Late last month, Melbourne film project This City Speaks launched at Carlton’s Goodtime Studios with an event all about creative space. The films focus on the city’s creatives, with intimate interviews revealing the practice and habits, route and resolve of artists and musicians. Chapter House Lane Gallery Director Louise Klerks is the subject of one film still in the edit suite. Her experience in numerous artist run galleries and long-running Life Drawing classes at No Vacancy show persistence and hard-work pays off. And her experience with Chapter House Lane made her a great addition to the evening’s panel, which featured Marcus Westbury of Renew Australia, Caroline Vains from RMIT, Nick Casey and Kat Ashworth, on the difficult issue of creative space and navigating the disparity between an artist’s income and restrictive commercial rents. Proponents of the middle ground, the resounding outlook was optimistic with people proving investment (in predominantly time and energy) can help maintain accessibility. See the films here, and stay tuned to This City Speaks, for more vignettes and future events.

Image: Louise Klerks (centre) has a pre-panel chit chat with Marcus Westbury (left). Photo, Nick Carr.