About · Renew Newcastle

About

CitySwitch Lab

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CitySwitch is an international exchange between Japan and Australia, where urban designers, architects and artists collaborate over 5 intense days, to collaborate on the creative activation of urban spaces.

CitySwitch Lab invites you to downtown Newcastle to collaborate with a team of architects, ar...

From 4 - 28 February 2010 Brisbane artist Nicola Morton is installing the Spystation NC1074 at Loop Space, offering free workshops on field recordings, digital imaging and German/Japanese language coaching. Workshop participants become part of the exhibition.

Nicola will also be the first Renew Newc...

David Hampton is a full time Fine Art honours student, part time hobby shop worker, and full time bore. He is most succinctly described as a collection of obscure pop culture references and bookish affectations held together by a woollen coat. Even on very hot days….

We asked David to tell us more...

Trine Deans is a printmaking honcho. She delves into the past and resurrects images in a whirlwind of screen-printing gusto.

After four years of fine art study, Trine has finally been released into the steel city jungle, alone, but armed with some survival tactics. So she is often fossicking through...

Rebecca Noel Holmes is a painter, desperately trying to break free from realistic landscape painting.

Rebecca paints and draws. She tells us her new space is "beautiful, very well lit with 3 lovely big windows, perfect for a painter". She says the new space will give her the opportunity and the spac...

Update November 2009: Makspace will be opening in a new shopfront 19 Wolfe St, just opposite David Jones. We'll update with fresh images of their new space as they come. Join them for their grand re-opening on Friday 4 December 5pm-9pm

Update November 2009: Makespace have now moved out of their shop...

Teahouses are almost unheard of in Australia, especially not the European-style teahouse that the ladies from Totoro's are inspired by. Think pre-loved furniture, op shop teapots with hand-knitted tea cosies, mismatched jars and tins storing tea and an old wooden bookcase overflowing with pre-loved ...

Ciao Meow Gallery is an alternative retail shop dedicated to providing an environment for local Newcastle artists and designers to sell or exhibit small artwork and wares. Director Robyn Nunan calls it an ‘alternative retail shop’ because "everything is original, creative and handmade, not mass prod...

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Vox Cyclops is an independent record store specialising in Australian and international underground music, as well as a gallery showcasing experimental works by independent artists.

The gallery & shop space is currently still being fitted-out, a work in progress, so stay tuned for launch dates f...

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ARThive is a brand new artist run initiative based in Newcastle's Hunter Street Mall, consisting of a studio hub housing a number of local artists, and a gallery space for exhibitions, performances, installations, markets and workshops.

We offer an inexpensive exhibition and project space that aims ...

Tanya Fogarty Design is an interior design consultancy with the ability to provide design concepts in the areas of residential, commercial, retail and health care design.

What inspired you to get involved in Renew Newcastle?

When I first heard about the Renew Newcastle project I was really excited t...

Kerrie Fletcher has operated her dance costume design workshop from home for years, and was in desperate need for more space.

Her business is principally involved in the design and making of custom made dance costumes, catering to all dance groups (jazz, tap, ballet, contemporary, etc). She also sel...

Bird in the Hand is an awesome Zine shop, filled with all sorts of literary treasures.

Who are you? Hello, I’m Susy Pow. I’m an ardent defender of zine culture.

What do you do? I’ve been running a zine distro called Bird in the Hand for more than a year from my bedroom in Sydney. Recently the zi...

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Shannon Hartigan is a photographer from Maitland. His work captures the beauty of this land we love to call home, Australia. His passion for landscape photography was ignited during a trip to Central Australia and the Top End in 2003. Inspired by the beautiful scenery he set out with a Pentax Film S...

Mad Hatter Millinery is a beautiful new shop, selling handcrafted hats and accessories - with something to suit all tastes.

Who are you? We at Mad Hatter Millinery are: Maxine Nieuwenhuizen, Susan Mattey, Jennifer O’Brien and Madeleine Sobb. We met at TAFE when we enrolled in the Millinery Certifica...

Art Brasil is a shopfront for unique, hand-made artisan jewellery, crafted locally. The shop will also function as a workshop and studio space, where the artisan will create his jewellery, and will offer free jewellery-making classes.

Hailing from south Brasil, the artisan - Luciano (Lula) - has bee...

Jane Shadbolt is an animator, filmmaker and designer. She makes stopmotion puppet animations and is currently in post-production for the 9 minute epic The Cartographer -- a stopmotion and digital short about a sailor adrift in a lost world. She's also gearing up for some short experimental pieces wh...

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The beanstalk was established two years ago by three friends who were concerned at the lack of access to healthy and safe food for the community. Most people they knew cited affordability as the reason they could not eat organically. There was also very little support given to farmers practicing env...

Tim’s creative works as an editorial stylist have a common mantra of ’shop local’ - aiming to profile the best in homewares, food, lifestyle and fashion from Australia’s Hunter Region. Tim Neve is also the publisher of local titles ‘The Junction’ and ‘Darby’ - the definitive bi-monthly sho...

Solange Kershaw and Damian Castaldi are better known as s o d a c a k e. Solange comes from Paris and Damian’s family comes from Malta. They recently moved from Sydney, Newtown to East Newcastle and live and work down by the park at Colliers Close. Together they have traveled, lived and worked in Sy...

Emma Louise Stronach (Emmeline) is a 29 year old, fourth generation Novocastrian. She runs a small small business which sells educational art and craft kits, as well as custom made plush toys and original artworks. She also runs a weekly market stall at the Farmer's Markets with her friends...

What ...

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Zac Zavos runs an online company which publishes the pop-culture website Lost At E Minor, music discovery website My Secret Playlist and sports opinion site, The Roar...

What inspired you to get involved in Renew Newcastle?

Like many people, I work from home in a spare room. I was inspired to create...

Neon Zoo is a design studio run by Abby Farmer and Clare Gleeson.

What do you do?

At Neon Zoo we thrive on helping businesses connect with their clients through design and visual communication solutions. Neon Zoo offers the services of graphic design, fashion graphics, web design and illustration to...

Heath Killen is a freelance graphic artist and designer based in Newcastle.

Heath has produced work for a diverse range of clients including Tantrum Theatre, Newcastle City Council, University of Newcastle, Amy Vee and Hunter Writer's Centre.

Recently he has had worked published in the Design Is Kin...

What do you do?

I make films and music.

What inspired you to get involved in Renew Newcastle?

A friend sent me a link about the project, and it sounded great. Trying to edit films and mix music in my bedroom isn't much fun, so I joined the Facebook group, sent in an application, as was fortunate eno...

Nicole Chaffey is an oil painter recently graduated from the Advanced Diploma of Fine Art at Newcastle Art School and currently enrolled in the Bachelor of Fine Art at Newcastle University.

Nicole tells us what she thinks about the ARThive gallery and The Hive Studios:

I’m looking forward to broaden...

Angus has recently completed a Diploma of Education (Secondary) at the University of Newcastle to supplement a Bachelor of Fine Arts and Fine Arts Honours degrees at the same institution.

Angus sees the artists collective as a means to help local emerging artist exhibit their works and thoughts at t...

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Sam Hughes is a fine arts student at TAFE, a prolific painter and illustrator, focusing on the utility areas of streetscapes - alleyways, carparks, loading docks and back of shop storage areas.

Simone Sheridan is 25 years old and has recently completed a Bachelor of Fine Art at the University of Newcastle. In 2009 Simone is completing Honours, to further her interest in Arts Administration.

For her Honours studies, Simone is documenting the process of starting an artist collective and arti...

Grant Hunter is a 26 year old Artist/Musician/University student. Co-director of Arthive gallery. He has exhibited locally, as well as in Sydney and Brisbane galleries. His art practice is eclectic, and includes Painting, Drawing, Sculpture, Sound, Video, Installation - often in a comical pop-surrea...

Renew Newcastle has partnered with local ISP Ipera to introduce a free wireless internet service in and around the Hunter Street Mall. This enables our temporary projects to access internet without having to establish broadband or telephone contracts and it enables visitors to the city the convenien...

Once the small inner city St Mark's Catholic Church and an adjacent rectory, this building still sported fading pictures of a sprightly Pope John Paul II when Renew Newcastle took it on. It had been empty so long that when we tried to return a note and a small sum of money to the Church, no one ther...

The Room Project is an architectural exhibtion space created by Newcastle architecture students. For the first show Hunting Grounds 10,000 pieces of timber went into making the floor and there were still cutting timber right up to the 6pm opening.

Hunting grounds, opened on the 21st of February is t...

Newcastle Fashion Week is a not-for-profit event to raise funds for the Cancer Council, as well as provide exposure to young designers, photographers, hair and make-up artists, students and musicians from the Newcastle area. Newcastle Fashion Week is run primarily by current students of the Universi...

Surfhouse Photography is the retail outlet for Alexandra Thompson's surf photography. Before Alex came along and got into the space as through Renew Newcastle it was formerly a chocolate shop and a jeweller. It now features a wall long mural created from one of Alex's photographs.

"I found Renew New...

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DJ SMALLCOCK’S VINYL ARCADE

The vinyl Arcade is a participatory play-set, playing off vinyl fetishism, video arcade mystique and the machismo of motor sports. An immersive sound instrument putting you in the drivers seat of a tiny remote control car with styli attached as it navigates its way thro...

The Australian International Animation Festival tours the country each year, and from 21-24 October 2009 will be bringing the best short animations in the world to Newcastle: 110 films from 26 countries to amaze, delight, amuse and confuse you. From the heartwarming to the bizarre this collection co...

Upcycling is a gallery and workshop featuring art and design that has been refashioned in interesting ways. It's the brainchild of Nick Nelson, a 31 year old graphic designer who recently moved to Newcaslte form Sydney.

Nick works as a graphic designer creating visual designs, identities and systems...

Update November 2009: The SilkHouseARtProjects have ended their cycle in the shopfront in Hunter St Mall. You may see Penny's work in the future in other interesting spaces across the city, as part of the Renew Newcastle initiative. Keep in touch with the artists at info[at]silkhouseartprojects.com

Newcastle House of Photography is a meeting place for anyone interested in art photography. Be that pros or amateurs, students or enthusiasts.

Part of the space will be used to hang exhibition prints & show case local talent as either individual photographers or group works (such as TAFE, Uni or...

Biami Mara is an indigenous art gallery directed and operated by Floyd Tighe.

It is a commercial gallery offering works from local and national indigenous artists.

Biami is the creator and Mara means hand, therefore meaning creator of the hand.

You can read more about Floyd in this article from The...

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Jan 10 Update - the markets were an amazing success for stallholders, and provided much delight for local residents and visitors to the city. While there are no immediate plans to continue the night markets, Justine Bec and Ally will continue with the monthly Olive Tree Markets at The Junction Prima...

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Jan 10 Update - This project has now ended.

UPDATE: PROJECT EXTENDED FOR ONE MORE WEEK - OPEN EVERY DAY 9AM-5PM WITH OFFICIAL CLOSING NIGHT ON FRIDAY 11TH DECEMBER

In the beginning we were four Visual Communication students looking for a space for our end of year exhibition. Our group has grown into...

Jake Penn-Cullen has recently completed final year in Advanced Diploma in Fine Art at Hunter street TAFE Newcastle and is currently working towards having his first solo show.

Tell us about your work, Jake...

The subject of my work often reflects my surroundings; this is the basis for a process that...

Anthony Ferris has just arrived back in Australia from a three month trip in Europe with other Art Students after completing my Advanced Diploma in Fine Art at Newcastle art School.

In 2009 he is enrolled in Bachelor of Fine Art at Newcastle University, majoring in Painting. He is actively involved ...

Jan 10 Update - this installation is now closed.

FREE craft workshops in November with Hunter artist Ken O'Regan, who will help you to create your very own sculptures.

Everyone is welcome - from school aged children to mature artists.

Your unique creations will be illuminated and put on exhibit at t...