Bendigo’s creative practitioners, entrepreneurs and businesses will have a new place to work, connect, build their skills and expand their network, with The Studio – formerly Bendigo Creative Industries Hub – set top open in 2020.
A Local Advisory Group, made up of some of the region’s most respected creative professionals, has been appointed to work with ACMI ahead of the opening of Bendigo’s new creative industries hub – The Studio.
Formerly known as Bendigo Creative Industries Hub, The Studio is set to open in early 2020 and will be a place for the region’s creative practitioners, entrepreneurs and businesses to work, connect, build their skills and expand their networks.
An initiative of Creative Victoria, the state government body dedicated to championing, growing and supporting Victoria’s creative industries, and led by the team behind one of Melbourne’s leading creative institutions, ACMI, The Studio will offer workspaces, meeting rooms and a presentation space for local creatives and creative businesses to work on site.
Located in the former Morley’s Emporium site on Mitchell Street in Bendigo’s CBD, it will also offer a membership-based business program for residents and the broader creative community to develop their business skills, knowledge and networks, and host regular events designed to bring the creative community together to share their products, projects and insights.
Each representative of the newly appointed Local Advisory Group brings a deep understanding of the creative landscape within the Greater Bendigo region and rich, grass roots connections that will ensure The Studio is relevant to those who use it.
The Local Advisory Group comprises:
Caleb Maxwell – co-founder of Bendigo-based film studio, Hebron Films;
Graphic designer and art director, Louise Fisher, from The Design Pond;
Bryley Savage from boutique Bendigo communications and marketing agency, Friendly Savage;
Passionate arts education practitioner, David Burton;
Leah Ladson – a local photographer and founder of Girls from the Go – a networking group for women who run small businesses in the Bendigo region;
Steve Lane – an experienced video producer, sound engineer and song workshop facilitator, who runs Bendigo-based Real Tone, which specialises in working with and telling the stories of regional communities through music and moving image;
Katy Morrison – co-founder of Virtual Reality studio VRTOV and the co-founder of Frame, a non-profit that works to support artists telling non-fiction stories using emerging technologies;
Patrick Thwaites from Bendigo Artists Inc – a not-for-profit, artist-led incorporated association, which aims to support the artists and creatives of the region;
Aymii Hansen – Bendigo-based artist and curator and Taungurung traditional woman who has many years’ experience working within community arts and is the founder of Jumbarrawa – an Aboriginal owned and operated art company in Bendigo;
and Tamara Marwood – creative director of Create Business – a Bendigo- based strategic consulting agency.
The Local Advisory Group will work to ensure The Studio is responsive to the needs of the region’s local creative industries and will help develop capacities and relationships so it can transition seamlessly to local ownership in 2021.
ACMI has been contracted to develop and operate The Studio until October 2021, when a local management team will take over operating responsibilities.
The Studio manager, David Hughes, says the Local Advisory Group is made up of a diverse and well-respected mix of local creative professionals and community members from the Greater Bendigo region, who are well placed to ensure the exciting new creative space meets the needs of Bendigo’s burgeoning creative industries.
“We are incredibly excited to be working with a group of people who know the region and its people and bring a diverse range of creative experience and expertise to help enhance the success of The Studio, a coworking community that is dedicated to the region’s creative industries by providing first-class facilities and tailored business development programs,” Mr Hughes said.
“These representatives have deep connections within the local creative industries, at all levels, from grass roots through to business and innovation,” he said.
“Their experience and knowlege will be invaluable as we work to ensure The Studio best serves the local creative industry and wider creative community.”
Selected by the The Studio’s Project Steering Committee, the Local Advisory Group will provide feedback and direction on programming and activities at The Studio, identify priority services and collaborative opportunities and emerging issues that may impact on the effective operation of The Studio, and ensure a thorough, inclusive and consultative approach to stakeholder communication, consultation and engagement.
Katrina Sedgwick, the Director and CEO of ACMI, said the appointment of the Local Advisory Group was an important step towards delivering a creative industries hub tailored to meet the needs of the Greater Bendigo region.
While Australia’s museum of the moving image and screen culture undergoes its $40million renovations, the team continues to operate the creative industries co-working space ACMI X in Southbank, in the heart of Melbourne’s art precinct, as well as a range of industry accelerator and development programs.
“We look forward to working with the Local Advisory Group to help create a co-working space and program tailored to the region’s talented creative professionals and businesses,” Ms Sedgwick said.
“While we can bring the experience and skills, we have learned from running ACMI X in Melbourne, we are eager to hear how we can tailor these skills to meet the needs of the region’s creative industries and promote further skills and innovation in this thriving regional area,” she said.
Victoria’s Minister for Creative Industries Martin Foley said “The Greater Bendigo region is home to an incredible creative community and ACMI has extensive experience in supporting creative innovators to take their business, and careers, to new heights.”
The Advisory Group joins The Studio’s manager David Hughes, local design and digital marketing agency Creative Revolution and Bendigo-based PR strategist Greta Donaldson as the local team leading The Studio’s development.
In October, ACMI released design images of the The Studio, which has been designed by Bendigo architecture firm, e+ architecture, in collaboration with ACMI.
Supported by a dedicated manager and a part-time community coordinator, co-workers at The Studio will have access up to 24 workstations, high speed wifi, bookable meeting rooms, printers, a workshop and presentation space, a kitchen, and access to The Studio’s business and social program. Co-workers will also have access to a bookable desk at ACMI X in Melbourne.
The Studio was born out of the Victorian Government’s first creative industries strategy Creative State 2016-2020, which included 40 targeted actions and was backed with a $115 million investment.
Creative State supported a range of new programs and innovative approaches ─ from accelerator programs for creative businesses to support for co-working hubs and creative spaces.
Since the strategy was launched in 2016, the economic impact of the creative industries has grown by 23 per cent, to $31 billion. Some 260,000 Victorians are now employed in the creative industries, up 15 per cent, and cultural tourism is worth $2 billion, up 88 per cent.