An exodus of artists squeezed out of Melbourne by a sky-high property market and seeking both fresh air and good coffee are making central Victorian towns like Castlemaine and Kyneton the state’s newest art hubs.
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The Bendigo Advertiser spoke with four artists: two sculptors who moved from inner-city Melbourne to Kyneton, a photographer who traded Brunswick for Woodend and a painter who swapped his Collins Street law practice for an artist’s studio in Castlemaine.
How Kyneton became ‘North Northcote’
When Kyenton-based sculptor Jud Wimhurst was named Bendigo Art Gallery’s ‘Going Solo’ artist for 2016 last month it was a career highlight. He may have put on bigger exhibitions in Melbourne before – but this was big precisely because it was not in Melbourne.
“There are so many artists in Kyneton at the moment... no one can afford to live in the cities,” Wimhurst said. “Most of the art world is in big cities and most of my career to date has been focused in Melbourne.
“But, for so long, I’ve really wanted to do something in central Victoria as this area is just booming.”
And then, perhaps in the heat of the moment, he made a big prediction.
“Towns like Kyneton are going to become the cultural centres of Victoria,” Wimhurst said.
It’s a prediction another Kyneton-based sculptor is banking on.
Jason Waterhouse set up a gallery and retail space, Stockroom, in Kyneton several years ago with his partner, graphic designer Magali.
“Of course you’re used to the country craft galleries,” Waterhouse said.
“Well, Stockroom isn’t that.”
“It started as a concept of having an outlet for people with contemporary art practices in rural Victoria.
“We really wanted to create a platform for these more urban, Melbourne-based artists who are now living up here as well as for the general public.
“What we show is very much contemporary art, with a lot of urban influences.”
Both artists moved from inner-city Melbourne with their young families in search of every sculptor’s dream –a big, cheap studio space.
It’s a classic story which has been playing out in Australia’s capital cities for decades. Only now, many of those cities are running out of affordable space, Waterhouse said.
“You’ve got all those 30-something, 40-something creatives who are just having kids who basically got sick of being pushed further and further out into the suburbs,” he said.
“So, many of us chose to move that hour, or hour-and-a-half up the freeway from Melbourne because, you’re still close enough to access Melbourne but you have much more opportunity with space.
“Now we’ve got a wider network of like-minded people all living within the same district and so you’ve got places like Stockroom, where we hold monthly art exhibitions and all those things you would usually find in Melbourne, you now find in sunny little Kyneton.
“And there’s a really good coffee and food scene which has very much encouraged the younger creatives, the urban demographic into the area.
“It’s crazy but I swear it’s true… half of bloody Northcote lives in Kyneton now.”
Castlemaine, where the other half lives
If half of Northcote lives in Kyneton than Bill Sampson reckons he knows where the rest of them got to.
“The other half of Northcote must have come to Castlemaine,” Sampson said.
“I reckon Castlemaine’s got more organic foodshops per head of population then Northcote does at any rate.”
The Castlemaine-based painter closed his law practice and moved from up Prahran nearly a decade ago.
In the nine years since he moved to Castlemaine, Sampson said he had seen plenty of change in the central Victorian town.
“We complain about traffic now on a Friday and Saturday morning when you can’t get a park outside the shop you want to go to,” he said.
“You might have to go two or three parks up or even around the corner… it’s getting ridiculous!
“Oh and we don’t have a cobbler anymore, I think he had a nervous breakdown with all the extra business.”
But though Castlemaine may have lost its cobbler, Sampson said it was still a town of skilled artisans, home-mechanics, builders and all manner of tradespeople.
“I think that the feeling of community is only strengthening as we are getting a more diversified population again,” he said.
And as that sense of overlapping communities – shared by mechanics and professionals, pensioners and young artists, immigrants and farmers – strengthened, it served as a magnet for those looking to settle outside the big smoke, Sampson said
“Then also there’s the good, clean air, the clean water – it just makes good sense.”
The beauty of proximity: Woodend
It was that motivation which was the primary factor in photographer Pia Johnson’s decision to move from Brunswick.
But with a lecturing position in the School of Art at RMIT University and a partner who often works interstate and abroad as theatre designer, proximity to Melbourne was also the major factor in her decision of where to go.
"We chose to move to Woodend because we really love the Macedon Ranges but we both need to be in Melbourne so often," she said.
“The nice thing about Woodend is that it is a really easy drive to Melbourne, it's on the train line.
"It was a decision to have a lovely home, in a lovely setting really… we used to always weekend up in the Macedon Ranges, so thought why don't we make a move there?
“After four years we’ve never looked back.
“It’s such a beautiful space to be, a lovely local community, we walk to the shops, and go on stunning drives on the weekend... you feel like you're on holiday all the time.
“So we’ve prioritised fresh air and beautiful scenery... and we’re able still to be artists.”