Push to make Cockatoo Island an $80m arts hub
Two Sydney businessmen have vowed to spend at least $80 million to establish a “permanent art island” on Sydney Harbour.
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Two Sydney businessmen have vowed to spend at least $80 million to establish a “permanent art island” on Sydney Harbour.
Former Macquarie Bank and Boral boss Tony Berg has teamed with hedge fund and real estate investor Danny Goldberg in a bid to dedicate Cockatoo Island to art.
The pair have formed the not-for-profit Cockatoo Island Foundation to push their plan, which they say could be Australia’s answer to Japan’s art island, Naoshima.
In a submission to a review of the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust they guarantee to make a minimum $80 million philanthropic investment into the island’s future.
And they say they can raise another $20 million from other philanthropists.
Under their vision the island would be renamed and could one day even boast a hotel.
But their commitment is contingent on the federal and state governments remediating the run-down inner-harbour island by about 2030.
A review by Deloitte for the Trust found that would cost $194 million alone.
“You spend $194 million, I don’t think you get much of an experience,” Mr Berg said.
“You spend an additional $100 million, I think you get a ‘wow’ experience.”
The offer is also conditional on their foundation being selected as the long-term government partner for the island’s management, instead of the Trust.
The Foundation’s submission says the island should be renamed Waremah, or “women’s place”, in the language of the traditional owners of the land, the Eora people.
It calls for the island to be home to “iconic” permanent art collections and “become an essential part of any visit to Sydney and will drive international interest in Sydney as an arts and cultural destination”, much like Hobart’s Museum of Old and New Art (MONA).”
Access to the island and its art would be free.
“But in futures stages, possibly in one of the areas of the island you could build a hotel,” Mr Berg said, noting there was a hotel on Naoshima.
The submission says “without investment, Cockatoo Island is a missed opportunity for Sydney and Australia, and the likely outcome is that the visitor experience of the island will slowly decline.
The Foundation’s plan for the island was developed with a “visioning group” whose members included former lord mayor Lucy Turnbull.
Originally published as Push to make Cockatoo Island an $80m arts hub
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