CuriousWorks Moves Into Randle St

Good morning, Curious Folk.

As I write this, the blinds of the Newspoll building opposite are still down and the lines for coffee at the many cafes below and around us are just starting to lengthen. On the fourth floor of our own building, we are almost level with the heights of bulky apartment blocks jostling down Cooper Road. The Australia Council’s balconies fill out the view appropriately. This is our new office - at the edge of Central Station, Slurry side.

Over on the other side of the warehouse, across a small fire escape shared with a seemingly married couple of tailors, is a much larger room that will flood with the afternoon sun. Its windows take you out and over the 24 plus platforms of Central Station, through to Sydney University, or Darling Harbour, or the rest of the city as the eye stretches to remap familiar sights from a new position. This is our new project and (most intimate) performance space. For myself - the Director of CuriousWorks - and Peter, our new Online Director - it is our full-time work space.

We’ve never had this before. I’ve run CuriousWorks out of the living rooms of shared houses in Homebush, Ashfield, Glebe and Surry Hills, amidst dance rehearsals, BBQ’s, parties, band rehearsals and increasingly large groupings of paper and digital media equipment. While that has made little to no money, I’ve worked for other non-profits in the arts, politics, community and social entrepreneurship industries.  I’ve always thought that CuriousWorks had done well so far, considering the lack of resources in space and time.

Now we have no excuse. We have the space to work, to collaborate, to discuss, refine and implement, to showcase and build and pack away. Both Peter and I have full-time jobs and a (small but existent) salary.

Over the next 12 months, CuriousWorks will finally get the chance to carve out the space it belongs in. We have, I believe, innovative programs that blend and reinvigorate education, contemporary art, new technologies and community arts. We’re at Miller Technology every week for the rest of the year, apart from a 5 week intensive in the Pilbara. We’ve already built some exciting tech at Casula that will evolve and be implemented in many different spaces, real and virtual, as the year progresses. The foundations are definitely there for a mind blowing year.

I can’t wait to see what happens.