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August 23rd, 2013 
Peter Nolan
Updated
Inner Sydney’s Carriageworks art and performance space will double in size, after being granted a 12-month lease by the New South Wales government.
Housed in former rail yards in Redfern, the lease allows for an expansion which will add 5,000 square metres to the existing premises.
The announcement will cement Carriageworks as one of the largest multi-arts centres in Sydney, becoming a strong urban rival to the Sydney Opera House.
Carriageworks director Lisa Havilah says the extra space was desperately needed after two years of strong growth in audience and visitor numbers.
“We were actually at 100 per cent utilisation, so to grow our program we actually needed more physical space to grow it into,” she said.
“It’ll be a really great opportunity to show how we can grow our program and establish new major Sydney events.”
State Minister for Tourism, Major Events and the Arts George Souris says the expansion is great news for Sydney’s arts, cultural and events industries.
“This expansion will support the NSW Government’s actions in promoting the state through major events,” he said.
“The new lease will provide Carriageworks with the space to expand its capacity to present large-scale contemporary artistic programs at the precinct.”
The inaugural Sydney Contemporary art fair will be the public’s first chance to experience the extra space, with other large-scale events including fashion week and a new food and wine fair also slated to take place there next year.
Ms Havilah says attendances at Carriageworks are on track to reach 400,000 people this year.
“We’ve had extraordinary visitation growth since we implemented our new artistic program at the beginning of 2012,” she said.
“Our audience figures have doubled year on year each year, so I think we’re going to see a very significant increase in audience engagement because the scale of our work will be able to increase.
“We have ambition to permanently licence the space but that will depend on further negotiations with the Government.”
Topics:
arts-and-entertainment,
states-and-territories,
redfern-2016,
nsw
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Source Article from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-22/sydney27s-carriageworks-art-space-to-double-in-size/4904908
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