Bill and George on William
Street next to Reconciliation Park,
will provide 13 studios for artists working in a range of areas from digital
media and film to visual arts and dance. It will also provide a home for the
Sydney Latin American Film Festival.
In the last few years, Sydney
has lost a number of artist-run initiatives like the Wedding Circle and Pelt in Chippendale,
Space 3 and La Franchis in Surry Hills among others that have offered a space
for artists to work and exhibit outside the commercial gallery scene.
“Artists need space and every community needs artists. It is a drain on
society if artists are unable to work in their area of skill,” says Bek Conroy,
a founding member of Bill and George who works in devised performance.
A veteran in artist-run initiatives, including the Wedding Circle, Ms Conroy says there is a
paucity of spaces for artists in the city because of an agenda that gives
priority to property development.
She says that although the main focus of the new space will be to provide a
stable environment for artists to work, they also want to form genuine working
relations with their neighbours and the Indigenous community of Redfern.
“We don’t just want to work in the arts sector, although it is important
that we consolidate our own creative community. We also have a responsibility
to go outside our little square and be a link between different industries and
different sections of the community. That’s what we hope we will do,” she says.
Bill and George will also run a designated arts lab program that is
supported by the Cultural Development Unit of the City of Sydney. It will provide three-month
residencies for artists on a rotating basis.
A website is currently under construction: www.billandgeorge.org
Source: South Sydney Herald October 2007