Trib. Projects Gallery Refurb

Tributary Projects is a community arts association based in Canberra. Currently we run a gallery and studio space in Fyshwick, a light industrial district. Most of the renovations required for opening the space have been completed by us and our founding members, but there are still a few things we would like to have done to the space, so that we can enhance our capabilities in terms of exhibiting a range of artists.

One of the most important, and easily fixed problems we’re facing is our lighting set-up. This grant will allow us to purchase some banks of fluorescent lights and pay for their installation. Any remaining funds will be used to continue the renovations required for the gallery – for instance, constructing further storage spaces, or purchasing paint for general use on the walls and floors.

Tributary Projects Gallery fills a particular niche in Canberra – that of an affordable exhibition space for emerging and mid-career artists, which exhibits not only local artists but also brings work to Canberra from both interstate and overseas. We have already hosted several exhibitions curated by local artists and curators, all of which have been highly successful as both aesthetic enterprises and popular projects aimed at strengthening the artistic community in Canberra.

The gallery is able to pay for itself by running on a volunteer model: all organisation, and most of the work involved with maintaining the gallery are performed by volunteers and members of the association running the whole enterprise. We don’t make any money from running Tributary Projects, which means that the rent paid to us for use of the gallery and studio spaces goes directly back into running the gallery.

By voting for this project on STIR, you would be actively helping us to achieve necessary improvements to the space in a much reduced timeframe, allowing us in turn to continue to broaden the range of artists we can exhibit and the kinds of events we can host. This would also give a huge boost to the artistic community of Canberra – both artists and consumers – as we are able to strengthen the depth of our resources for supporting the kinds of projects around which this community exists.

Canberrans who are excited about a broadening and deepening artistic scene emerging in contact with Australian cultural centres such as Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney, and international centres like Berlin, Singapore and Beijing.