Dear friends and supporters,
Synergy Gallery is very sad to announce the closure of Synergy Gallery aty 253 High Street Northcote, our home of nearly 11 years, since we opened on November 24th 2001 and brought with us a new lease on life for the area. As of the end of June 2012 Synergy will exist as a 'nomadic' gallery until we can find a more permanent home. If you have any offers or suggestions or want to contact us, we would love to hear from you at synergygallery @ gmail.com.
We would like to encourage you to stay in touch, keep up your membership and look out for us appearing near you soon.
Synergy Gallery would also like to thank you for all your generous support and keep interest over the years, you are what has made this community gallery so special!
Below is an outline of the circumstances that has lead to our closure, we know you feel as passionately about the arts as we do and hope you will join us to insist their support continues.
Till we meet again, farewell friends!
Much creativity to you all. x
***
Cuts in funding from re-current $10,000 from our local council to zero in 2011/12 have meant a serious struggle to gain support and survive. In 2012 our landlords decision to find a new tenant and increased rental costs have meant that even though we secured funding from the Ian Potter foundation in 2012 sadly we have had to close at the end of June 2012. We are a non-profit community run, volunteer staffed artist run gallery that starting in 2001. After 11 years we are now having to completely review our operations and rethink our structure, and find other income sources. Another local organisation may give us a temporary office, but we have no gallery any more. As a small community initiated gallery we contributed a huge amount to the community, we have shown thousands of artists work and over 200 exhibitions in nearly 11 years. We have done everything possible to improve the sustainability of our organisation but the facts are a non-profit community/volunteer gallery already contributes $100,000 of dollars to the economy and cultural life and NEEDS FUNDING to match the contribution we are making or the City of Darebin and Victoria will loose its cultural standing and valuable assets. Small organisations need to be funded as well as medium and large ones. Funding applications need to be aimed at volunteer run organisations, not just ones with paid staff - or we can never climb the rungs of funding to afford paid staff. Volunteers need access to support, mentoring and professional skills to continue to build their capacity. There is no excuse - Darebin, Victoria and Australia can afford the arts, in fact our economy and society NEEDS the arts. The ARTS are NOT a luxury, they are a necessity and we will not stand by and watch it be dismantled!
Synergy Gallery is very sad to announce the closure of Synergy Gallery aty 253 High Street Northcote, our home of nearly 11 years, since we opened on November 24th 2001 and brought with us a new lease on life for the area. As of the end of June 2012 Synergy will exist as a 'nomadic' gallery until we can find a more permanent home. If you have any offers or suggestions or want to contact us, we would love to hear from you at synergygallery @ gmail.com.
We would like to encourage you to stay in touch, keep up your membership and look out for us appearing near you soon.
Synergy Gallery would also like to thank you for all your generous support and keep interest over the years, you are what has made this community gallery so special!
Below is an outline of the circumstances that has lead to our closure, we know you feel as passionately about the arts as we do and hope you will join us to insist their support continues.
Till we meet again, farewell friends!
Much creativity to you all. x
***
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| Last day of Synergy Gallery 30th June 2012, at 253 High St Northcote Photo Credit: Katie Roberts © 2012 |
Cuts in funding from re-current $10,000 from our local council to zero in 2011/12 have meant a serious struggle to gain support and survive. In 2012 our landlords decision to find a new tenant and increased rental costs have meant that even though we secured funding from the Ian Potter foundation in 2012 sadly we have had to close at the end of June 2012. We are a non-profit community run, volunteer staffed artist run gallery that starting in 2001. After 11 years we are now having to completely review our operations and rethink our structure, and find other income sources. Another local organisation may give us a temporary office, but we have no gallery any more. As a small community initiated gallery we contributed a huge amount to the community, we have shown thousands of artists work and over 200 exhibitions in nearly 11 years. We have done everything possible to improve the sustainability of our organisation but the facts are a non-profit community/volunteer gallery already contributes $100,000 of dollars to the economy and cultural life and NEEDS FUNDING to match the contribution we are making or the City of Darebin and Victoria will loose its cultural standing and valuable assets. Small organisations need to be funded as well as medium and large ones. Funding applications need to be aimed at volunteer run organisations, not just ones with paid staff - or we can never climb the rungs of funding to afford paid staff. Volunteers need access to support, mentoring and professional skills to continue to build their capacity. There is no excuse - Darebin, Victoria and Australia can afford the arts, in fact our economy and society NEEDS the arts. The ARTS are NOT a luxury, they are a necessity and we will not stand by and watch it be dismantled!
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