Rrrr-rage against the violence of Gentrification and the Casino-ification of Brisbane – Proposed sale of the Metro Arts building – Have Your Say
Please share with your artist/artist-run peers, friends and colleagues.
Dirk Yates
Wed, 5 Dec
Hi Paul,
I am writing to you about the recently announced sale of the Metro Arts building, and I was wondering if you would be interested in distributing the text below to your contacts involved in the Brisbane arts community. Note the survey closes this Friday.
On Monday of last week the CEO and board of Metro Arts announced their intention to sell the six-storey premises at 109 Edward Street Brisbane City. Almost 40 years ago the federal government established the organisation in the building, and almost 20 years ago granted funding to Metro Arts for the purchase of the building. The CEO and board have engaged the real-estate firm JLL to negotiate the sale of the CBD building and to find the organisation a new home. What form the new home will take, or its location, is yet to be announced.
Displacing this important institution from the centre of the city is disappointing. Uniquely combining theatre, visual arts, cinema, rehearsal spaces, studios, a café, restaurant & bar, Metro Arts is well suited to being in the city (as its name suggests), and in a facility of this scale. In the past 40 years the building has not been suitably maintained. Despite the staff’s best efforts it has not had adequate infrastructure funding for a facility of this type, nor the organisational structure to manage a piece of infrastructure of this scale. Resolving issues of safety, equitable access, and sustainability need to be addressed.
While moving to a new building certainly has its advantages; the familiar result is the potential to lose another piece of Brisbane’s cultural heritage.
It can be difficult to maintain what we value, but this can be made easier if the community voices their interests and concerns.
You can respond to the proposed sale via the survey prepared by Metro Arts’ here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/YG2WYL9
It closes this Friday!
And you can read Metro’s full press release here: https://www.metroarts.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Aruga_Metro-Arts-On-The-Move-Media-Release_26-November-2018.pdf