The recent
Hunter Valley Research Foundation Lecture given by Renew
Newcastle founder Marcus Westbury has unexpectedly garnered a
lot of media attention around the world for its analysis and
response to the problem of dysfunctional commercial property
markets.
Renew Newcastle featured on last night's edition of
Stateline, NSW.
It's a great story on a project that according to host Quentin
Dempster has "recycled, reinvigorated, revived, revitalised,
recreated and reimagnied the city."
"Bird in the Hand is one of many spaces involved
in the Renew Newcastle project which is bringing life back to
Newcastle’s CBD by connecting artists and other cultural projects
with the owners of vacant or disused spaces."
Standing in Makespace, one of Newcastle’s most
colourful and eclectic new stores, it’s hard to imagine this was an
empty, ugly eyesore just six months ago. But this beast-to-beauty
makeover is being happily repeated throughout the CBD as part of a
project to breathe life back into the city centre.
Known as Renew Newcastle, the idea is simple: use derelict and
abandoned shopfronts to house loc...
Floyd Tighe collected traditional Aboriginal art
for more than 20 years, not for its investment value but, because
it tells the history of his Aboriginal culture.
Never in those 20-or-so years had he ever consid-ered opening
his own gallery but now Tighe is the proud operator of Newcastle’s
first all-Aboriginal art gallery – Biami Mara.
Biami Mara, which means Creation Spirit in the tradition...
What becomes of a once-mighty centre of industry
when the businesses fail or move away, and the jobs evaporate?
In this era of industrial decline, it is a question being asked
of many places around the world. In the former steel town of
Newcastle, there were over a hundred vacant shops and offices on
the main shopping strip. But, six months ago television presenter
and writer, Marcus Westbury set...
WHEN Marcus Westbury was a boy growing up in Newcastle, his
grandmother would take him shopping in Hunter Street, then the
thriving retail spine of the city.
Today Novocastrians do their shopping at mega-shopping malls
sprinkled through the suburbs. There are more than 100 empty shops
in the CBD and even the grand Victorian sandstone post office, once
the proud centrepiece of NS...
Marcus Westbury is changing part of his
original home town of Newcastle from a dead zone of empty shops to
a vibrant precinct of artists, craftspeople, architects and
jewellers.