Creative Gladstone Region Inc

12 Nov 2015

Located on the Central Coast, Gladstone has a population of approximately 31,778 people and is home to Queensland’s largest multi-commodity shipping port. Gladstone’s main industries are mining and tourism which present challenges and opportunities for the local arts and cultural sector. Adrienne Ward tells us about how Creative Gladstone is helping to build vitality in the region’s arts community.

Creative Gladstone was born in April 2014 to bring together creative people to form a vibrant arts community within the Gladstone Region. We provide them with an environment in which to network, develop their skills and promote their talents. We enable artists, both amateurs and professionals, to work in unison in a fully equipped creative studio environment.
Starting with one venue in Auckland Street we expanded into a second venue, Crow Street. Creative Gladstone were given an opportunity by our new landlord to trial one of his industrial sheds for a couple of months for free to see if it was something we, as a not-for-profit (NFP) visual arts organisation, could use.

We quickly saw the potential of the Crow Street space not just for long-term tenure with a supportive landlord, but to be given the chance to expand and diversify what we offer the community. It soon became apparent, after an initial paint job, that with some serious consideration and renovations, Crow Street could become an arts precinct for many different NFP groups involved in Creative Industries.

We believed an affordable, low rent, arts precinct could bring Gladstone and other communities in this region, both artists and non-artists together to enjoy a variety of experiences. We engaged with local businesses to get feedback on our idea. We met with other NFP organisations; similar visual arts groups, performing artists, musicians, film-making groups, film festival facilitators, who were all excited at the prospect of a centrally located Arts Hub, a little more casual and community based than the likes of the Gladstone Entertainment and Convention Centre.

We took it further and engaged with those working at the heart of our community. Council based youth workers who work with engaged and disengaged young people and health care workers where art is used in therapy. We also consulted with experts from industrial backgrounds to see where art and industry could work in unison reminding us that it is industry that lies at Gladstone’s heart. We visualised how a creative space could unite people – not just the long-term residents, but to also include people in our transient population who are often restricted by environment and mobility in what they can achieve creatively. We also thought of the needs of the tourists in the Gladstone region like those coming soon on the cruise liners.

Our new landlord joined in our discussions and the idea of ‘Crow Street Creative’ was born, an artists’ precinct where the community can congregate and enjoy new and diverse experiences.

While we have started to grow our membership base and are diversifying, our biggest challenge is building a volunteer base. Being such a transient city, the ongoing task of encouraging the community to be involved and assist with not only committee positions but also event support can be exhausting but necessary.

We have a good strong executive committee that will benefit the organisation and provide stability.  We are also building our grant writing capacity which will help to sustain the workings of a creative hub and our ability to ‘step outside of the box’.

We’d love to hear from anyone else who is setting up a creative hub or precinct in their community. What have you discovered?

Adrienne Ward is a former State Telstra Business Woman of the Year and has a background in corporate and government strategy with past State and National roles including global consulting firm Accenture, Leighton Contractors, Optus Vision and Westpac Banking Corporation. Adrienne is President, Creative Gladstone Regional Inc., the past Chairman of Gold Coast Institute of TAFE and The Institute of Modern Art, a past Director of Translink Transport Authority and Queensland Events Corporation as well as a past board member of The ICT Ministerial Advisory Group and Griffith University Council.  Adrienne and her husband Tony moved to Gladstone two years ago and supports various not-for-profit organisations in the Central Queensland Region.

Feature image: Workshop participants, Creative Gladstone.