Newcastle art thrives in the hive

by Anna Shelly on February 8, 2011

When Newcastle CBD was on the verge of becoming a ghost town, Marcus Westbury and Renew Newcastle stepped in and created something that we could be proud of - something that brought life back to Hunter Street Mall, showcases local talent and brings communities together.

ARThive is one of these projects, an artist-run exhibition and project gallery directed by Newcastle artist, Grant Hunter.  He aims to give local artists the opportunity to exhibit their work, regardless of experience or level of exposure.

How did ARThive come about?

Renew Newcastle was starting up, and Simone Sheridan began gathering up artists to help establish and run a gallery space as part of her Honours thesis. The aim was to have a gallery space that also featured a studio hub, and the building we found at 111 Hunter Street was perfect for that use. We were lucky to get in early with our Renew Newcastle application and opened with a fundraiser exhibition in the second round of projects around June 2009. Simone and I managed the space together up until mid last year. We’ve since fleshed out the team with about 6 or so other artists including Rose Turner, Sarah Mould, Lance Johnson, Adam Clough, Angus Crowley, Jessica Louttit and Jenna Gill, who all volunteer their time and help run everything. We’ve had 22 exhibitions since we first opened, plus regular poetry nights, experimental music gigs, artist markets, book launches, drama rehearsals, workshops and film screenings.

How do you see the Renew Newcastle initiative as contributing to the arts culture of Newcastle? How has it helped you to achieve your goals?

Renew Newcastle is the best thing to happen to Newcastle in a long time. It’s such an obvious solution to many of the long-term problems in the city, and the results speak for themselves.

I love that there is now a shop or a gallery or a space for just about any creative pursuit you can imagine, and it’s all run by genuine people in it for the right reasons and it’s all in the same town. When we first opened up the mall was a little bit Dawn of the Dead - nobody around, nothing open. I’ve seen it gradually come back to life, and it’s a decent place to hang out. Marcus and Marni at Renew Newcastle are great to work with and very supportive of everything we’ve done so far. It really is too good a deal to be true. I never would have imagined I would be a part of something like this. They handed us the keys to the building based on little more than an idea - I guess they believed that we could pull it off.

What are the biggest challenges associated with your role?

Not having enough hours in the day or days in the week. I need to work enough hours at my retail job to afford to live, so I have to run around maniacally organising exhibitions, events, and doing my best to promote it so in the end it’s all worthwhile for both the artists and us. With whatever time I have left I try to make art of my own or make music with my friends but sometimes I have to neglect those interests to keep the ARThive wheels turning. I just need to be more clever with my time.

What are your aspirations for ARThive? What direction will it take in 2011?

I’ve always wanted ARThive to be a cheap and accessible space that shows the kind of art that might not ever be shown at other galleries in Newcastle. I’ve never had time for the highbrow elitist stuff, it’s all pretty boring. I think we’re going to narrow our focus a little bit more and only show artists that we’re really passionate about, rather than just be kind of a space for hire, a notch on an artist’s CV. I think we’re going to have more fun too. More than anything, I enjoy showing something that hasn’t been seen before, so this year I’d love to continue bringing artists up from Sydney and beyond, and also local artists that might not have had the confidence to exhibit their work otherwise. Those who aren’t showing their work anywhere, they’re just making it in their bedroom or compulsively drawing in sketchbooks on the train. It’s very hard to make that first step into the gallery world if you haven’t been introduced through University or TAFE galleries. I like to think of our gallery as a wonky set of training wheels.

What upcoming exhibitions can we look forward to?

Coming up next is an exhibition by DAgARt (Dan Smith, Amanda Kenneth, gerant) called Celebrity Story, which will consist of a gigantic sticker collage of text and image juxtapositions derived from trashy magazines. After that are exhibitions by local artists Renee Fitzpatrick, Eddie Botha, and Logan Knight. I’m probably most looking forward to the Seinfeld themed group show which is coming up, and I’m also a bit nervous about having my own solo show in June. We generally only program a few months in advance at a time and accept proposals all year round. Anybody interested in showing their work or curating an exhibition at ARThive should contact us!

What are your likes and dislikes about the Newcastle art scene?

I like that Newcastle is essentially very small, and in some respects there is a sense of community between the various artists, performers and musicians. However, too often I witness pettiness and unnecessary competition. I like that there are a lot of options available for artists in Newcastle to show off their work, from the multiple artist run galleries, shops like Blackbird Corner, One Penny Black and Vox Cyclops, and artist markets every other weekend.

What do you wish for the future of art in Newcastle?

I don’t have any real plans or desires for the future of art in Newcastle, outside of what we’re doing ourselves. We’re just going to keep chipping away at our own little piece of it, and people will either like it or not like it. It would be fantastic if all of the many strong micro-communities of creative people in this town could start pulling in the same direction, forge together like Voltron, and become this one big super community of artists supporting each other, because otherwise it’s always going to limiting and it won’t sustain itself.

ARThive is located at 1/111 Hunter Street, Newcastle.

All images courtesy of ARThive.