For anyone taking a first look at the burgeoning arts activity currently underway at the PIAZZA Fremantle precinct in the heart of Fremantle/Walyalup in Western Australia, they’ll likely read it as a fairytale story that happens only once in a lifetime (if you’re lucky).
But on closer inspection, this innovative new venture is perhaps best described as a super-smart business strategy that could also be a blueprint for other entrepreneurs to ignite arts spaces in their own communities, boost social connectedness and give young, emerging artists some much-needed financial support.
PIAZZA Fremantle – quick links
Practical business model with artists at its core
In a first for WA (if not for the nation), this new arts-business model has been realised through the investment and vision of Western Australian-born, New York-based businesswoman Bronwyn Owen – who purchased PIAZZA’s 2800-square-metre buildings for $12.5 million in September last year with the intention of transforming its expansive (but then almost derelict) courtyard spaces into a thriving hub of arts, food and cultural activity.
Almost 12 months on from her epic purchase, PIAZZA is still, in many ways, a work in progress, with some of its 36 tenanted spaces yet to be leased, and various unrealised projects in the pipeline.
However, since its soft-launch and first ever exhibition in December 2025, there is an undeniable feeling that PIAZZA is activating previously latent spaces near Fremantle/Walyalup’s busy cappuccino strip, while offering vital sales and profile-raising opportunities for numerous emerging artists.
As Owen tells ArtsHub, her vision for PIAZZA is underpinned by her belief in art as a central component in thriving communities, as well as by her knowledge of how commercial activity can be used to strategically sustain these less financially viable arts activities.
‘The [conventional] commercial leasing model actually doesn’t make much sense to me in terms of squeezing people for rent,’ Owen says.
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‘Instead, what I’m doing here is using a business model that allows the property’s outside street-facing [commercial, retail and hospitality] tenants to pay for the inside PIAZZA [subsidised art studios and exhibition spaces].
‘So PIAZZA runs more like a co-op,’ she says, adding that eventually, she plans for any revenue PIAZZA makes from its arts activities to go back into its programming and in time, it can start offering artists a percentage of the profits from those activities.
Aside from its range of cross-arts, design, fashion and street food enterprises, PIAZZA is also home to a small gallery space that charges emerging artists only peppercorn hire fees (a standard $200 for two weeks) and, importantly, also provides facilitation support from more experienced WA artists and producers.
PIAZZA’s current coordinator is WA artist Sam Bloor, and as he explains, his current role includes offering this kind of support to emerging artists, many of whom are showing their work for the first time in PIAZZA’s gallery.
‘The kind of artists we are focused on showing in the gallery are those who may not have come from academic, university degree arts training,’ Bloor says.
‘Part of my role is being around to suggest things they’ll need to think about when they are having their first-ever exhibition.’
Common tips Bloor offers artists include how to create exhibition floor sheets, and how to prepare for potential sales on opening night.
‘This straightforward guidance is actually a really important part of how we can help emerging artists start showing and selling their work.’
Strong support from local community will be vital to long-term success
Another key component underlying PIAZZA’s initial success is the willingness of its local community to show up and enthusiastically support its programming.
Speaking to ArtsHub just hours before a recent AFL Western Derby night-game, Bloor commented on the loyalty shown by many Fremantle/Walyalup local residents who, while torn between the footy and a PIAZZA show opening, were choosing to be at PIAZZA, rather than the big game.
‘Some people have contacted me to say, “Look I do really want to go to the footy, but I also feel like if I want these kinds of arts events to keep happening in my community, I have to show up for them”.
‘I think that kind of support is also really important to what PIAZZA can achieve, and how we can continue to grow.’
Public artworks a big pull for new audiences
Perhaps the final most prominent factor behind PIAZZA’s initial popularity is its passionate embrace of public mural art as a key vehicle through which to spark the interest and imaginations of passers-by and draw them in to its many arts offerings.
So far, Owen has commissioned five permanent, large-scale mural works for PIAZZA’s external walls – inviting a mix of international and local artists to contribute to the precinct’s distinctive physical presence in the heart of Fremantle/Walyalup.
Highlight works include French artist AERO’s intricate Delft-china coloured montage scene, which is largely inspired by the area’s maritime history, including the 17th century Batavia shipwreck, which occurred on the Abrolhos Islands and remains one of WA’s most sordid tales of death and survival from early European maritime exploration.
Another work is by local artist Adam Cicanese (also known as Row or Artbyrow) and shows a large white cat peering at its own reflection in a partially obscured mirror. As the artist recently commented on Instagram, the composition deliberately shows only a partial view of the cat’s reflection in a clever nod to PIAZZA’s still-evolving identity.
Evidently, this style of large-scale mural art is of special interest for PIAZZA’s owner and director, who says the precinct will soon present its own mural art festival – PIAZZA Walls, planned to run from 27 November to 13 December this year – in collaboration with WA mural artist Jerome Davenport (aka Ketones 6000) who spearheads the No More Blank Walls initiative.
‘The [mural art] festival is going to be huge,’ Owen says. ‘We’ll have a range of international and local artists involved in a line-up that has never been done before – so it will be a big first.’
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Additionally, PIAZZA will soon open a permanent Children’s Art Museum (not unlike the Children’s Museum of the Arts in New York), and host a range of small-scale outdoor performing arts performances.
‘The plan is also that PIAZZA will also become an intimate performance venue,’ Owen says. ‘Because I want there to be things like opera in PIAZZA, jazz in PIAZZA, and folk [music] in PIAZZA.’
‘Fundamentally, it’s about building partnerships with artists and groups of artists to support that kind of arts activity and allow me to incubate new and emerging talent. That’s really what this is all about,’ she says.
