Junction Arts: Empty shopfronts and businesses revitalised through art

Confetti by Big One Little One. Picture: Tom L. Griffiths

JUNCTIONARTSFESTIVAL.COM.AU

ALBERT HALL, 45 TAMAR STREET/PO BOX 5376, LAUNCESTON TASMANIA 7250 AUSTRALIA

EMPTY SHOPFRONTS AND BUSINESSES REVITALISED THROUGH ART

Closed business spaces to be reinvigorated with artworks next week during

Junction Arts Festival, 10 – 14 September, 2014

LAUNCESTON, FRIDAY 5 SEPTEMBER, 2014— Empty shopfronts, retail spaces and other spaces formerly used by foreclosed businesses will be reinvigorated with colourful, bright and innovative artworks as part of Launceston’s Junction Arts Festival from 10 – 14 September, 2014.

From an installation combining the unlikely subjects of climate change and karaoke, to a jewellery workshop using old clocks and watches, to an all-night live music venue dubbed The Junc Room are among the artistic ventures taking place in abandoned business and retail spaces during the Festival. In recent years, Tasmania’s economy has seen a decline resulting in many businesses folding. In particular, retail spaces have been hardest hit when coupled with Tasmania’s remoteness from industry centres and the increase in online shopping.

“Tasmania is facing some challenges at the moment and what that means is that we have to work even harder to ensure that economic engine drivers like our CBD remain viable,” said Launceston Mayor Albert van Zetten. “One of the ways the Council is doing that is through its City Heart project, which is essentially about revitalising infrastructure but also about finding creative uses for underutilised public spaces.

“Every year Junction Arts Festival brings a selection of these spaces to life; makes them places that attract people, where there’s noise and colour and movement. We want to see if we can do that all the time. The most obvious example is Civic Square, but there are other. Junction uses art and performance to change a space. As a Council, we’ll use infrastructure. But infrastructure doesn’t have to be boring – it has colours, textures, patterns, and design elements as well.”

Junction Arts Festival Director Natalie De Vito said: “For decades, developing cultural capital has supported regional development and rejuvenated cities in economic decline – like with Bilbao’s Guggenheim or, more locally, like Hobart’s MONA helping foster stronger economies.

“In New South Wales, Renew Newcastle spawned a nation-wide reconsideration of alternative modes of reactivating city centres through temporary pop-up spaces. In a similar way, Junction Arts Festival’s pop-up art works and installations revitalise our cities unused business spaces and contributes to rejuvenating Launceston’s CBD, supporting liveability, economic growth and community development,” she said.

During the Festival, artist and photographer Kim Lehman will reflect on Launceston’s tough economic climate in photographic exhibition half empty, half full. A series of photo-journalistic images of empty retail spaces that make up the current landscape of Launceston’s CBD will be presented digitally and looped on large monitors and installed in three empty shopfronts. The project highlights the concentration of empty tenancies, reinforcing the need to activate disused spaces and engage in discussion about alternate uses for empty buildings.

“City centres the world over are currently experiencing a period of rapid change, primarily due IT-enabled de-centralisation,” said Andrew Pitt, Manager of Neil Pitt’s Menswear, a retail store that has been established in Launceston for 65 years and will house Junction Arts Festival’s designer-in-residence Isis St Pierre’s project Rogue Tailor of Neil Pitt’s.

“It’s possible that the adverse effects of this are being felt most acutely by regional cities. We’d encourage businesses like ours to explore the potential benefits of thinking laterally to engage a new audience through arts-focused partnerships,” he said.

“Junction is very much a community-first arts festival that partners with different sectors to explore possibilities. We have traditionally been a traditional retailer, but this year, through our partnership with Junction and our artist-in-residence Isis St Pierre, it feels like we’ve expanded our horizons as a business into a more creative space. This in turn will help us to engage new customers,” he said.

Junction Arts Festival will energise Launceston, Tasmania from Wednesday 10 – Sunday 14 September, 2014 with five days of unexpected art adventures weaving through the city. From a lightning fast birthday party, to bands playing in household backyards, to 7 metre-tall inflatable bunnies and bicycle-powered karaoke machines, Junction Arts Festival offers intimate one-on-one encounters, high energy spectacles and an all manner of things in-between.

Providing a completely unique event in Tasmania, Junction Arts Festival proves that art doesn’t begin and end at theatres, museums and galleries. Featuring a bold program of engaging performances by local Tasmanian, national and international artists and musicians, Junction Arts Festival aims to highlight, celebrate and redefine the way people see the city of Launceston, creating site-specific works for seldom used spaces and interactive works, in which anyone can get involved and help create the art.

Junction Arts Festival runs 10 – 14 September, 2014 in sites all over Launceston, Tasmania. For more information and tickets visit junctionartsfestival.com.au or call 03 6331 1309.

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Timothy Jones Publicist