News

Behind the scenes [18.11.2008]

Our call for proposals was an outstanding success! At last count we had over 50 proposals submitted from artists, craftspeople and community groups with amazing ideas that will start to bring some life back to Newcastle's CBD.

As you can imagine it takes a bit of time to sort through 50 proposals. We've been busily trying to match these ideas to properties that we think might be suitable. As Renew Newcastle doesn't actually own or control any of the properties ourselves, we've spent the last few weeks trying to convince sympathetic property owners that they should lend us spaces for some of these projects. The good news is that we are pretty sure that some of them will be finding homes soon.

Right now we're matching our first properties to projects and notifying people as we go.

Unfortunately, the majority of projects are not going to be in a space in a hurry. There is no way we are going to find spaces for all 50 projects overnight but as we get ourselves a little more established will be working closely with everyone who has submitted an idea to us to refine their concepts and seek out spaces.

We'd ask everyone to be a little patient and understand that the process will take a while. It's taken many, many, many years for Newcastle's CBD to get this way so don't be surprised if it takes a little time to turn around - particularly givent that Renew Newcastle is still run 100% by volunteers who are squeezing it around their day jobs.

Stay tuned for some exciting announcements!