Conversation between Luke Sinclair and Bridget Robertson regarding the exhibition “Visioning Bendigo”. Allans Walk Artist Run Space 6.3.2005 - 2.4.2005.

BR: Youth Arts Network has been asked to be apart of the Artistic Directorate and I am the facilitator/coordinator of Youth Arts Network. We said yes because it is free space and its great to be a part of the Artistic Directorate and link in with some other groups and artists. We thought “what do we do” because its come around really quickly for us, March. Luckily we had a bit of a pow-wow with Future Connections which is a youth arts service, an organisation for youth at risk, so its kind of the kids that get expelled from school and expelled from all the schools and have nowhere else to go end up at Future Connections. What they do out there is general education classes and courses and they also have an arts program. We work pretty closely with them and we thought “what are they up to” and it just so happened that they were working on a futuristic sculptural model of Bendigo, particularly the CBD. Iain Wilson is an artist and also a youth worker out there and it was his little brainchild. We gave Future Connections $500 from Youth Arts Network before finding out about this so we thought we had a bit of push and pull with this one and we asked how the Future Connections people would like to come and be a part of this exhibition. They have been working on this model. It is about eight feet by ten feet so it is pretty big. They are making it out of circuit boards and all kinds of wacky stuff. That will be on display. We were not sure about whether it would be a workshop space, as in the guys come down for a few hours a day because their attention span can be pretty limited. They have been really getting into it and apparently they have been asking to work through their lunch breaks on it so they are loving it which is pretty unusual. Usually it is just a two-hour session and then that's it for the day on projects but they are getting right into it. So they will probably be down there for a few hours each day of the exhibition working on this model.

LS: So whose initial idea was the futuristic city?

BR: Iain Wilson. A lot of documentation and a lot of talk has come up especially from council and from different community groups about the mall and the CBD in Bendigo and young people gathering in there. Some people have been complaining about young people hanging out in the mall and you know that element. The traders have got together and said that they would like to redevelop the mall and so it is something that's been in the plans, in the pipeline, for a few years. Iain has jumped on it and thought maybe we could do a funky art project based around that. There will be a new youth services building opening up at the end of this year called B-Central here in Bendigo and it is being built at the moment. The model will probably go on display in the foyer there eventually. So it has got a bit of purpose and it needs to be pretty well done because it will be on display permanently.

LS: How many students/artists are working on the project?

BR: I think there is about eight to ten at the moment which is pretty good. They are working on it continuously too so that's great. We titled the exhibition “Visioning Bendigo” and in the meantime there has been a section of council that are doing this community visioning project where they are putting out surveys and having this conference at the start of April. There has been a bit of backlash towards the council over some of the things they have done in the last couple of years. They said they wanted to put the tram around the lake and they got the funding to do it and they didn't consult with the community as well as the community thought they should have. So they copped all this backlash and eventually that plan got scrapped. Anyway, the new CEO has gone “okay we're going to have this community vision and consult with the community”. Because we are all council we started chatting to Leanne at Community Vision and thought maybe we would display some information about what they are doing which is called Community Visioning Bendigo +25. So in twenty-five years what people envision, what kind of place they would like to live in. A lot of other towns have done it around the world and it come from a Canadian model.

LS: So in terms of where the model is up to at the moment, what do the artist's see for Bendigo?

BR: That's a really good question. Last time I saw it there was just paper-mache with a few trees. They have been working really hard on it lately so it will be good to have a look and see how it is going. We are hoping that when they go into the space - and we are really glad that they will be work-shopping there……

LS: In the Allans Walk space?

BR: Yes, because then they can also see the rest of the community and what else is going on in the town as far as that visioning for the future. So the community vision project we are really keen to get on board with because it means they are accessing people that would not normally fill out a survey or register for a conference. We get a lot of middle-aged people who have a voice who go “my rates are too high, I want to say something”. So through accessing disadvantaged youth we can get to start to have a bit of a conversation.

LS: So at this point is it looking like the actual model will be quite sparse until it moves into the Allans Walk space?

BR: It is pretty organic at he moment, the whole process. We have pretty much left it up to the artists because the artists or the young people working on it can be pretty hit and miss. Sometimes they will really engage in the project and other times they will not engage and you cannot force them. We are not trying to force them to take an interest in art but we are trying to highlight how great it is and how much fun it is so that they think seriously about doing these projects.

LS: It sound like they are taking that on board if they are working through lunchtime.

BR: Exactly, which is really unusual. I think also them working in the Allans Walk space will be great because it means that they will be in the space that they are modeling, working in the CBD. Hopefully they will take that into their mindset.