Many faces at spaces as Renew Townsville buzzes with life

It has been a busy time for the Renew Townsville spaces in Flinders Mall.  As the mall takes shape so have the projects and creative energies of the Renew Townsville members.  Jo lankaster’s Brush and Press Studio has held a number of workshops through April and May and all participants have expressed their excitement at the outstanding results.

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.

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.. and at night they come out to play …

On eth eve of the launch of Renew Townsville’s latest space, Cereal Box, the team is busy putting the last touches to the street scape.

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.

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Working Bee : a [sweaty] Success!

Over 25 artists and community members turned up this weekend for the Renew Townsville working bee.  The main priority was to rid the brace of spaces of stickers and legacy advertising and strip back the space that will be eventually occupied by the team of emerging artists, ETC.  Their space, The Cereal Box, is expected to open early in the new year.

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!

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Artists Working Over Time

Upon visiting the Renew Townsville sites this weekend we found Jamie, Jo, Jan and Katelyn hard at work on their spaces aiming for their respective launches this Friday night.

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!

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Another Retail Expedition …

Donna, Jamie & Katelyn

With Donna, Mitch and Dave taking possession of the keys from Lancini corp this week and confidence at an all time high the Renew Townsville team took a peek further into Townsville’s dormant retail underbelly.

What they discovered was that some of the spaces earmarked for projects are in dire  need of considerable tender loving care – and perhaps a shovel and an axe.

Much work is needed to make these spaces ready for artists and/or the collectives who have expressed an interest in the project and are priming themselves for the next round of proposals.

With Katelyn, Jo and Jamie beginning work this weekend we hope that some community spirit might help us take the next step and prepare another suite of spaces for the second wave of projects in the new year.

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RADF Grant Application is Away

Today we submitted our grant application for RADF.  Again, another monumental effort.  Thanks to everyone who submitted support letters and gave us guidence during this hectic period.  We would particularly like to thank Sandy McCathie from Eco Savvy for her incredible work in pulling this together for us.  Check out her site here.

We’re the Real Deal Now

Word came through this morning from MacDonnells Law that Renew Townsville is finally incorporated!

This is wonderful news as we can now accelerate the push into the spaces over the coming months.  We have many people to thank who have devoted considerable energies to this administrative side of the project to date, many of whom who have donated their professional skills and time.  These include and are by no means limited to the following individuals and organisations :

WHK Accountants
MacDonnells Law
Mark Kennedy
Linsey Plant
Craig Stack (CBD Taskforce)
Heidi Hatherell (Crystal Clear PR)
Kim Baker (Boheme Beauty)

We look forward to keeping you updated on our progress as we work through the remaining issues – ie. finalising the lease agreement, confirming electricty supply arrangements, finalising the public liability insurance policy and hopefully landing those long awaited funding commitments!

First Workshop a Success!

Renew TSV Workshop Flyer

Our first workshop for people interested in applying for a space was very well attended, with more than 30 people attending with plenty of interesting project ideas. Due to the success of this workshop, the group has decided to hold another workshop before the first round of submissions close.

Renew TSV Logo

Mark Kennedy has devised a logo for Renew Townsville … we think it looks great!  Hopefully we will start seeing this around town soon.  Thanks Mark!

Renew TSV Logo (Draft)

Not-For-Profit Organisation in the Works!

The lawyers  Dominique Dominique T Mo from Mc Donald’s Law and accountant Tina Shaw from WHK Accountant &  Richard Jones private Accountant who have generously donating their time as pro-bono professionals, have been given the go ahead by Craig Stack today to start the setup of the new not-for-profit company that will run this project. The company will be a new independent entity based on the model of “Renew Newcastle”. Thanks to the great support from TCC and CBD Taskforce and PANQ, this project will be up and running on its own legs very soon.