Making Culture

In every township and suburb, near every street in the Blue Mountains there is a hum of creative makers at work. Making culture can be defined as the activities of people who create or ideate with technology or traditional craft. Home studios and home workshops are providing the bulk of the workspaces for a wide variety of creative disciplines, from potters to blacksmiths, painters to musicians, film, furniture makers and everything in between.

There is an increasing demand in the Blue Mountains for co-working spaces, creative making space hubs, and shared studio spaces. Generally speaking, these are places in which creatives will work on projects while concurrently being able to share ideas, equipment, and knowledge with others. The lack of access to spaces and equipment poses an immediate threat to the competitiveness of our creative sector. The dislocation and disconnection of working from home, and lack of co-working environments constrains opportunities for collaboration and the development of networks within the sector. Satiating the appetite for these spaces is a challenge that several entrepreneurs, including myself, have been consumed by for many years.

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When I established Toolo, the Blue Mountains Tool Library in 2015, the vision was to provide access to equipment and resources for the creative industries. We’ve rolled out countless projects, partnering with other NGOs and Council, to provide spaces and opportunities for creatives. The Katoomba Falls Kiosk studio residency project ran jointly with Modern Art Projects Blue Mountains, transforming a disused building into a vibrant space that aided in the creative production of new work by more than 30 artists in just a nine-month period. These types of volunteer, community-led initiatives help build professional connections amongst the sector, which ultimately leads to a more cohesive creative community.

Upon reflection of the Kiosk project, I’ve often wondered how many other types of partnerships could exist which could be mutually beneficial to varying organisations. For instance, what if buildings used for sports recreation, which remain empty for half of the year, were unlocked for creatives to develop and test new ideas and concepts or to enable social enterprise start-ups?

For example, Toolo developed the Digital Ecology Lab held over a 12-monthperiod at Katoomba’s old City Library, and this is a great illustration of flexible co-use of a space: on Tuesday nights karate and during the day on Tuesday, a connected digital work environment for creatives. What other partnerships between seemingly unlikely matches of cricket clubs, hotels, Rural Fire Service locations or Men’s Sheds could we work with to create artist in residence programs? To avoid the creative drain, it’s imperative for us to maker spaces in order for artists to continue to live in the Blue Mountains.

The Blue Mountains is considered by the NSW government to be a part of Greater Sydney. The Greater Sydney Commission has established its vision for our region as one where, “great jobs are 30 minutes by public transport from great homes…and where all our daily needs are met within a 15-minute walk.” According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics from 2016, 57% of workers from the Blue Mountains travel outside of the LGA for work. Realistically we are not in a position to achieve the objectives of the Greater Sydney Commission unless we can provide spaces for creative workers, where they can work remotely instead of commuting these long distances. We could look for inspiration from another creative hotspot, Byron Bay Shire who had the foresight in the early 1970s to establish the Byron Arts and Industry Estate, a precinct that today is a bustling hub for innovation, industry, and creativity.

Often there is a need for Blue Mountains creative practitioners to scale and seek out workspaces that have different aspects that can’t be found at home –  when one needs really good bandwidth to upload large media files, three-phase power, access to sophisticated equipment like 3Dprinters or closer connections to other creatives to collaborate on multi-disciplinary projects. The best example of this kind of thriving ecosystem in the Blue Mountains is Nauti Studios, on the Great Western Highway in Hazelbrook. It’s the brainchild of Nat Cheney, an incredibly passionate and courageous entrepreneur who has taken her experience of running creative spaces in Sydney and created an affordable local option for creatives, which allows them to scale when they need to, and to work with other like-minded individuals. Furthermore, it’s a sustainably-focused space that has adopted an eco-design approach, sourcing upcycled sustainable building materials to use in the creation of the studios. Businesses like Nauti Studios are great examples of low impact sustainable businesses that become conduits to incubate and accelerate the creative start-up process.

Finding affordable commercial spaces can be difficult for creatives on their own, so collaborating with others and building partnerships can be a fruitful way to share the costs of establishing new spaces, such as rent and start-up capital. A new venture in Wentworth Falls, Fire and Flood, sets a new tone for creative partnerships. Kevina-Jo Smith, Amber Hearn and Heather Miller all dreamt of having a shared creative space. They were successful in their application for a commercial rental, as the owners of the building, being local business owners themselves, realised the importance to the village atmosphere that a creative space would bring. The new venture is part bed and breakfast, collaborative studio for the trio, and a retail space for eco-conscious goods and local sustainable products. New start-ups such as this are innovative, showcase our rich creative talents and offer a plethora of benefits to other industries such as tourism.

Fostering our creative talent by providing accessible spaces to work increases our capability to create new ideas, new products, and new content. It’s fundamental for the growth of our sector that we create a supportive environment for the next generation of creative people and young entrepreneurs to establish and grow their businesses. So, let’s rejoice in making culture, nurture this rich ecosystem of creatives, and explore new opportunities and partnerships to ensure the tradition prospers.