Description

Collingwood Yards presents a panel discussion, Safeguarding Creative Spaces in Transforming Cities, with key experts including urban geographers, architects, developers, artists, and industry leaders. 

Guided tours prior to and after the panel will give visitors a greater understanding of the precinct’s history, operating model, and ethos while exploring artist studios and the galleries’ current exhibitions. The precinct will also be open for visitors to explore at their own pace, with galleries, cafes, bars, and stores operating throughout the day. 

What's On

Safeguarding Creative Spaces in Transforming Cities brings together urban geographers, architects, developers, artists, and industry leaders to explore how artistic spaces can be safeguarded within rapidly changing cities.

Grounded in the accelerating development of Collingwood, the discussion will reflect on the area’s history as a centre of artistic practice and multiculturalism while considering the tensions between place-making, gentrification, and cultural infrastructure. It will trace the evolution of Collingwood Yards, from its origins as a school to a not-for-profit arts precinct, as a case study navigating these tensions and operating an Australian-first model.

The panel will feature Dr Kate Shaw, University of Melbourne Honorary Research Fellow in Urban Geography & Planning; Jeff Provan, Neometro founder and Gertrude Contemporary board member; Quino Holland, director at Fieldwork; Kate Beynon, artist; and Zoe Rinkel, Collingwood Yards CEO.

Drawing on perspectives, global precedents, and development models, the panel will examine what it takes to maintain accessible, community-led cultural spaces, and whose responsibility it is to ensure their future.

In Collaboration With:

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  Dr Kate Shaw

  Dr Kate Shaw
  Dr Kate Shaw is an urban geographer at the University of Melbourne. Her work focuses on cultures of cities, urbanisation, housing, gentrification, and social and spatial equity. She is currently working on two books: an edited collection of dialogues on urban alternatives, and a longitudinal study on international waterfronts.

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  Jeff Provan | Quino Holland

  Jeff Provan
  Jeff Provan founded Neometro in 1985 as a means to bring design-led development to Melbourne. Cultivating an approach that unites architecture, interior design, and construction with sustainable principles and respect for location, Jeff has worked with architects, designers, and builders to ensure projects are well planned, carefully built and enduring - principles that have guided Neometro for more than four decades.
  
  Beyond the business, Jeff mentors younger practitioners and contributes to a range of projects and initiatives, notably as a board member for Gertrude Contemporary. Through a consistent and hands-on approach, Jeff has helped shape Melbourne’s built environment in ways that prioritise design quality and community benefit.
  
  Quino Holland
  Quino Holland is a Design Director at Fieldwork, an architecture and advisory practice with studios in Melbourne and Adelaide with a team of over 35 practitioners. With more than 25 years’ experience, he leads complex mixed-use, housing, education, commercial and cultural projects, overseeing design from strategy through to delivery.
  
  Quino also leads Fieldstudies, an internal committee that investigates modern methods of construction (MMC), adaptive reuse and sustainable materials.
  
  From 2011 to 2019, Quino was Co-Founder and Design Director of Assemble and Assemble Papers.

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  Kate Beynon | Zoe Rinkel

  Kate Beynon
  Kate Beynon is a Hong Kong-born multidisciplinary artist based at Collingwood Yards’ studios. Kate was awarded the 2024 Yarra Arts Fellowship, the 2021 Collingwood Yards x Bank of Melbourne Residency, and is part of creative family collective TudoFAM with son Rali Beynon and husband Michael Pablo.
  
  Kate & TudoFAM's practise spans painting, interactive spaces, public art, fashion, collaborative animation, and projection art, including projects with The Social Studio and Centre for Projection Art. Highlights include The Mask Spirit Hour, Yarra Public Art Light Box Program, TudoFAM’s site-wide animated projections as part of Bla(c)k Together Month Festival, DreamSpace, Paypal Melbourne Fashion Festival Independent Programme, and panoramic projection work Spirits Shapeshifting commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery for Enlighten Festival. Kate is a nine-time Archibald Prize finalist, Associate Lecturer in Design at Victorian College of the Arts, and is represented by Sutton Gallery.
  
  Zoe Rinkel
  Zoe Rinkel is the CEO of Collingwood Yards, a not for profit arts precinct. Zoe is a community engagement leader, arts education specialist, and creative producer. She has over 20 years experience working with artists and companies across music, theatre, dance, circus, and visual arts to deliver projects encouraging participation and promoting positive social outcomes. Zoe designs meaningful initiatives with a focus on self-determined programming, diverse voices, physical, cognitive, and cultural accessibility, and creating lasting connections with the arts.