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Singing and Theatre

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    • The role of vacant urban space in a Covid crisis
      • <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " > Jan Bieringa, Sophie Jerram, Linda Lee and Jason Muir with 'Exquisite Kaitiaki' by Miriama Grace-Smith, Xoe Hall and Gina Kiel at Urban Dream Brokerage and Brokered Dreams book launch, 2/57, Wellington. Image: Ebony Lamb Wellington communities need more creative and public spaces as inner city population booms and housing crisis puts rental stress on the young and vulnerable  Covid-19 and economic recession leaves empty shops and buildings empty in Wellington Urban Dream Brokerage programme will resume connecting artists with owners of unoccupied property Applications for artists to run projects are now open online www.urbanddreambrokerage.org.nz  <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " > Ariki Bloomwell presenting welcoming karakia. Image: Ebony Lamb As the residential property market escalates, and as increasing numbers move into city apartments, a need for inner city spaces for exchange and community is growing.  With significant growth in commercial property left vacant since Covid-19 hit, the programme Urban Dream Brokerage is relaunching in Wellington to provide vital spaces for people to exchange, meet and help the city develop.    Following its first run between 2012 and 2018 in response to the Global Financial Crisis, creative space programme Urban Dream Brokerage (UDB) has been relaunched funded by the Wellington City Council Tipu Toa: Build Back Better / City Recovery fund.  <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " > Image: Ebony Lamb The relaunch is spurred by a rise in unoccupied property around Wellington city due to the pandemic, and the need to create shared public spaces and experiences in a central city whose population is growing fast. The programme continues to run in Dunedin and has previously run in Porirua and Masterton. After the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake many buildings were taken off the Wellington market for strengthening, meaning fewer spaces could be used. Now property owners are embracing the renewed opportunity to enrich the city with artist and community occupied spaces.  “We have a commitment to a city that feels good for the most vulnerable and gives space to the most generous. We see ourselves as intentionally curating projects that will provoke change, for example decarbonising and indigenising the city,” says UDB co-founder Sophie Jerram. <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " > Victoria Singh from The Waiting Room Image: Ebony Lamb “Other cities across the world including Brussels and Barcelona are taxing buildings that are vacant for more than three months, providing incentives to keep buildings occupied, something that could work well when property is surging in value.” The aim of the brokerage is not just to help restore the city to pre-pandemic levels and types of activity, but to help create a new and better place where art acts as a bridge that welcomes all comers.  UDB co-founder Mark Amery makes a case for culture providing a vital sense of place and meaning for city dwellers that leads to economic development.   “A cultural recovery in Wellington is more than about attracting visitors through events.  Culture is fundamental to our wellbeing and a sense of ownership of the city for those who live here. And we also invest financially where we feel a sense of belonging.” <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " > Mark Amery and Helen Kirlew Smith. Image: Ebony Lamb A book of past projects  Brokered Dreams: 98 Uses For Vacant Space has just been launched. “We also need to test new models of living space as we face environmental and social crises. Artists and community groups are leading the way,” says Amery. <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " > Brokered Dreams: 98 Uses for Vacant Space. Image: Ebony Lamb Wellington City Council is supporting the brokerage to re-enliven the city in 2021 with activities, including support for the performance programme The City as a Theatre and a rejuvenated Cubadupa. UDB is produced by Maverick Creative, managed by dynamic Political Cutz performer Jason Muir with Linda Lee from Shared Lines Collaborative. Muir is already visiting property owners to find homes for projects. “UDB rules! My creative practice emerged from Urban Dream Brokerage so now I feel proud to manage the project and look forward to enabling others on their journey, to share their dreams with the people of Wellington,” says Muir. Urban Dream Brokerage was established in 2012 by Sophie Jerram and Mark Amery as part of their Letting Space entity under the umbrella of Wellington Independent Arts Trust. UDB found spaces around New Zealand for over 120 creative projects, some short and some long term with more than 40 property owners, allowing the artists’ work to infuse energy into the properties while new tenants were found. Some projects continue in the properties where they started - Come Sew With Me in Masterton’s Queen Elizabeth Park is celebrating this month its third anniversary, while others like Coliberate a ‘mental health gym’ are now successful innovative businesses.  Brokered Dreams: 98 Uses for Vacant Space - the book is available at www.urbandreambrokerage.org.nz/book or at Unity Bookshop Wellington. <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " > Evzen Novak, Thomas Lahood, Darcy Case Laurie Foon, Suzanne Tamaki and Gerry Paul during karakia. Image: Ebony Lamb <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " > Sam Trubridge. Image: Ebony Lamb <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " > Crowd at two/fiftyseven. Image: Ebony Lamb <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " > Image: Ebony Lamb
      • Accepted from Urban Dream Brokerage Blog by tonytw1
      • Tagged as:
      • cubadupa
      • theatre
      • porirua
      • covid-19

        • Porirua, Wellington Region, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • We're back!
      • <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " > Young Visionaries Tēnā koutou katoa  We come with great news! We are delighted to write that the Urban Dream Brokerage is relaunching in Wellington city (see the website), with support from the WCC City Recovery Fund for the first year. We are now open for new applications from both citizens with new ideas for vacant space to increase public participation in the city, and from property owners with vacant space that needs enlivening.  UDB continues to be funded through the Wellington Independent Arts Trust but Letting Space (Mark Amery and Sophie Jerram) are announcing the handover to Maverick Creative led by broker Jason Muir and staff Linda Lee and Tallulah Farrar. We have been in discussion for some time, and Mark, Sophie (and past brokers Helen Kirlew Smith and Tamsin Cooper) are professionally involved in training and overseeing the establishment of the UDB over the first six months. Excitingly, Letting Space are also curating six commissions with WCC funding for UDB in 2021 (details here).    Pencil in the busy Xmas diary a rather special launch celebration for Thursday evening 17 December 5.30pm at Level 2 57 Willis Street (above Unity Books) which will see the launch of a UDB Book 2012-2018, Brokered Dreams, and the introduction of a raft of exciting programmes for early 2021 Theatre as a City with Performance Arcade, Cubadupa, and the dynamic new artist powered work space we are in for that evening Two/Fifty Seven. More details to follow. RSVPS required,. Many exciting ideas and property relationships are already in development and we are all so thankful for the support and enthusiasm this is already receiving at a vital time for Wellington city, and indeed the planet, to look for new models of being together in urban environments as we see apartment blocks rise, income and property inequality issues, significant wasted vacant space as we potentially face a recession and dramatic new challenges with Covid and environmental factors. Urban Dream Brokerage is a mechanism for all in our community to lead. Our aims remain as follows: Increase diversity and community through living spaces in the city. Reduce vacant space and increase citizen ownership in towns and cities. See stronger representation of mana whenua in the city. Increase professionalism and help innovate business development. See creatives, artists and community service groups resident long term in the CBD. Increase mixed use of the city's building stock. Increase public engagement in the city See our cities known for their innovative use of space and public interaction. We are excited to be working in closer partnership with major creative partners like PlaygroundNZ and Creative Capital Arts Trust, WCC, Wellingtonnz and major property partners to support independent artists, community organisations and creative-minded citizens to occupy this special city.  We are a service for the whole city and want to hear from you. We can’t wait to celebrate together.
      • Accepted from Urban Dream Brokerage Blog by tonytw1
      • Tagged as:
      • covid-19
      • cubadupa
      • theatre

        • Cuba Street, Te Aro, Wellington, Wellington City, Wellington, 6040, New Zealand (OpenStreetMap)


    • Mentoring announced for three Urban Dream Brokerage projects
      • <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " > 'We Spoke', Candace Smith, Performance Arcade, Wellington, March 2018 Letting Space's Urban Dream Brokerage service is thrilled to announce three artists and projects in Wellington that have been given mentors in a new peer-to-peer mentorship programme for artists working in new spaces in the city.  Candace Smith will be mentored by artist Vivien Atkinson, who works across a variety of media and is known for her work with The See Here and Occupation Artists (website here). Candace's series of public works has commenced with installation 'We Spoke' at Performance Arcade, in which the public generated energy with a bicycle,  operating fans within a transparent space,  sealed from the wind, which gently moved mobiles made from umbrella parts (themselves deconstructed by the wind). A performer joined the work in response to the cyclists at night. Candace is interested in creating installations of reassembled objects which explore ideas around the fragmentation and reconnection associated with migration. Rosie White and the project Playdate will be mentored by Jo Randerson, artist and co-producer of Barbarian Productions (website here). White has recently completed a Masters of Fine Arts at Massey's College of Creative Arts and will work with collaborators' on a project that is a work of craftivism or art activism, concerned with a social issue: slavery, with specific concern to the significant numbers of people in the world today trafficked for sex. New Zealand says Rosie is not exempt and the project will seek to highlight the issue. Visual artist Mark Antony Smith and his project The Lost Future Exchange will be mentored by theatremaker Leo Gene Peters of company A Slightly Isolated Dog. This is a project Mark Antony is starting in 2018 to gather stories, dreams and remembrances of place in the central area of Wellington. It is an evolution of Ghosting About a project he did for his Masters study at Massey which included work 'Imperial Ghosts' concerning Dixon Street's Imperial Building for Lux Festival. Mark Antony Smith's previous shows also include Black Dog: Failure at Toi Poneke Gallery 2015. We hope to announce a fourth mentored project shortly. Initial information on the kaupapa behind this mentoring scheme can be found here.  
      • Accepted from Urban Dream Brokerage Blog by tonytw1
      • Tagged as:
      • theatre

    • Announcing Urban Dreams Monthly Lunchtime programme 2018
      • <figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " > Thomas King Observatory, Wellington, work residency for artist Julian Priest in 2018 with thanks to the Wellington Museums Trust. Introducing for your diaries the Urban Dreams Monthly Tuesday lunchtime programme for March to May 2018 at Toi Poneke. We've got a great set of guests, across artforms: Leo Gene Peters, Julian Priest, Sacha Copland, Kerry Ann Lee and our mayor Justin Lester. We're always aware of the holes in knowledge between artforms even in a small city, so read on for more details on these strong artists. First gathering: next Tuesday March 13. An opportunity for artists or all kinds to network and discuss ideas working in new ways in Wellington city. Tuesdays 12.30-2pm March 13: On being embedded. Working with other industries and groups - what is the potential for residences or having artists embedded in different spaces in the city? We talk with two artists who have been working in work residencies and have an interest in how their work can interact in new ways through this: theatremaker Leo Gene Peters, and visual artist Julian Priest. Leo Gene Peters is a theatre director and maker and founder of A Slightly Isolated Dog who have been creating celebrated devised work since 2005. “We’re trying to have a conversation with the public about what matters to each of us… and through that conversation we’ll create performance work. The goal is to find new and different ways to use live performance, conversation, virtual platforms, social media (and other things) to create a space where we can meet and reflect together. A space where we can discuss important questions in our lives that we normally don’t talk about with strangers.” A Slightly Isolated Dog are currently in residence at Creative HQ. who aim to help develop and grow businesses in Wellington through “nourishing entrepreneurial talent and driving innovation.” Julian Priest is an artist working with participatory and technological forms and recent work explores relationships to different infrastructures including time, energy, security, health and communications. In 2017 Julian created the Citizen Water Map Lab with Letting Space as part of the Common Ground Public Art Festival where Hutt City residents and community groups were invited to collect ground water and bring it to the lab and test it with data represented in an illuminated installation that produced a map of local water quality. Julian was co-founder of early wireless freenetwork community Consume.net in London. He became an advocate for the freenetworking movement and has pursued wireless networking as a theme in fields of arts, development, and policy. Julian is currently undertaking a residency at the Thomas King observatory Wellington (supported by the Wellington Museums Trust), an old 1912 observatory which is part of the Carter Observatory complex. April 17: On the art of keeping in business. Sasha Copland and Kerry Ann Lee. The realities of the business of being an independent artist. We introduce two artists both interested in working in a variety of different ways with the public and communities. Kerry Ann Lee is a celebrated visual artist, designer and educator who uses hand-made processes and socially-engaged projects to explore hybrid identities and histories of migration. She creates installation, publication and image-based work and has a long practice in independent artists’ publishing. Sacha Copland is a dancer, choreographer and the Artistic Director of Java Dance Theatre. As she told The Big Idea here she believes in the power of dance to build empathy and her works aim to permeate and dissolve the distance between people by creating dance that “clambers into your senses and gets underneath your fingernails.” Founded in 2003 Java is a professional dance company that presents dance theatre nationally and internationally often working in site specific locations, or creating work around specific themes that engage new audiences. May 8: On creating creative capital. Mayor Justin Lester  A discussion with our mayor who holds the arts and culture portfolio on what is needed to take our creative scene to the next level. All events are free. You are very welcome to bring your lunch. For podcasts of the 2017 series go here.
      • Accepted from Urban Dream Brokerage Blog by tonytw1
      • Tagged as:
      • events
      • theatre

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