A stone’s throw away from Sydney’s Town Hall and Gadigal station, the City of Sydney Creative Studios offers 30 studio spaces that can be used by musicians, performing artists, visual artists and digital artists.
On any given day, you might find rehearsals for theatre productions, writing collectives or composers working on the music for video games. There’s even a live-in and work apartment available, something that helped Dylan Goh earlier this year.
The street dancer is the producer of the Palette Session, a not-for-profit experimental dance collective in Sydney and Seoul. For him, the City of Sydney’s Creative Studios meant he could house visiting international artists in the apartment, and simultaneously run workshops in the rehearsal studios downstairs.
‘This project was only possible because of the subsidised venue hire and accommodation for artists, and generous support from skilled technicians,’ Goh says.
City of Sydney Creative Studios – quick links
A space for artists and creative businesses
Brand X has been running the studios on behalf of the City of Sydney since 2022, and the multifaceted strategy for the site sets artists side-by-side with arts organisations and creative businesses.
Tenancies are available for Sydney-based arts organisations like the National Association for the Visual Arts and MusicNSW, while arts businesses can take advantage of the chance to rent a location right in the heart of the city.
Rennan Dizon runs The Figure Room, a life drawing class, in the building’s seventh-floor visual arts workshop. ‘City of Sydney Creative Studios has been the perfect space,’ she says.
The benefit for her is flexibility: she can adapt the layout and set up of the room to suit each experience, and ensure she’s building a safe and inclusive environment.
‘Having a blank canvas to work with has allowed me to experiment with lighting, music, visuals and atmosphere, creating something that feels more immersive and ambient,’ she says.
‘The feedback from attendees has also been incredibly positive, with many commenting on the space itself, as well as the convenience of its central location.’
Embedding art in the heart of the city
Brand X Director James Winter explains that the studios are part of the City of Sydney’s commitment to the local creative sector.
‘The outcome of a Voluntary Planning Agreement with the property developer Greenland, Sydney now has a creative workspace hub in the CBD for a 99-year peppercorn lease,’ he says.
‘What this means for artists is access to top-shelf equipment, specialist support and a large community of creatives making work in a location usually reserved for the business community.’
Hundreds of creatives now access the City of Sydney Creative Studios in any given month, and Brand X puts the interest down to two main factors. Firstly, the state-of-the-art studios tell artists that their work is valued – and valuable. Secondly, spaces can be booked by the hour, meaning that artists can access facilities on demand and at a subsidised price.
Brand X also runs various initiatives to support the creative community, from its subscription-based Artist Pass program for arts organisations, to its multi-disciplinary residency and performance programs for artists. This includes commissioning artists to make work for the entrance of the building, enlivening the Bathurst Street window and on-site Ok Cool café.
As Winter says, it’s all about ensuring ‘Australia’s major city has artists embedded at its heart’.
