Circus Oz’s $10 million to Collingwood

  

When Circus Oz chair Wendy McCarthy spoke to ArtsHub about the recent funding coup that has come their way courtesy of the state government, where they will now receive $10 million to begin refurbishing the site of the former TAFE college on Johnston Street, Collingwood, that will from 2012 be home, she says she was always optimistic and always thought they would get the money.

“I though the issue was not whether we would get it, but how much money we would get” McCarthy says circumspectly.

However she was confident that Circus Oz had such a good case it was almost “intolerable” that after nine years of Circus Oz “behaving perfectly in their discourse with government about this money” that they would be knocked back again.

So she said part of the strategy was to make sure they took the high moral ground – and they were successful. This $10 million comes on top of a recent $3 million allocated in the May budget for design work and feasibility studies on the site.

The funding is however contingent on the fact that the current Labor government is voted back in, during these upcoming elections. However McCarthy when asked if she had any concerns if a Liberal State Government was voted in this November, said she had talked to the Leader of the Opposition who had also attended the launch of the Spiegeltent on the new site, and as neither she, nor Circus Oz were aligned to a political party, she did feel quite confident that the opposition government would support the latest funding development for Circus Oz.

As far as McCarthy and Circus Oz are concerned this issue is and should be bi-partisan, particularly since Circus Oz has been transparent about what it does, she says.

“It is an asset to the state and I think both sets of government understand that. They [Circus Oz] have waited in the cue patiently while other projects got up, and now I think it’s their turn.”

It’s not entirely clear yet what the $10 million will do says McCarthy. Circus Oz does now have their footprint on the site, the Spiegeltent is there, and all the structural covenants and regulation from various parts of government have been removed. So everything is clear for Circus Oz to redevelop the site. A master plan is also already under development by architects Lovell Chen, whose previous work includes the restoration of the State Library of Victoria and Flinders Street Station.

What isn’t quite clear is how they are planning to stage the work and according to McCarthy, this may not be clear for another couple of months because there still may be significant work involved in measuring the level of contamination (if any) of the site, which still has to be tested.

The reason why this issue of contamination may become a potential headache for Circus Oz is because the location was originally a Tafe building that taught heavy industrial work.

“Yes, we have to be clear on that” McCarthy says, “and the cost may vary from $5 to $5 million” depending on what is found.

For McCarthy this is the only unknown, because if there was no contamination, then the $10 million would be a substantial amount to almost complete the fit out, although McCarthy does still envision the need for Circus Oz to raise some money privately through a fundraising campaign, which is something they have always made clear to the government.

Of course if there is a significant level of contamination, then that $10 million would be eaten into. However once again McCarthy speaks with optimism.

“If the money was to be used for the finishing off and fitting out that’s one thing, but if it has to be used for something more than that, then we will have to deal with it when it comes. But it will substantially get us planned, built and almost ready to go within two years”.

And as McCarthy sums up “Everyone’s vision can just become more expansive about what Circus Oz can do. Circus arts is such an accessible way of bringing people into the performing arts. And with Circus Oz and NICA in Melbourne, it just enhances the idea that Victoria would become the centre of circus in Australia.”

Stay tuned next week as ArtsHub speaks to Circus Oz' Artistic Director and co-CEO Mike Finch about what exactly is planned for the Collingwood site.