Artists will be able to swap their studios for office space in Canberra's city centre as part of a pilot program to inject culture into underused sites, giving people fresh reason to wander through the area.
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Arts Minister Tara Cheyne said it was important for Canberrans and visitors to see artists at work, and stumble across art practices if they were not already seeking it out.
"I think there's something really powerful about that. We have something so special and so incredible to showcase in this city but too often we've been proud to talk about our hidden gems," Ms Cheyne said.
"I've been very clear: I don't want any more hidden gems.
"This is about exposing as much as we can, as much as we have to offer here in Canberra to as wide an audience base as possible, locals and visitors alike."
The Second Space program will offer a series of tenants from the Australian National University's art and design school short residencies in the former Elections ACT office and restaurant in the South Building on Civic Square, which also houses the Canberra Museum and Gallery.
The space will also be used to hold workshops and activities in the Design Canberra festival program, which begins on November 2.
Ms Cheyne said the government was already in discussion with site owners in City West, and encouraged artists and site owners to come forward with ideas for how locations could be used as part of the program.
"This is of course a pilot. We are exploring the feasibility of this. We know that it's occurred in Newcastle but it was very resource intensive as well. But there's a lot of opportunity in the city at the moment and that's exactly why we're putting our money where our mouth is," she said.
Rebecca Mayo's Natural Dyeing Machine - a large, loom-like contraption that uses natural dyes on large continuous pieces of fabric - will be the first art project on display in the Civic Square space, running until September 18.
Other projects will include Rod Bamford's 3D printing of ceramics, and a work by Scottish sculptor Lucy Irvine. Both artists are based at the Australian National University.
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Mayo, a lecturer in the ANU art and design school's print media and drawing workshop, said her machine was designed to be part of site-specific projects, set up near the plants used to create the dyes it worked with.
"I think it's really wonderful to be able to put ourselves into spaces where we're kind of doing work-in-progress, where it's not all about the finished spectacle but we can actually show, I suppose, the way that we work and that it's actually, in some ways, not that different to other jobs," Mayo said.
City Renewal Authority chief executive Malcolm Snow said the Second Space program would build on the strong relationships the authority had with city property owners, allowing matchmaking between artists and locations.
"I think it's an acknowledgement that we need to redouble our efforts to make it a city centre that we all have a really strong connection with. We're not saying this is the end. In fact, this is the beginning of what I would want to see which is conspicuous culture through the entire city centre," Mr Snow said.
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Jasper Lindell
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
