Located on a rooftop in Canberra's city centre, a new event space is inviting Canberrans back into the local arts scene and could bring new life into the city's struggling night-time economy.
The Blank Cultural Platform, a collaboration between arts organisations the Blank Corporation and You Are Here, is accessed by stairs from the ground floor of an unassuming office building at 131 City Walk.
Blank and You Are Here have converted two floors from vacant office space into an active arts hub, featuring studios for artists, a gallery, and a rooftop music venue.
Since early May, the rooftop of the Blank Cultural Platform has opened on Saturday nights for events hosted by local musicians. So far, these events have featured a variety of art forms and genres such as contemporary jazz, live painting, alternative rock, and dance music.
Last Saturday, June 13, more than four hundred Canberrans attended a twelve-hour electronic music event run by local music collective Gold Dust. This was the venue's highest turnout yet.
Founders of Gold Dust, Hayden Starr and Callum O'Donnell, said Blank provides "access to an incredible well of talent and experience".
"Canberra's music and arts community is talented and passionate, but what we've been missing for a long time is a central hub that brings our fragmented scene together," they said. "Blank has provided that."
Submissions to the ACT Legislative Assembly inquiry into the night-time economy said venues in the city are suffering from a number of growing issues unique to the ACT. These include steep insurance premiums, high alcohol licensing costs and limited access to late-night public transport.
Operators felt their concerns were not addressed by the ACT government's response, which attributed the decline of the Canberra night-time economy to "changing consumer attitudes towards alcohol."
In May, local music magazine Red Ink hosted the music event Baby Crawl between the Blank rooftop and nearby bar Dissent, featuring bands and DJs from Canberra. Jayden Barling, founder of Red Ink, said Blank is making a valuable contribution to the local nightlife and arts scene, which "struggle[s] for consistency."
"Venues close, artists move to cities with more opportunity... It's an issue that needs to be addressed if we want our creative sector to thrive," Mr Barling said.
Besides the rooftop venue, the Blank Cultural Platform is offering a space for artists to work. You Are Here, operating out of the first floor, provides open-plan studios, public workshops, and one-on-one mentoring for artists at any stage of their career.
On the second floor, Blank's co-working and office spaces give budding artists room to grow their careers, as well as participate in 'activation labs' for building branding and networks.
Local operators are advocating for more investment into the arts from the ACT government to ensure venues and artists are incentivised to stay in Canberra. You Are Here receives $80,000 in funding from ArtsACT to support the art space, while Blank operates with the help of a sponsorship from the ACT City Renewal Authority.
Elvis Gleeson, founder of Blank, said that "we're extremely grateful because funding is really tight in this city, but when you're running four-hundred-person events, and setting up a co-working space and managing real-estate relationships, it's quite tricky".
"We're really only capped by funding right now. The amount of demand we've got in the project is enormous, and we do everything we can to facilitate as much of it as possible," Mr Gleeson said.
Founder of You Are Here, Ketura Budd, said "artists shouldn't have to leave [Canberra] out of necessity because the opportunities don't exist here... That's something that we focus on, providing excellently paid opportunities for artists where we can".
You Are Here's Creative workshops start at 131 City Walk next week, while Blank's co-working creative space will launch in late June. The Blank rooftop will continue to open for ticketed music events on Saturdays.
