Art Out and About
Artspace studios and gallery, Woolloomooloo
It’s true; painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen, as the renaissance artist, inventor and genius, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), stated.
He would have loved the new Woolloomooloo artists’ collective and workhouse called Artspace opposite Harry’s Cafe de Wheels in Woolloomooloo. It occupies the heritage-listed former Royal Australian Naval Gunnery where it stored ammunition and had a firing range. This three-storey brick building was at one stage, officially, a ship named HMAS Mindan.
It was originally designed as a bulk store for The Sydney Morning Herald during the early years of the twentieth century. During WW11 it was acquired by the Commonwealth Government for defence purposes and used as a gunnery instruction centre between 1945-8 with a domed simulator in the roof. Trainees practiced their shooting skills here. It then morphed into a naval film laboratory and then a cinema. In 1975 it was provisionally a community centre, then transferred to the Housing Commission of NSW in 1984 and leased to groups of artists. After 1991 it was leased to the Ministry for the Arts and underwent refurbishment in 1992.
$9.2 million later is provides a gallery and popular artists’ studio and exhibition space for ArtSpace with office accommodation. The gallery is just one of over two dozen galleries in the Potts Point and 2011 postcode area.
Although remodeled inside over the years, it still contains mammoth industrial, load-bearing, wooden structural pier beams with huge metal bolts, an indication of its past lives. Its façade retains original, large, tall openings and towers, reinforcing its fortress-like appearance. Some walls are made of three-foot thick concrete.
An elegant and handsome bust of Franco Belgiorno-Nettis AC, CBE, Hon. D.Sc. (1915-2006), an Italian immigrant who later became an industrial mogul and head of Transfield Industries, once stood in the northern former entrance alcove. Transfield is the largest construction and engineering firm in the Southern Hemisphere. He helped set up the centre as well as the Sydney Biennale and has been described as a modern Medici.
Artspace, a not-for-profit organisation, has been granted a 35-year lease on the site and showcases works of new and emerging artists including Indigenous artists.
The current inaugural exhibition is by Wiradyuri and Kamilaroi artist, Jonathon Jones. Two-storey high art banners by Dennis Golding embrace this prominent corner site.
Artspace is one of the leading institutions for the production and presentation of contemporary art in the Asia Pacific.
By Andrew Woodhouse
Heritage Solutions
Artspace
The Gunnery
43-51 Cowper Wharf Road
Woolloomooloo NSW 2011
Opening hours Tuesday- Sunday 11am to 5pm
Contact ph (02) 9356 0555
