Rising stars behind Sunshine Coast underground arts scene revealed
Old jailhouses, ambulance stations, a KFC and industrial estates are being transformed by Sunshine Coast creatives amid a rise in underground arts and music ventures. See who’s behind some of our funky offerings.
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Underground music and arts venues are on the rise across the Sunshine Coast with the region’s creatives transforming spaces such as industrial areas, an old jailhouse and a former KFC.
With the mass exodus from cities to the Sunshine Coast since the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been an unprecedented uprising in new creative offerings.
Heeding the cultural calls for wider representation in the art world, these unorthodox arts and music spaces focus on championing local creatives.
Founder of art development space In-Ari Ruby Donohoe said the region was experiencing an exciting shift.
“There are multiple events on each night now and people are supporting more local, experimental works and what’s growing here,” she said.
The recent rise of smaller underground arts and culture venues comes following the closure of one of the Sunshine Coast’s largest entertainment precincts, NightQuarter.
Ms Donohoe said it was “super sad” NightQuarter folded, but she believed it was reflective of audience behaviours.
“People are looking for smaller, more intimate experiences,” she said.
Here are 10 innovative Sunshine Coast initiatives.
LITTLE TEMPLE RECORDS
Music label co-founder Jake Henry says Little Temple Records is an arts and music studio space showcasing musicians from the record label and other locals.
Mr Henry said monthly events ranged from arts shows or music releases and tours.
Events are often word of mouth or advertised on Instagram and “posters are dropped around town”.
Operating for over six months in a warehouse in the Coolum Industrial Estate, the space showcases artists and musicians who “strive to do well in their art”.
“We had an art show on last month and we had people up from Tasmania and Melbourne and then a lot of local crew as well,” Mr Henry said.
“We find a lot of artists and musicians come to the shows and it turns into a bit of a night discussing creative projects, so it’s a real art-centric focused space.”
SHELTER SC
Photographer and art director Mica Schettini is the founder of arts magazine The Shelter S.C, a small, vibrant quarterly publication highlighting local creatives and distributed across the Sunshine Coast and Brisbane.
“We are trying to show what’s happening here and always putting the focus on local creatives,” Ms Schettini said.
Affiliated events with different types of artists are also currently held at Sun City Gallery.
“The last one was an art battle with nine artists, painting, and the next one we have we are partnering with a record label called Jet Black Cat Music from Brisbane,” she said.
“One band from Melbourne and one band from Byron Bay and one local band, Dear Doonan will also be playing.
“So basically we just activate culture and we want to work as much as possible with all the local artists and highlight their worth.”
SUN CITY GALLERY AND STUDIO
Founded by Belinda Van Zanen, Sun City is a gallery and studio space which welcomes collaborations.
Often partnering with creatives to host exhibitions, events, holistic playgroups, markets, yoga and workshops, the Noosa Industrial Estate gallery currently exhibits Ms Van Zanen’s photographic works.
“There is a big gallery section where I exhibit my work on a continual basis, and we do a lot of different events where people come in and exhibit work or host a function or opening night or big music event,” Ms Van Zanen said.
“It’s quite a large space, about 1000 sqm, and in the back of the warehouse my partner has a knife making workshop called Thomson Knife and Utility as well.
“We’ve also had Terrafirma Dining do a big cooking thing as well, where they create a big outside kitchen cooking over fire.
“We welcome everyone; the arts can fall into music and it can fall into dance and yoga as well.”
BAD HABITS
Established by Aaron Borg, Bad Habits record store in Nambour produces and supports underground culture with in store music events.
In the process of moving to a bigger, more supportive premise within the Old Ambulance Station, Mr Borg says Nambour’s lower socio-economic demographic means “people can do interesting stuff without some boomer complaining about every little thing”.
“I don’t think this stuff could happen in Noosa, it’s a different vibe,” he said.
Bad Habits is a record shop and record label with leanings towards heavier genres, although Mr Borg says he is “not precious at keeping to that, and if someone is doing something super interesting we just jump on that”.
WAX ESPRESSO
Founded by Sunshine Coast based record collector and record fair organiser Mark Grounds and his wife Cara Maddens in September 2018, Wax Espresso is a coffee shop and record store in Maroochydore’s entertainment precinct.
“Our aim is to not only boast a wide range of both new and vintage vinyl and serve great coffee but to provide the local music scene with a place for artists and musicians to grow and feel supported,” Mr Grounds said.
A music venue previously as well, Mr Grounds said a noise complaint means bands no longer play at his shop, but have moved to Bad Habits instead.
Mr Grounds is also the organiser of a quarterly record fair with the next event to be held at Brouhaha in Baringa.
MUNIMBA-JA
A gallery and studio space, Munimba-ja runs master classes and networking “to develop up artists to be industry leaders for the Olympic Games when we have lots of tourism coming to the area”.
“We want to really showcase the Blak Excellence and share our Indigenous stories,” co-founder Libby Harward said.
Having worked with more than 40 artists in the past 18 months, the space supports visual artists, theatre artists, experimental artists, writers and sound artists.
Jinibara Elder and artist Uncle Noel “Gulla” Blair is currently Elder-in-Residence at Munimba-ja, which means “welcome place”.
The only Indigenous run gallery on the Sunshine Coast, the space also holds regular events open to the public including launches, weaving workshops, soon-to-be regular Blak Friday events and “a lot of yarns”.
OLE
Situated behind craft beer and burger bar Ze Pickle in Noosa Junction, Ole is a new underground venue showcasing live music Wednesday through to Sunday each week.
Manager Tyler Faass said he established Ole, which has been in full swing for six months, after observing the way Noosa Council’s Friday nights busking initiative “brought in new faces which is what we wanted”.
Originally the KFC building where Mr Faass once worked, Ole is now a stylish venue featuring local upcoming artists for those “enjoying the area and wanting different music to what’s currently supplied, so more live music, but also DJs and the younger crowd”.
Advertised mostly through word of mouth, which Mr Faass said “works well” in Noosa, Ole is fast becoming one of the best live music venues in the area with its hip-hop, drum and bass, house music, reggaeton, spicy tech and open-mic rap nights, as well as a range of live bands.
LANTANA SPACE
Lantana is an experimental contemporary art space established by four creative practitioners, Ebony Busk, Jordyn Burnett, Warwick Gow and Coen Keytech.
Photographer and curator Warwick Gow said the space is primarily a work space for artists.
“We sublet studio spaces with 12 working artists at present,” Mr Gow said.
“We are an independent art space, poking and prodding what different arts experiences can be on the Coast.”
Lantana held 2o art events last year.
“This year we are focused on bespoke, less programmed events and our next event in May will be in affiliation with the Sunshine Coast University, third year Creative Industries students and Megan Williams who runs the USC gallery,” Mr Gow said.
“What we are trying to do at Lantana is pull together emerging and established artists and practitioners and then also working with external producers, to form grassroots events which are not commercially driven.”
BASKET OF HAMMERS
Basket of Hammers founder Patricia McInerney brings together underground, experimental artists and musicians to create “immersive experiences in under-utilised, unexpected spaces”.
She said they hosted secret and advertised shows involving underground and alternative musicians and visual artists.
“We are always on the hunt for spaces,” Ms McInerney said.
Basket of Hammers’ annual event is a secret show marking the ancient Irish celebration Samhain (Halloween) which is held each October with a “line-up to die for”.
This multidisciplinary event “highlights the richness and importance of local subculture, where guests are drip-fed hints via social media and notified of the location two days before the event” to give the element of “surprise and intrigue”.
IN | artist run initiative
Contained within a space previously used as a jail cell for the old police station and courthouse, IN | artist run initiative is a multidisciplinary arts platform supporting the development and presentation of emerging and mid career art practices.
The space allows artists to explore experimental, collaborative, diverse approaches to making, sharing and talking about art.
Founded by Sharna Barker, Ruby Donohoe and June Sartracom in 2021 and later joined by Amanda Bennets in 2022, the collective offers project space and time for collaborations, mentoring and feedback.
“We do call outs to artists and residencies and then the work gets shared as a public outcome, or sometimes people have work they’ve already made and we support them to do an exhibition or a performance or a film screening,” Ms Donohoe said.
“We curate artist essentially and give them professional development and this year we have also been able to pay our artists to use the space, and we also pay for people to write about their work.”
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Originally published as Rising stars behind Sunshine Coast underground arts scene revealed
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