The Substation: a multi-art space for contemporary and experimental art
The Substation is a multi-art space presenting contemporary and experimental art works by local, national and international artists that’s housed in an imposing former electrical substation next to Newport railway station.
The neoclassical brick building is over 100 years old and its original purpose was to convert AC power to DC power for use by Melbourne’s train network. The substation was decommissioned in the 1960s and lay abandoned for decades until a group of local residents formed a volunteer group to renovate the industrial building over approximately fifteen years.
In 2005 the building was opened as the Hobsons Bay Community Art Centre and the facility was run as a suburban arts centre with a mix of contemporary and community arts, similar to The Clocktower Centre in Moonee Ponds or The Drum Theatre in Dandenong. However, these similar organisations were all owned and run by a local council, whereas The Substation operates independently from Hobsons Bay City Council and is located in a building that isn’t owned by council (it’s owned by VicTrack).
By 2015 the organisation was in an extremely precarious financial situation.
The major state and federal arts funding organisations were not interested in funding a community arts centre that was a stone’s throw from Footscray Community Arts Centre, the oldest community arts centre in the country. Their view was that The Substation was seeking to replicate programs conducted by FCAC and other well-established community arts organisations in Melbourne’s west such as The Women’s Circus and Western Edge Youth Arts.
“As Melbourne’s west didn’t have a contemporary arts venue … we thought this was an opportunity for a new vision focused on contemporary artists.”
BRAD SPOLDING
In 2015 Brad Spolding, the current artistic director of The Substation, was appointed. The Substation was closed for the whole year while the board and executive went back to the drawing board.
In 2016 The Substation unveiled a renewed focus on contemporary art.
“We decided that if there is a community arts organisation and contemporary arts organisation in the same region of Melbourne, then they can work together in different ways to give artists opportunities to do different things,” explains Brad. “They can complement each other rather than seeking to replicate each other.
“As Melbourne’s west didn’t have a contemporary arts venue - say like Gertrude Contemporary in Fitzroy - we thought this was an opportunity for a new vision focused on contemporary artists.”
In 2017, The Substation received funding from Creative Victoria for the first time. In 2020, The Substation was one of only six new organisations in the country to receive multi-year funding from the Australia Council.
“So now we have funding from the local council, State government funding and Federal government funding. That’s really important for the longevity of the organisation and we’re proud of that success story.”
As an arts practitioner, Brad feels that Melbourne’s west is fertile ground for building an audience for contemporary experimental practice.
“People said that a contemporary art space in the West would never work,” laughs Brad. ”But the West is really dynamic, it’s ever-changing. It feels like fresh ground.
“More and more artists are living in this part of Melbourne and I know that there’s a big audience in the inner west for contemporary art - they are all travelling into the city. All we have to do is get them to catch the train in the other direction for ten minutes.”
While The Substation has been closed for large parts of 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19 restrictions, in 2022 The Substation and Footscray Community Arts Centre are co-presenting 'Neighbourhood', a ten-day contemporary arts festival of new work in Melbourne's western suburbs also involvingThe Bowery Theatre in St Albans and Incinerator Gallery in Moonee Ponds.
“We’re not seeking to make it like Big West or Due West, two other previous westside arts festivals,” explains Brad. “It’s about the two organisations working together to showcase the crossover between contemporary art and community art.
“One of the greatest satisfactions I get from my job is to be able to build a platform for new artists and to bring an audience to new art. The moment when an audience sees a work that you’ve been developing for a long time and they begin to understand the ideas or the experience that the artist is trying to communicate - that is an incredible moment.”
