Seaside community finds a creative voice

Artists from all walks of life can find inspiration in the greater Byron Bay region.
[This is archived content and may not display in the originally intended format.]

Curious artists considering a sabbatical to Byron Bay can expect to find a rich creative community engaged with self-reflection, advocacy and expression through art.

Renowned contemporary visual artist Angus McDonald works from his studio in Lennox Head, a short distance from Byron Bay, and said the region is dotted with many working artists in Byron and the broader Northern Rivers area.

‘Byron is a bit of a central hub for all the people who come from out of the region, but scattered around Byron are lots of towns that have a lot of artists in them – Brunswick Heads, Bangalow, Lennox Head – and I suppose they’re all satellites of Byron in a way. 

‘It’s a great place to work as a creative person, because there’s a lot of space, there’s not so many distractions,’ he said.

Despite its distance from larger city centres, McDonald said that Byron Bay’s small but dedicated artistic community is engaged across the visual arts, to music, to writing and film. ‘It’s very busy in a sense that there’s a lot of creative people doing work. There’s a lot of diversity of people in the community here, which is quite healthy. 

‘We feel we’ve got the freedom to pursue our creativity without worrying too much about what other people might think of the work,’ he said. 

McDonald said that artists looking to come to the area would benefit from deciding in advance of what kind of experience they would like to have. ‘There’s two types of people in the creative fields up there. The people who have achieved a fairly high level of success when they were a bit younger, and then they’ve come up because they’ve established themselves and can continue to work and live in a fantastic place.

‘The other type of person is the kind of person who is just starting to make it, and wants to pursue their creative ambitions. For those people, if they’re serious, they generally have to go to the city and either go to university and just be in that community where it is much more dynamic and busy. For most creative people who decide to move up here, it’s a lifestyle choice,’ he said. 

McDonald said he had worked 10 years full time when deciding to move to the region in 2001. ‘There are numerous advantages of moving here. It’s much cheaper than living in the city. It’s much easier to find a studio space because there’s more space up here.

‘In that sense it’s a great place to live. As an artist, it’s a lot cheaper to exist and produce your art,’ he said.

‘[But] as with any regional place in Australia, you’ve got to get yourself to the city to make a footprint there.’ 

Visit the Legendary Byron website for more information about the visual arts community in Byron Bay. 

Troy Nankervis
About the Author
Troy Nankervis is an ArtsHub journalist from Melbourne. Follow him on twitter @troynankervis