As a council and as a city, we are committed to creating opportunities for young people; to nurturing their talent and to preventing the brain drain to Sydney and other capital cities. In the past few days, we’ve been able to celebrate these opportunities.
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Earlier this year, we provided a brief to students at the University of Newcastle’s School of Architecture and Built Environment to create a visually stunning building for Speers Point Park that pushed the boundaries of exhibiting art and staging cultural events.
The incredible designs they came up with – their diversity and the creativity they revealed – blew the whole judging panel away. We wanted a building that would become a landmark for our city, a talking point for the community and most importantly a state-of-the-art space to showcase arts and culture.
Looking at the 20-plus concept designs that are on display at council’s administration building until mid-December, the question that comes to mind is: What comes first – architecture or art?
I’m sure everyone who comes to see the pop-up exhibit has a different take on the answer, but the concepts that have been presented certainly show the two are certainly not mutually exclusive. I hope this collaborative process provides inspiration not just for the students, but also for council, as custodians and planners of our city, to embrace creativity and dare to think outside the square.
Once built, the Multi-Arts Space will activate the surrounding parks by day and night. It will establish this part of Lake Macquarie as one of the region’s major cultural destinations and it will increase our potential to attract national and international artists and exhibitions.
Across the board, we saw an exceptionally high standard of work, so thank you to the students for applying such professionalism and creativity to this assignment. But there can only be one winner, and I was honoured to announce that it was Samantha Bailey (pictured). Her entry had the most potential to be developed as a significant cultural and arts space for Lake Macquarie. It stood out for its creativity, its thorough understanding of the brief and its potential relationship to the surrounding landscape.
The success of this project, that we’ve enjoyed up to this point, really demonstrates how partnerships between Council and leading local institutions such as the university can be so productive and important.