“Twenty-first century Sydney assumes itself to be a well-connected World City. Its brand is not just aspirational but ‘high touch’: green, global and connected affirms belonging – connection to the world, to the planet, to places not yet built behind the hoardings of new civic developments of the 2010s.” Jill Bennet & Saskia Beudel, Curating Sydney: Imagining the City’s Future.
“Australia is riding a wave of urban renewal that is unprecedented in our history. Its costs nothing to have a vision, but the end cost of not having one is immense.” Clare Sowden, Associate Director at PwC and board member at the Urban Land Institute.
Sydney is undergoing a massive renaissance and is at a huge moment in its history. Cranes punch into its vast skies along the harbour, through the CBD (Sydney Central Business District) and well into its demographic heart in Western Sydney. Its population is set to expand by 80% by 2024 and a major drive to redevelop the city is underway. As well as transforming the skyline and rewriting previously industrial quarters of the city, this renaissance is also driven by an interest in embedding culture and creativity through the city and by rewriting how the city is traversed through major transport infrastructure improvements.
Australia has a strong and proud tradition of public art. 40,000 years of art making are evidenced throughout this vast country. Indigenous Australian identity was and is communicated and expressed through mark making and sculpting within the natural landscape. Its more recent history of public art is evidenced in the many and varied commissioned artworks visible throughout Melbourne and Sydney’s tourist districts.
Development is specific and complex in Sydney, with a fraught history and ongoing struggles for land rights and equity in ownership. Controversial developments move forward at pace with seeming ease and create scepticism about who the city is for and the abuse of power and exploitation in relation to land and development. Luckily for Sydney, its City Council is working hard to ensure that developers are accountable and that they commit to communities past and present. Led by their dynamic Lord Mayor Clover Moore, the City of Sydney also has in place a vision for Sydney 2030 in which sustainability, greening and culture are at the heart of the city’s profile. It is a future in which the hope is for a new and vital energy for its CBD, in its pedestrian life and the cultural offer for SydneySiders.
Futurecity Senior Curator Sarah Carrington is now based in Sydney, and is discovering a keen appetite for cultural placemaking and broader engagement with design process and masterplanning with artist engagement from the outset. Our Founder Mark Davy has been invited to speak at a number of high-profile events in Sydney this month, and so we are taking this opportunity to explore the possibility of becoming involved in this dynamic moment of change in the city.
We’re using the hashtag #FuturecitySydney over the next fortnight and we’ll be publishing a set of articles and open questions here and on our Twitter feed over at @futurecityblog. If you’re involved in public art and/or placemaking in Australia, and in Sydney in particular, we’d love to connect with you and hear your views.
And, if you’re in Sydney, you can hear from and talk to Mark at these events:
- Sunday 31 May, 10.45AM UTC | Live television interview with ABC 24 News Weekend, in discussion with Peter Tullin, Founder of Remix
- Monday 1 June | City Talks Design: Art in the City | LORD MAYORS FORUM a high profile panel discussion hosted by Clover Moore, Lord Mayor of Sydney.
At Remix Sydney 2015 | Sydney Town Hall:
- Tuesday 2 June | Nurturing Creative Capitals | panel
“The dynamism, scale and diversity of leading world cities make them hubs for cultural activity but is the growth of a creative city largely organic or can we engineer it through tools such as policy and investment? How do we balance top down with community empowerment?” - Tuesday 2 June, 14.00 – 14.45 | Growing the future city – Perspectives on Placemaking in London & Sydney | workshop
Strategies and projects developed in London and Sydney, and ideas for future approaches. - Wednesday 3 June, 17.00 – 17.25 | Keynote Speech