Creative Spaces Sydney and Cloth Fabric

Last Wednesday night I met up with some friends to attend the Cloth Fabric store opening in Darlinghurst. It was fun, of course, to catch up with friends and see Julie's fabrics and gorgeous store. What I really enjoyed were the speeches (bizarre, right?).

I heard all about the vision for Sydney 2030 and found out that the new Cloth Fabric store is the first of the Creative Spaces Sydney retail stores on William St in Darlinghurst . The City of Sydney is aiming to develop cultural precincts by activating underutilised space on Oxford St and William St by offering creative individuals and organisations affordable rental across sixteen City-owned properties, including retail and office spaces. The City of Sydney has also dedicated six one-bedroom apartments on William Street as artist live/work spaces, offering affordable rental for artists to both live and work in their own space, with more to come on Oxford St. How great!

Sydney has also now been included in the Creative Spaces website, designed to help artists and creative enterprises find a suitable space to develop, exhibit or perform their work. It is a free classifieds-style website offering a broad spectrum of spaces for hire ranging from established spaces such as theatres, rehearsal rooms and galleries to studios and short-term space. The City of Sydney will be listing its own creative spaces on this website too.

Julie has done a wonderful job with her new retail space, which used to be a Ferrari showroom. The outside courtyard has been transformed into a yarn-bombed creative space with poms, knitting, crochet and paint adorning the benches, trees and bike racks. It will be great to see William St transform into a cultural precinct and kudos to Julie for leading the way.

Head over to the Sydney 2030 website for more information.

Images: Cloth Fabric