The grants, announced by Arts Minister Don Harwin, will fund a much-needed expansion of the Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery at Booragul and the creation of a cutting-edge Multi Arts Space at Speers Point Park. A number of people have since asked me what a Multi Arts Space is, and that is a reasonable question because what council is proposing is a new concept for not only our city, but in Australia.

Based on structures common in Europe and North America, the Multi Arts Space will be a contemporary, architecturally designed pavilion-style cultural facility. With a stage that opens to the outdoors and exhibition space within, it will be capable of showcasing a variety of visual and performing arts, including dance, theatre, multi-media installations and immersive experiences such as virtual reality and surround-screen cinema. The building will also include a catering kitchen, perfect as a small cafe or wine bar.

Sitting at the Five Islands end of the park promenade, with a glorious view across the lake to the City Art Gallery at Booragul, the Multi Arts Space will activate the park by day and night, providing an enticing new social space for our community and a visually stunning landmark for our city.

We can’t say exactly what it will look like, because it is going to be designed by final-year architecture students from the University of Newcastle – another fantastic aspect of  this project – but the brief is for a high-quality, contemporary building incorporating the best principles of environmentally sustainable design and creativity.

The Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery expansion, meanwhile, will provide space for larger exhibitions, a new outdoor covered area for art programs, an exhibition space dedicated to contemporary Aboriginal art and extra storage for our collections.

These two projects are among a number of trailblazing public art initiatives Lake Macquarie City Council has in the pipeline, among them the soon-to-be-launched CREATIVE Lake art trail, which will stretch around the Lake foreshore from Belmont to Toronto.