Sunday, February 22, 2009

Claire: disambiguation

Just to clear up certain misinformation in my last post, and because it's important for you other artists to know:

I made a brief comment about the City of Perth making everything difficult for people who want to do stuff in the city. As I wrote that post very quickly the morning before our busy day installing, I didn't give much thought to how I was phrasing this, and in short, got it wrong.

Whilst I do feel I'm justified in feeling frustrated at the number of hoops we have to jump through to get something (positive!) done in Perth, and feeling like our ideas are constantly being compromised, it is important for me to clarify that in my direct experience the City of Perth is in fact focused on working with artists to activate our city whilst satisfying all parties involved.

The Inter Collective is currently working directly with the development sector of the City of Perth, and our experience with them has been favorable and positive: they approached us with an offer to help us, they have provided us with information about what we can and can't do (not always the best news, but realistic at least) which has made the planning of future projects much easier and more viable, and they have put us in contact with private parties we may also be able to work with. All of this has been invaluable to the Collective, and deserves far more mention than a throwaway, ill-informed comment.

I am posting this to make sure I haven't discouraged any of you from approaching the Council, and working with them, in your future projects.