Primrose Park Artists' Studios

Primrose Park Artists' Studios Applications

North Sydney Council supports artists to develop their professional art practice by providing six low cost shared studio spaces at Primrose Park Arts Centre, Matora Lane (off Young Street), Cremorne for a 12-month period.

Key dates

Applications for the 2024/2025 residencies have now closed
Successful applicants will be notified  mid September 2024
Studio tenancies commence October 2024

Eligibility

Applications are open to:

• Artists from the Northern Sydney and Greater Sydney regions. Artists from the North Sydney Local Government area or artists who are working towards locally based outcomes are encouraged to apply.  
• Emerging, mid career or professional artists
• Applicants 18 years of age or over

Ineligible applicants

Artists who have participated in North Sydney Council’s studio program in the last 12 months are ineligible to apply this round unless they have a confirmed project with an outcome in North Sydney Local Government Area (LGA).

Permitted artforms

A range of art forms will be considered including sculpture, painting, installation, digital media etc, however the following is not permitted in Council’s studios:

• materials that emit toxic fumes
• materials that require extraction fans
• materials that result in hazardous waste
• processes, tools and equipment that emit excessive noise

Selection criteria

The selection panel is comprised of representatives from North Sydney Council's Arts and Culture staff and another industry expert. Applications will be assessed on the following criteria:

• Applicant's vision, potential and quality of work, originality of ideas
• Impact of the studio residency to the applicant’s professional development
• Suitability of the applicant's practice and ability to work in a studio space in a collaborative manner
• Commitment to attend the studio regularly
• Value of a studio in North Sydney LGA to the applicant's practice
• Applicant's capacity and interest in contributing to the cultural life of North Sydney

Fees and tenancy conditions

Successful artists are required to enter into a licence agreement that sets out the terms and conditions of the tenancy.

• Studios are offered for 12 month tenancy
• Studio hire is $45 per week payable in quarterly instalments
• Successful applicants require their own public liability insurance of $20 million for the period
• Successful applicants require a current NSW Working With Children Check
• Artists are responsible for insuring their property and contents
• Studios are non-residential. Overnight stays are not permitted
• Studios can be accessed from 7am-9pm 7 days

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About the studio spaces

Primrose Park Artists’ Studios is located at picturesque Primrose Park, off Matora Road Cremorne on the land of the Cammerygal People. Primrose Park is home to parks, playgrounds, sporting fields, Artist Studios and Primrose Park Arts & Craft Centre. Surrounding bushland points of interest include Willoughby Falls, Aboriginal rock art and the former Primrose Park Sewerage Works structure.

Primrose Park Artists Studios consists of two separate spaces located on the upper level and lower level and adjoins Primrose Park Arts & Craft Centre.

Upper level

• accommodates 3 artists in a shared space where individual spaces are separated by partitions
• each space has a trestle table, chair, small storage cabinet
• access to plenty of natural light
• the upper and lower level studios are not connected and entry is from two distinct areas
• the upper level is wheelchair accessible

Lower level

• lower level accommodates two artists in this shared space
• there are no space partitions
• space contains storage, foldable tables, chairs
• the lower level is not wheelchair accessible

Shared facilities include

• small kitchenette
• gender neutral bathroom
• small lounge area on the upper level
• professional gallery hanging system on the upper level, professional gallery lighting

Facilities do not include

• wi-fi or internet access
• air conditioning

Permitted artforms

All art forms will be considered including sculpture, painting, installation, digital media etc, however the following are not permitted in Council’s studios:

• materials that emit toxic fumes
• materials that require extraction fans
• materials that result in hazardous waste
• processes, tools and equipment that emit excessive noise

Access, parking, transport

The studios can be accessed seven days a week between the hours of 7am and 9pm. Overnight stay in the studio is not permitted. 

There is a Council car park, however there are no designated spaces for studio artists. The car park accommodates visitors to the Arts Centre, Artists studios, tennis courses and sporting fields. The centre is a 10 minute walk from Military Road where there are numerous bus stops.

Current Artists in Residence

Shahroud Ghahani

Shahroud an Iranian-Australian artist who holds a Master of Arts at the University of New South Wales, Bachelor of Design (Visual Communication) and a Graduate Diploma (New Media) from the University of Technology Sydney. With twenty years of work as a designer, Shahroud has won awards for her contributions to illustration, design and digital media in Sydney and abroad. Shahroud’s artworks bridge together rich images from disparate cultures and her experiences of them. Her practice explores representations of the female body and themes of beauty, the grotesque, and identity within Eastern and Western traditions. Her art is also inspired by explorations of metaphysical subjects. She interweaves dreamscapes, liminal and imaginary spaces, displaced objects and allegorical imagery.

Shahroud has had her work exhibited in galleries across Sydney including First Draft exhibition in 2023.  She is a finalist for the 2023 Grace Cossington Smith Biennal Art award, 2023 Gosford Art Prize, 2022 and 2023 Fisher's Ghost Art Prize, 2023Flow , Contemporary Art Prize  Arts in the Valley Art Prize, 2021 Hawkesbury Art Prize, and a finalist for the 2018 and 2019 Kudos Emerging Artist Award.

Toshiko Oiyama

For Toshiko, drawing is a way of asking questions that cannot be answered in words. One question she has been asking is what it means for all things to be in a constant state of transience. She explores the fundamental nature of transience that also contains, paradoxically, the unchanging law that governs everything in the physical universe. Using free-flowing ink, thread as drawing media, and systemic grid made of pinhole punctures, she experiments with the interaction between the 2D surface of paper and the 3D effects of punctures and threads.

Born in Japan, Toshiko subsequently lived and worked as a graphic designer in Holland, the USA, Indonesia, Singapore and New Zealand before settling in Australia. She is a winner of Tim Olsen Drawing Prize, and has been a finalist in Dobell Drawing Prize, Hazelhurst Art on Paper, Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing, and Kedumba Drawing Award. She holds a PhD and a Masters degree in fine art from the University of New South Wales, College of Fine Arts (COFA, now Art and Design UNSW). Toshiko lectures in drawing at National Art School.

Frances O’Rourke

Frances’ primary focus is to capture the splendour of the uncontained  surrounding landscape. The cerebral connections to area, feeling the slightest of changes as they occurred in real time. Experiencing this subtle evolution guided her into a meditative headspace where she allowed the land to lead her in making decisions on structure, marks and colour to express the movement and gravity of the area. holds a Bachelor of Fine Art from the National Art School and Certificate of Floristry from Pearson School of Floristry. and held a solo exhibition at  (Northern Beaches)

Beth Radford

Beth creates complex hard-edge geometric paintings that refer to the inherent systems that govern the natural world. With a Bachelor of Science (Mathematics) and a Bachelor of Arts (Religious Studies), the University of Sydney, Beth unites her interests to create pieces that are intended to be both intellectual explorations of form and symmetry, as well as objects of contemplative focus

Beth is curious about the relationship between order and beauty. The natural world is intricately ordered, full of pattern and progression, symmetry and sequence, repetition and replication. Yet it is also chaotic and unpredictable due to the incalculable number of influences and interactions that affect existence. Her paintings always begin with a highly structured pattern, most recently she has endeavoured to create patterns that imply movement and fluidity. These patterns are coloured in such a way as to heighten their kinetic effect.

Dr Katie Williams

Artist and academic, Katie Williams completed her PhD at Sydney College of the Arts in 2017. Katie’s practice is focused on socially-engaged works that employ forms of performance, installation, painting and film. Often incorporating audience action as the living material of her work to create a space for thought and questioning around cultural forms, authenticity, and agency. Katie has exhibited in Australia at galleries such as Art Gallery of NSW, Roslyn Oxley Gallery 9, Town Hall Gallery Melbourne and at multiple ARIs including Peloton, MOP and Alaska. She has worked and exhibited internationally at the Banff Centre of the Arts in Alberta Canada, The Prague Quadrennial of Performance, Design and Space, at the London Transart Triennale.