News

Bus Projects, one of Melbourne’s longest running independent art spaces, is on the move and is celebrating with a huge closing party at their home of nine years in Little Lonsdale Street on Saturday 20th March.

Melbourne’s art community are banding together to show their support for this pivotal sound/art/experimental music venue with performances from local outfits including Snawklor (Nathan Gray, Dylan Martorell + Duncan Blachford), Gugg, Super Star and Fatti Frances alongside DJ’s Helen Johnston and Jason Heller with Lulu Quintella and a performance piece by Sian and the Velantas.

Artists including Norkiro Nakamura and Nat McQuade will be kicking off a wall-art installation in the gallery, which will be open to party goers to make their mark on a huge mural inside the soon to be demolished building.

Opening in 2001, Bus Projects is an independent art space with a focus on artists engaged in a spatial art practice. That is, any practice that uses its environment as a context to its staging such as sound art, performance, installation, video and the cross-pollination of these forms. Bus Projects continues to take an active role in the professional development of artists and curators through range of workshops and forums and all is not over for this seminal arts space. The team at Bus Projects are in the process of purchasing and transforming a fully operational passenger bus into an exciting new public arts space – allowing them to reach a larger audience, literally wherever Bus may take them. The “Bus Bus” will operate alongside a yet to be realised new gallery space in the inner city, so stay tuned!

In the meantime, get down to Bus Projects Closing Party from 4pm on Saturday 20th March. Tickets are $10 each and are strictly limited so be quick!

It’s been coming for a while, but we’re sad to announce that after nine years this show will be the last Bus Projects show to be held at our space at 177 Little Lonsdale Street.

For several years now our landlord, Wesley Mission, has been making plans to demolish our premises to make way for a multi-story office block and we’ve been hunting like mad for a space for two years, unsure of what the exit day would be. So while we knew we’d have to move one day, and we’re been working solidly and unsuccessfully for two years to find a new venue, dates were loose and operations of the gallery continued as usual.

In December 2009 those plans were made official and we were given a date of 21st March to vacate our premises.

As some of you will know, the current ARI model is one which functions well if rents are low allowing the organisation to offer affordable exhibition space to artists. High rents mean that fees for exhibition space rise to the point where they are unaffordable to artists and the ARI model collapses.

In the absence of funding for rental expenses the only option is for an ARI to find a location where rental rates – in reference to the current premises – are 10% of the market rate. A task that is near impossible to achieve under any reasonable, time-restricted scenario.

Far from being a nail in our coffin, we are choosing to make this news a catalyst for a radical change in how Bus operates.

As they say, “It ain’t over till the fat lady sings”

So while we haven’t given up on the hunt for a bricks-and-motar premises, no home means we need to take things to the street. Literally.

We’ve commissioned a mobile exhibition space to be created in the form of a custom fitted Bus (wasn’t it obvious?).

Scheduled to open in May, the new mobile Bus (and all the associated puns) is going to open up a host of exciting new opportunities.

Stay tuned for details of appearances.

In the meantime, we still need volunteers to help us get things ready, we’re still running forums (details for the next one is due in the next day or so), and things are still full steam ahead.

Hey, we’ve got a closing party to organise and it’s going to be massive!

Thanks for all your support over the years and we hope you can keep it coming.

Wednesday 3rd March, 6:30pm, Free
117 Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne
Refreshments will be served

With

Melinda Martin – Melinda is the Artist Business Manager at AbaF. She holds several qualifications including a Masters Degree (Fine Arts & Cinema Studies) from the University of Melbourne and a Post Graduate Certificate in Museum Studies from Deakin University. Her experience within the arts industry includes Gallery Manager at Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne and Program Manager and Acting Director at Monash Gallery of Art.

Rhett D’Costa – Born in Bombay, India, Rhett D’Costa studied a Bachelor of Arts [Fine Art, Painting] and a Master of Arts [by Research] at RMIT University in Melbourne. He currently lectures in Painting at RMIT University. D’Costa has participated in many solo and group exhibitions including; Carte Blanche – A Drawing Exhibition, Alliance Francaise, Singapore,1999; Works on Paper, Sungshin Museum, Seoul, Korea 2000; Possible Worlds, Switchback Gallery, Monash University, Gippsland, 2007 and; Drawing Of The World/World of Drawing, Museum of Art, Seoul National University, 2009.

Chaired by
Tim Webster – Artist and Chair of Bus Projects

It seems being an artist these days is more administration than inspiration. How does tax work? What business structures are available? How do you market your work? How can you build a base of collectors? Most importantly, how do you create a sustainable practice as an artist and make some money?

This is an interactive panel discussion with expert presenters. Everyone who comes along will receive an information kit containing fact sheets and guides to services available to artists.

This event is free, but places are strictly limited to 50 people so please

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This forum is part of a series of discussions, workshops and forums staged by Bus Projects. Look out for:
17th March – Where are they now? Musings from previous Bus artists