Bendigo, Saturday August 8, 2015
Renew Newcastle was created when Arts writer Marcus Westbury, a native of the town, noticed the huge amount of derelict and decaying buildings in the CBD. After extensive negotiations with building owners the Renew Newcastle organisation set about matching local small traders and artists with the abundant real estate on offer.
In a Bendigo Writers Festival program entitled Brave in the New World, Westbury, was interviewed by Rob Stephenson from La Trobe University Bendigo Campus. They discussed why risk is important and a few of Marcus’ projects including Renew Newcastle.
Westbury is a prolific newspaper columnist and a festival organiser, responsible for This Is Not Art Festival and the Next Wave Festival. Stephenson interviewed him, in front of an appreciative crowd, at the La Trobe University Visual Arts Centre on View Street.
However his most impressive project to date has been the ground breaking DIY urban renewal scheme Renew Newcastle. It was this project that took up much of the hour allotted to the program.
To date, eighty buildings had been tenanted with temporary artisanal facilities, thus rejuvenating the Newcastle CBD into something vibrant and alive. The program has been running since 2008 with local, state and federal support. More information about this fascinating and creative project can be found at www.renewnewcastle.org.
As the reader might expect, Westbury has a lot to say about risk. The Renew Newcastle project is a clear indication that he is not afraid of risk. He talked at length about the benefit of risk as the mover of change and innovation.
Risk was manifested in the room, when Westbury knock over a glass of water, generating a titter of sympathetic laughter in the audience.
He also made the often forgotten point that risk will usually end in failure. In the arts sector, this leads to the controversial position that many arts companies should not get arts funding if they are not achieving success. In many ways this is a blow to the idea that once an arts company is founded it should be treated like a jewel and never allowed to fade away. For Westbury risk and change mean that sometimes arts companies should be allowed to fail if they cannot get an audience, rather than linger on.
Westbury also talked about the growing, relatively unseen growth of small scale artisanal production in Australia. The number of craft jewellers in Australia has risen by 300%. Such numbers are repeated in many different crafts, such as micro-brewing, woodwork or the selling of coats and hats. In a TV show called Bespoke coming soon to ABC1, Westbury explores this rising phenomenon.
Westbury was as a guest of the Bendigo Writer’s Festival.