Case Study

Docklands Spaces

  • Project type: Managed Project
  • Date: 2013-2016
  • Client: Co-funded and developed in collaboration with the City of Melbourne and Places Victoria (now known as Development Victoria)

The Dockland Spaces project provided 24 new and creative businesses the opportunity to trial their ideas across gallery, studio, office, retail and training spaces.

Outcomes

Over half the project participants went on to sign commercial leases or join professional fee paying co-working spaces. Three artists-led gallery spaces showcased the works of local and emerging artists, hosting 70+ exhibitions and gallery events.

Participants

  • Musk Studio

    This young, award winning architecture and design studio
    took a space in the Renew project as an opportunity to grow their practice –particularly their human and financial resources.

    Musk Studio signed full commercial lease within the building where they had accessed ‘free’ space.

  • PLGRM

    A film collective focused on sub-cultural content, PLGRM created shared workspace for contributors including filmmakers, journalists and photographers. They were able to monetise their passion via PLGRM Custom – a studio creating bespoke content for big brands and advertising.

    PLGRM were named one of Westpac’s ‘200 businesses of Tomorrow.’

  • The Food Court

    Occupying an abandoned food court, this exhibition and arts project space for emerging and established artists was established with wider objectives of fostering artistic experimentation and interrogating the nature of social and public space. Amie Anderson was a co-director of the artist-run-initiative and has further established herself as an artist. ‘We have had so many artists come through The Food Court with great ideas, but many of them just haven’t been able to fund them.

    I benefited professionally, as we learnt organisation, social media, admin, general business work, invoicing, networking and connecting with different communities. We are really grateful for our time here and that we could use the space in that way. – Amie

  • The Lifted Brow

    Sam Cooney’s literary magazine and journal venture inhabited office space in the Dockland Spaces program.

    We benefitted through capacity building (advice, mentoring and information sessions) and collaboration with other Renew tenants and exhibitions. Since the Renew program, we have continued to receive attention for our book publishing, now based at RMIT, including literary art prize such as the two Stella Prizes for Brow Books in 2019 (Pink Mountain on Locust Island by Jamie Marina Lau and Axiomatic by Maria Tumarkin) and overseas sales. I’m a big supporter of the program.

  • House House Studio

    House House’s most recent project, a game called Untitled Goose Game, won Australian Game of the Year and Best Sound Design at the Australian Game Developer Awards, and has received extensive international reviews and media coverage. It reached #1 on the Australian and US Nintendo Switch download charts (September 2019) and #2 British Nintendo Switch download charts (September 2019) – a major achievement for a small, independent game developer.

    Giving anyone space to develop their ideas and make that work is such a useful way to empower those emerging creatives.

    Just being able to focus our work in a specific location really shaped our work and put boundaries to it. This was the biggest benefit for us in the Renew program. – Michael McMaster, House House Studio