By JOLENE OGLE
A local artist is calling on the community to support her bid to turn the deserted TAFE campus into a thriving art gallery space.
Tricia Bradford said she thought of the idea after the Harbourside Gallery at Noosa Marina closed earlier this year.
“When the gallery closed, there was nowhere for local artists to go.
“So, I thought that with the TAFE being empty, why not put it to use,” she said.
Ms Bradford has started a petition to help demonstrate to the government the community’s passionate for local art.
“We’ve got hundreds, if not thousands, of artists throughout the Sunshine Coast and we need as many signatures as we can get,” she said.
Ms Bradford’s vision would see the TAFE campus turned into a large exhibition centre where between 40 and 60 artists could display their work at any time.
Each artist would be in charge of their own display and work on-site, give lectures, run workshops and look after the galleries of absent artists.
Volunteers would be recruited to help run the administration of the gallery and greet visitors, while an external company could run a café.
Ms Bradford said the art collective offers many benefits for the community including an outlet for local artists to display and enhance their work, a space for the community to watch artists in action and the financial benefit to the local community through the sales of art works.
Member for Noosa Glen Elmes said there is already a lot of interest in the TAFE site from a variety of people and organisations, but the government remains open to any proposal put forward so long as “it pays”.
“It has to pay… we’ve got a facility that’s sitting there that needs to be maintained,” he said.
“Whoever gets in there, whether they take over the whole site or just want part of the site, they will obviously have to pay towards the upkeep of it.
“Providing all that stacks up, I can’t see why a range of people can’t be accommodated.”
Mr Elmes recently inspected the site with the Department of Public Works and Housing, who are currently maintaining the campus, and said this is a great chance to put the space to good use.
“I’m keen to make sure, given the great facility, that we utilise it for good community projects,” he said.
“There might be someone who comes along and has a business plan for the whole site or it could be, at the end of the day, a whole collection of people from different organisations want to use the site.”
Mr Elmes said it would be great to see the TAFE maintain the connection with art but either way, “we’ve got an opportunity now to do something pretty special with it.”
Ms Bradford’s petition can be found at www.thepetitionsite.com.
