Reimagining our Arts Precinct from its centre

By Sean Car

The sense of excitement and spirit of collaboration that currently consumes Melbourne’s Arts Precinct is very real, according to one of its visionary leaders Claire Spencer. Southbank Local News caught up with Arts Centre Melbourne’s CEO last month to gain a deeper insight into why the State Government’s $208 million injection into the precinct has everyone on the edge of their seats.

“It’s the most exciting thing that has happened to the Arts Centre since it opened. I am absolutely sincere in saying that,” Ms Spencer said. “It will transform this part of the city and it will allow the urban genius that created this precinct to be finished.”

“To be part of something like that is an extraordinary privilege and with that comes great responsibility to make sure that every dollar that is being committed by the government is spent in a way that delivers on those outcomes. This is for all Victorians.”

Melbourne’s Arts Precinct is already a point of global envy. With one of the highest concentrations of arts, cultural and creative organisations anywhere in the world, it produces around 3000 performances and exhibitions every year.

With the creative industries contributing $23 billion to the Victorian economy annually, the value of having such a precinct in the heart of the city cannot be understated. The ideas, opportunities and social and cultural benefits it produces are endless.

However, as a precinct, it remains as Claire Spencer says, unfinished. Spanning from Hamer Hall right through to the Malthouse Theatre, connectivity between the more than 30 creative institutions that call Southbank home remains an issue. So too does much of the precinct’s aging infrastructure.

That’s why when the State Government announced in June last year that it was providing the support required to kick start the vision set out in its 2014 Arts Precinct Blueprint, the wave of excitement that swept through the sector was unprecedented.

As one of the leading voices behind the announcement, Ms Spencer said the Reimagining project would deliver the “critical infrastructure and space” that both the Arts Centre and the precinct needed to stay “vibrant and progressive”.

“One of the first challenges for us was ensuring that this stayed a really vibrant, successful, operating Arts Centre but that conversation quickly morphed into how do we reimagine this building for the next generation; recognising how much Melbourne has changed,” she said.

“A significant amount of the last couple of years has been spent on thinking well what is the opportunity here and then progressively working more closely with the NGV (National Gallery of Victoria) on this idea of a whole precinct reimagining.”

Now into her fifth year as CEO after 12 years working in a number of senior roles at the Sydney Opera House, Reimagining caps off what has been an incredibly successful four years for Arts Centre Melbourne under Claire Spencer’s leadership. Having assumed the role during what she described as a “challenging period” for the organisation in 2014, she said much of her early days had been focused on stabilising the business in order to provide the base on which to grow.

Describing herself as a “very purpose driven CEO”, she has done just that. From opening the hugely successful new Australian Music Vault gallery to bringing major summer musicals back, Arts Centre Melbourne is offering more shows and welcoming more people through its doors than ever before.

And while it might bear Melbourne in its title, Claire noted that the Arts Centre took its remit as being a home of arts for all Victorians very seriously. As a registered production-training organisation, it offers traineeships and support to venues and organisations across the state. This is on top of the 900 to 1100 staff it has on its books here in Southbank at any given time!

It has also recently launched a workplace mental health collective for the creative industries in partnership with WorkSafe, following a pilot program that saw 140 creative organisations around the state sign up in a year.

It is for these reasons that Reimagining can’t come soon enough for the Arts Centre. Designed by architect Roy Grounds in the 1970s, Ms Spencer said the infrastructure was starting to “fight back” in the face of ongoing programmatic expansion.

“Roy Grounds was an amazing architect but this is a difficult building!” she said. “It’s hard to find the front door, once you’re inside where do you go? Which level am I on? We go six storeys underground so certainly the things that we’re thinking about are how do you make this building more open?

“I think in his designs that sense of connection and openness was something that was very interesting to him and so we’re very interested in exploring that further and thinking about what opportunities it can present for this building.”

The first phase of this billion-dollar Arts Precinct expansion will transform 1 City Rd, currently home to Southbank’s experimental public arts space Testing Grounds, into a new creative hub for the Arts Centre.

The hub will be home to the Australian Performing Arts Gallery, an expanded Australian Music Vault, administrative, education and research facilities, and a new centre for small-to-medium and independent arts organisations.

The project caters for 18,000sqm of new and renewed public space that will sit elevated above Sturt St comprising new outdoor spaces, garden, seating and cafes and bars.

Well highlighted has been the State Government’s purchase of the Carlton & United Breweries building on Southbank Boulevard, which will be home to NGV Contemporary (NGVC) – a world leading, stand-alone gallery with a focus on contemporary art and design.

From Creative Victoria to the City of Melbourne, through its upgrades to Southbank Boulevard and City Road, Ms Spencer believes that there has been a real “spirit of collaboration” among all stakeholders.

And the same spirit will be required with Melbourne’s philanthropic community as Arts Centre Melbourne and NGV embark on raising enough funds to match the state’s $208 million over the first two years.

“We’re incredibly lucky that in Melbourne philanthropy is part of the fabric of the city, and this building and others in the precinct, they were started and created by philanthropy as well as by government policy,” Ms Spencer said.

“We’re very blessed to have that commitment. I think Melbourne is distinct for that in Australia. People are invested in what these institutions bring to the city.”

With architects already appointed to deliver the vision for Theatres Building and works to get underway over the course of the coming years, Ms Spencer said the Arts Centre would remain open while it delivered this once-in-a-generation redevelopment.

“The team that is in place to deliver this is extraordinary and we have the full support of government through Creative Victoria and Development Victoria and a very healthy working relationship with our neighbours.”

“All of the things that need to be in place for success is there. It’s amazing. I pinch myself really. It’s just such an extraordinary thing to be apart of.”

artscentremelbourne.com.au/about-us/reimagining