Living Creatively

You don’t need a 2020 gabfest to tell you “Creative Australia” needs a new vision for supporting, nurturing and promoting the arts. Any artist who’s ever tried to get work into a gallery knows the exorbitant commissions and fees can be prohibitive. In many cases, galleries demand 100% on top of anything the artist makes from a sale! It’s a wonder any new artists get a break at all.

In fact, if it wasn’t for non-profit artist-run initiatives such as West Space, Utopian Slumps and Off The Kerb, that “aim to give artists direct control over the means and conditions of presenting their work to the public”, many artists might never get a start. Taking the non-profit artist-run idea even further however, is Isy Galey. In July 2007, the Melbourne via Auckland artist opened in.cube8r, a new style of gallery for anyone who makes things by hand and for anyone who loves buying one-off unique items.

Taking no commissions, in.cube8r rents affordable display space to artists, who then take full ownership of their area for the term of the lease. During their tenancy they can do with their space whatever they choose, and all proceeds go directly to them.

Based on a similar concept Isy saw in New Zealand 20 years ago, in.cube8r has been gestating for more than a decade. “I’ve had the idea of my own space, taking no commissions from an artists’ works, for 12 years, but I was either too scared or in the wrong relationship or it was just never the right time,” she tells Living Creatively.

A fine arts graduate with a major in glass blowing and a professional background as a nanny, Isy found herself unemployed at the end of a contract and realised the time was, at last, right. With business training and support from the Federal Government’s New Enterprise Incentive Scheme [NEIS], she opened for business in July 2007.

Having learned about the excessive gallery costs as a student, Isy was “really focussed on creating a business model that didn’t take anything at all, not even ten per cent,” she says. “It’s an interactive business model, which challenges the artist: they can choose where they want to be, first of all, which you can’t in a normal gallery. And also price-wise – starting at $20 a week – I wanted to create something that even a first-year student can take part in.”

Proving that she’s onto something, business has been successful beyond anything she imagined. While undertaking the NEIS Small Business Management Certificate, Isy had to complete “a two-year projection, and I thought I’d be lucky to have 40 tenants at the end of my first year, and 80 at the end of my second year. But I was full to capacity, with 85 people, within seven weeks of opening,” she says. And at the official opening party, around 450 people showed up, “lined up and down the street, five shops either way. I had close friends that gave up and went home because they couldn’t get in,” she remembers in amazement.

“What seems to have really struck a chord with the customers as well as the artists is that when an item is sold the artist receives 100% of the retail price; that nothing’s being taken off the top for the gallery.”

The gallery comprises 90 display spaces, including individual glass boxes, shelves, racks and partitions. Rents are for three months, and start at $20 per week for the boxes at ground level, rising to $35 a week for eye level cubes [with window cubes slightly more, due to 24/7 visibility]; wall partitions start at $30 per week, shelves at $40 and racks at $50.

“It’s priced according to eye level,” Isy explains. “The $20 boxes sell the least because people are lazy by nature and they don’t want to get on all fours to look at something. But if a first-year student wants to trial a product, that’s a really good place to start. And I’ve found that a lot of people move up to the $25 boxes and they sell more, then they move up to the $30 ones, and it works really well for them to gauge interest and to start a low rate.”

Although the leases are three-month terms, “there is always a turnover monthly, with at least 20 people moving or leaving or new ones coming in every month.” And demand for spaces is high. When Living Creatively visited, in.cube8r was temporarily closed off to jewellers due to concerns about over-saturation – “unless the jewellery is really different to anything else we stock”.

Isy says that at any one time she “won’t take more than three people working in exactly the same medium. But in general I wanted to create a non-elitist space, cos I know a lot of the galleries are scary to approach. I wanted to create something really grassroots that’s like a long-term indoor market anyone can participate in.”

This is an important part of in.cube8r’s success. “Apart from markets, there’s nowhere, really, where people can take handmade, artisan or grassroots-style stuff. And it’s even hard to get into markets, especially places like Rose Street Market. You have to book five or six months in advance, and with some of them you even have to sit in front of a panel – it’s quite a rigorous acceptance process. I wanted to create something that’s not so scary, that anyone can approach.”

At the moment, most tenants are from Melbourne, but there are some spaces rented by interstate artists. “I’m not sure if it’s working so well for them though because they can’t see what’s selling.” Due to the nature of the business, artists can’t rely on Isy for inventory or stock level or things like that. “The space is basically flat rental: you rent it, you own it, you know what goes on inside it and it’s up to you to come in regularly to check what’s there, replace what needs to be replaced. in.cube8r is based on occupier onus and self-responsibility.”

That said, in.cube8r is “always looking for new talent and is open to anything.” Now that’s the sort of vision to make a truly creative Australia.

By Melanie Sheridan