there on Friday night to share a glass of bubbly – and a collective sigh of relief – as we turn our attention to the next phase of the project.

Please, if you know of anyone who has the arts bug and would be inspired by the Renew TSV concept, invite them along on Friday to witness the energy and enthusiasm that the project has engendered in our ever increasing pool of artists, supporters and volunteers.

A big thank you to all of you who braved the humidity and pitched in for some back breaking work throughout the morning – it was a tremendously successful collaborative endeavour.

We can definitely feel the momentum building now!

The following snapshots are only of Jo and Katelyn’s progress as we didn’t manage to cross paths with the ever dynamic Jamie due to his commitments with the Cotter’s Markets.  We will pin him  down and take some snaps early in the week to give you a glimpse at his progress.

Although the Friday night celebration is a “soft launch” it marks a significant point in the progress of the Renew project – and for the artists themselves, a moment to share their vision with the Townsville community.  It will surely be all hands on deck this week as they strive to go live by week’s end.

We will be circulating information regarding Friday night soon!

If there are any groups associated with the Renew Townsville project who need to do their own marketing or promotional merch can you please use the following download logo variations :

Standard Print Version (PDF @ 2MB)

Large Format Print Version (EPS @ 32MB)

Large Web Version (JPEG @ 2MB)

Small Web Version (JPEG @ 80K)

Alternatively, if you would like to use this on the web, simply copy and paste the following web version :

Renew Townsville (PNG Version)

This will be happening from 9am on Sunday 12th December.  We will be meeting outside the old Rivers store.

If you would like to participate in this noble enterprise we need you to come on down next Sunday and bring along the following :

*  A big smile
*  Gloves
*  Closed footwear

We also desperately need window cleaning equipment including blades and scrapers to remove paint and stickers.  Of course anything else you think might be helpful, such as your favourite cordless tools, cleaning products, brooms, mops , extension cords, and vacuums.

If you know a tradie or someone who can swing a hammer or flick a paint brush please bribe them on our behalf.  The more the merrier.

So if you have a spare few hours next Sunday morning please come along, we will be cooking up a sausage sizzle and will provide cold water to keep you fed and lubricated.

Please pop over to our contacts page if you would like to talk to Donna or Mitch about what’s needed and how you can help.