News

View west from the Beauty Spot (photo: Hong An James Nguyen)

The arts and cultural accelerator for Western Sydney Parklands Trust launched last week.  We are excited about working with artists, architects, urban planners, historians and others who are also passionate about creating arts and cultural projects that reflect the unique nature of the parklands.

Western Sydney Parklands stretches over 5,280 hectares, through three council areas (Blacktown, Fairfield and Liverpool) and for 27 kilometres.

It’s Australia’s biggest urban parkland and includes miles of open space, native bushland, picnic shelters and barbecues, playgrounds, cycling and walking tracks. You might know of some of its tenants, Raging Waters Sydney and Sydney Zoo.

City People is facilitating the 10-day accelerator that is our innovative, structured way of bringing together people with diverse expertise, over a short period of time to develop project ideas for a particular place.  Our focus is on the southern parklands, Darug country and mainly bushland, from Cecil Hills to Leppington.

In late 2019, 30 people expressed an interest in working collaboratively to develop concepts for urban arts projects, public art installations, performances or place-driven activation projects in Western Sydney Parklands.

Eight participants, with diverse experiences and artistic practices, were selected:

• Marian Abboud works with western Sydney communities through activism and popular culture.
• Robyn Backen works with architectural forms, sound and digital media.
• David Capra is an artist, broadcaster and Fairfield resident who makes work for diverse spaces, with community and in the public domain.
• Anna Kuroda is a choreographer, dancer and Japanese immigrant based in Western Sydney.
• Djon Mundine is a Bunjalung man who is a renowned artist and curator and grew up in Western Sydney.
• Hong An James Nguyen is a former palliative care pharmacist who migrated to Australia as a child and grew up in Western Sydney. He now works as a film and media artist.
• Stephanie Peters is a horticulturalist and artist who lives and works in Western Sydney. She works with textiles, paper and public art.
• Shay Tobin is a Darug man who works in graphic design and photography. He is currently a student of pure mathematics.

Field trip near Shale Hills (photo: Hong An James Nguyen)

We launched the accelerator last week with two days of exploring the park and enabling the artists to get to know each other and understand their respective creative practice.

We also welcomed a number of ‘provocateurs’ who shared with us their knowledge of this place including:

• Leanne Tobin, Darug artist and cultural educator
• Paul Glass, NSW National Parks and Wildlife
• Dave Kirkland, Environment Manager, Western Sydney Parklands Trust
• Joshua French, Director of Planning at Western Sydney Parklands Trust.

The mixture of Indigenous culture, history and heritage, fauna and flora, land management planning and design provided the artists with a greater understanding of the parklands and inspiration for the concepts for arts and cultural projects they will create.

Starting next week participants will spend eight days working either individually or collaboratively to develop projects, living and working together at Western Sydney Parklands (in caravans!).

City People has led this innovative way of developing arts and culture projects over the last ten years. You can learn more about our urban innovation accelerator here and the accelerator creating ideas for Wollongong’s public spaces for the City of Wollongong here.

We will be sharing more about the arts and culture accelerator at Western Sydney Parklands in our blog.

During 2018 City People worked with Tyrrell Design Studio to develop a landscape design framework that incorporated direction for the development of arts and culture in the southern section of the Western Sydney Parklands.

Now we are delighted to be delivering an arts and cultural accelerator for Western Sydney Parklands Trust (WSPT) to put these ideas into action. The accelerator will develop a repertoire of mature arts and cultural project concepts that can be implemented locally, both within and beyond the Parklands

If you are interested in working collaboratively with artists and others who are also passionate about creating projects that reflect the unique nature of the parklands, then read on.

What is an accelerator?

The accelerator is an innovative, structured way of bringing together people with diverse expertise, over a short period of time to develop project ideas about a particular place.  City People has led these processes as a way of developing urban arts projects, public art installations, performances and place-driven activation projects over the last ten years. Check out our most recent one for the City of Wollongong here.

Who is eligible to apply?

• Artists (visual, performing, digital, writing) or other creatives with at least five years’ experience in their field of expertise. 
• Applications from people in professions other than the arts are encouraged.  For example, previous accelerators have included environmentalists, architects, academics and community activists.
• People who have experience in collaborative practice
• People who can commit to full-time attendance on site for the duration of the accelerator

How will participants be selected?

Priority will be given to applicants who:

• live and / or work in Western Sydney
• have experience working in the public domain
• have skills that contribute to the diversity of practice in the participants’ team

Participants will be paid a fee of $4000 (ex-GST) and will be required to work full-time in collaboration with others for a ten-day period in February – March 2020.

Applications close 5pm on the 30th September.

For more information on the accelerator or to submit an application check out details here.

In a paradoxical age of hyper-connectivity and isolation, Waiting for the Swimming Pool is a creative placemaking proposal that highlights the importance of designing communal spaces. This temporary creative placemaking project will bring life and activity to the newly developed Green Square precinct whilst the Gunyama Park Aquatic & Recreation Centre is being built.

​​ The project takes its inspiration from cities around the world using public saunas as ways of reinvigorating under-utilised or unactivated areas. In Gothenburg, for instance, a sauna was recently built in the disused container port as an agent to seed the area’s regeneration into a new urban quarter. In Finland, the City of Helsinki commissioned Löyly, a large-scale public sauna that sought to regenerate a former industrial zone on its seafront. The sauna aims to combat rising levels of anxiety and loneliness in urban environments. It advocates for the prioritisation of better public spaces in Sydney that are affordable, inclusive and contribute to residents’ quality of life. ​

The project was initiated by Studio Rain and is sponsored by 107 Projects and will be built outside City People’s home at the Joynton Ave Creative Centre, a newly completed adaptive reuse project by Peter Stutchbury.  City People will curate a public program of arts and wellness activities at the sauna and there is hope that the structure will eventually find a permanent, or semi-permanent space within the community.  ​

Shortlisted for the My Community Project grant scheme through the NSW government, the project is part of a public vote that engages members of the local electorate to have their say in what they want to see improved or introduced in their community. If you live in the Heffron electorate of NSW and want to see this project brought to life, please follow this link to vote.

But hurry: Voting closes on Aug 15.