The NSW government and the City of Sydney will join forces to create a pool of affordable working spaces for artists and creatives currently locked out of Sydney by soaring rents. In an Australian first, an independent charitable trust is set to be established to secure rehearsal and studio space through property purchases or long-term leases. It’s part of a broader strategy being developed by the City of Sydney to retain the city’s cultural lifeblood, which is likely to see it boost cultural spending by $20 million over the next decade.
Hayes Theatre Company rehearsing in the City of Sydney’s creative studios on Bathurst Street on Wednesday. It features 30 spaces across five storeys of the Greenland Centre and includes rehearsal spaces, recording and editing suites, visual art studios, workshop and screening rooms. Credit: Steven Siewert Sydney’s proposed Creative Land Trust is closely modelled on the same-name scheme launched by the City of London in 2019 to fix its acute shortage of rehearsal and studio spaces.
The scheme involves allowing properties gifted or transferred by public or private landowners to working artists, musicians and writers at a subsidised rate. Council analysis of the 2021 census found the number of artists, musicians, writers in greater Sydney fell by 11.6 per cent when in every other capital city the population of creatives had increased, showing the impact of rising property prices on the creative sector.
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