Recently i had a chance to do a talk about Renew Newcastle and Renew Australia to some staff of the Department of Planning and Community Development in Victoria. They filmed it and it turns out they posted in on YouTube. It’s one of the better captures of a talk i’ve done recently. [At this point it's [...]
Video: A talk to government
December 17th, 2011 No Comments
Tags: Communities in Victoria · DPCD · Marcus Westbury talk · Renew Australia · Renew Newcastle
US Visit March 2012: The “I won a free trip” tour!
December 15th, 2011 1 Comment
Thanks, most unexpectedly, to the lovely folks at Virgin Australia who are giving me a Free Trip to New York (i won a competition, would you believe it?) i will be heading state-side again early in the new year. I’m keen to meet with and talk cities, urbanism and geekery with audiences of artists, architects, urbanists, [...]
Tags: cities as software · Empty Shops · empty spaces · New York · Project for Public Spaces · Renew Australia · Renew Newcastle · San Francisco · urbanism · USA · Virgin Australia
Not Quite Art now showing on smh.tv
September 18th, 2011 1 Comment
Just when i thought that my short lived TV career had gone to the great archive in the sky the fairfax web site currently has both series of Not Quite Art available on live streaming I’m not exactly sure how or why, but i’m not complaining. Unfortunately there is no function to embed them and [...]
Tags: ISEA 2013 · Not Quite Art · Renew Australia · Renew Newcastle
Philanthropy: forests and trees
May 27th, 2011 9 Comments
JUST before Easter, Arts Minister Simon Crean announced that advertising guru and philanthropist Harold Mitchell (pictured) would undertake a major review of private sector support for the arts in Australia. The review will look at the range of existing government programs and incentives for philanthropic support for the arts in Australia and abroad, such [...]
Tags: Art Support Australia · Australia Business Arts Foundation · Australia Cultural Fund · Foundation for the artist · Harold Mitchell · Jewellery · Julianne Shultz · Melbourne International Festival of Arts · Melbourne Symphony Orchestra · National Cultural Policy · National Gallery of Australia · painting · Periphery v. centre of Australian art world · Philanthropy · Philanthropy review · photography · Renew Australia · Renew Newcastle · Simon Crean · textiles
User Generated Cities forum (Video)
May 25th, 2011 No Comments
For more action of me doing crazy hand gestures check out these highlights from the recent User generated cities forum held in Adelaide. The other speakers in this session were Teresa Crea, Tim Horton, John McTernan and John Wardle of ‘buy John Wardle a beer day‘ fame who i managed to buy a belated beer [...]
Tags: John McTernan · John Wardle · Renew Adelaide · Renew Newcastle · Teresa Crea · Tim Horton · User generated cities
Video: Talk at Project for Public Spaces (New York)
May 23rd, 2011 No Comments
Back in February, i headed over to the US and Canada for 3 weeks of meetings, touring and a small amount of tourism. One of the highlights was the opportunity to make my Broadway debut (that’s literally where the office is) at Project for Public Spaces in New York to talk about Renew Newcastle and [...]
Tags: Art and urban renewal · Placemaking · Project for Public Spaces · Renew Newcastle · urban renewal · video
Cities as Software
May 23rd, 2011 12 Comments
This article was written for the latest edition of the Dutch architecture/ design journal Volume… Let me put a scenario to you. Say you live in an aging, fading industrial town. One that has been on receiving end of repeated shocks from earthquakes and natural disasters to the closure of its largest industries and mass [...]
Tags: architecture · cities as software · creative cities · Design · fluid cities · hacking cities · Renew Australia · Renew Newcastle · thought experiments · Volume
Speaking in Toronto, Canada: 14th June
May 21st, 2011 No Comments
On the off chance there are any Canadians reading this blog or following my twitter feed, just a quick heads up that i will be in Toronto between the 12th and 17th of June. My main reason is to be a keynote speaker on the 14th at Canada’s 3rd Transforming and Revitalizing Downtowns Summit. Obviously i will [...]
Tags: Canada · Renew Australia · Renew Newcastle · Toronto · Transforming & Revitalizing Downtown Summit
A quick Renew Newcastle reader
February 2nd, 2011 2 Comments
MakeSpace – a Renew Newcastle project I’m on the road for about a month in the USA and Canada and meeting a lot of people who are interested in Renew Newcastle but don’t know too much about me, Newcastle, the project or its history. I thought i should try my best to put a few [...]
Tags: ABC · Austra · Australia · Dysfunctional real estate markets · Fluid Cities Create · Griffith REVIEW · HVRF lecture · initiative · initiativism · Lonely planet top 10 cities · Lonely Planet's Best in Travel 2011 · Meanjin · Newcastle · Newcastle Lonely Planet · Not Quite Art · Real Estate · Renew Newcastle · Renew Newcastle Reader · social enterprise. · social media
Tiny Revolutions (Meanjin Essay)
January 21st, 2011 No Comments
I am about to head off for 3 and a bit weeks in the USA so updates may be sporadic for a while. In the meantime if you want to read something longer and chunkier of mine, the good folks at Meanjin have just put my essay Tiny Revolutions from the last issue online. It’s [...]
Tags: DIY urbanism · globalisation · Meanjin · Renew Newcastle · Scale of cities · Tiny Revolutions · urban planning · urban renewal · urbanism