Our organisation
Collingwood Yards is managed by not-for-profit organisation, Contemporary Arts Precincts Ltd. Our office is located on Level 1 in the Johnston Street Building. Please make sure you’ve contacted us to arrange an appointment before dropping by.
Over the last five years our organisation has taken ownership of the former Collingwood TAFE site and invested more than $15m from philanthropy, government and commercial partners into its redevelopment. There is a crisis of affordable arts space in Australia and in Melbourne in particular. Most, if not all, of the not-for-profit tenants supported at Collingwood Yards have come under threat of having to relocate, to pay unaffordable rent or close if they are unable to secure an affordable base for their operations.
We believe that the importance of keeping a diverse range of artists and creative communities active in any city cannot be understated. The social benefits of arts participation are well documented and affordable space is a key part of supporting them. Collingwood Yards is both a transformational project for its neighbourhood and a proof of concept for our broader goal: to develop a new model of providing affordable and sustainable arts space in Australia.
Our core values
Resilience and resourcefulness
We are uniquely equipped to act as a buffer to a vulnerable section of the arts ecology by carefully and creatively using every resource we can secure. We are able to respond to change and make things work.
Focus
We are focused on the contemporary arts as a vehicle for community and cultural development.
We believe that bold, visible creativity defines a city, and a strong and independent culture of creativity defines a great city.
Commitment
We are committed to caring for art, artists and arts organisations everyday and into the future.
We nurture, challenge and protect our spaces, team and community.
Openness
We are curious listeners and active contributors, valuing diverse experiences and perspectives.
We believe in embedded accessibility, expressed through financial, physical, technological and communication design principles and practice.
Our Board
Miriam
Silva AM
Chair
Uncle Andrew
Gardiner
Deputy Chair
Ian
Horne
Treasurer
Michael
McMahon
Secretary
Dan
Hill
Director
Alice
Wells
Director
Former Board Directors
Daniel Besen Founding Chair, Esther Anatolitis, Charlotte Day, Richard Evan, Eugenia Flynn, Barb Hyman, Ross Patterson, Izzy Roberts-Orr, James Tutton
"Collingwood Yards provides an exciting convergence point for diverse creative communities of artists and organisations."
“It's important for the artists we work with to be connected. There's creative community everywhere you look."