Artists’ sanctuary in a fight for survival
Irene Warehouse has been a vibrant base for Brunswick arts workers for two decades
Mark Phillips
Friday, November 1, 2024
Irene Warehouse caretakers (from left) Jordan Brown, Aleisha Manion and Lukas Schrank.
Mark Phillips
Friday, November 1, 2024
ITS name gives nothing away about what is inside, although a few clues can be gleaned from the vibrant street art painted on its front walls.
The entry is similarly unprepossessing. But to Brunswick’s arts community, Irene Warehouse is a kind of sanctuary.
In a cul-de-sac off Lygon Street, the fading 1960s clothing factory building is one of a diminishing number of affordable shared arts spaces left in Brunswick. Protected by a heritage overlay, it is home to a diverse group of artists who are being squeezed out of the suburb by gentrification which has seen dozens of old industrial sites turned into high-rise apartment buildings.
Painters, dancers, cabaret artists, dressmakers, animators, photographers, musicians, film-makers, animators, circus performers, sculptors, puppeteers, writers and political activists have all rubbed shoulders within its four walls.
Today, it remains the base for about 30 artists, some well-known, others plying their craft in relative obscurity. In recent weeks, it was a hive of activity as artists fine-tuned their shows for the Melbourne Fringe Festival in the large rehearsal spaces.
But all year round, in small, dark studios on the ground floor, musicians will be working through day and night recording their next album, while on quieter afternoons, craft makers and visual artists toil away in their studios. Dancers or trapeze artists will be using the high-ceilinged rehearsal rooms.
“It’s like choose your own adventure,” says musician and documentary maker Jordan Brown, also known as Jore, one of three caretakers of Irene Warehouse, as he leads a tour through the main two floors of the building.
But the arts collective of Irene Warehouse are now fighting for their survival and need to raise more than $10,000 to make urgent changes to the building to meet modern fire safety regulations. If they fail to do so, the artists who work within Irene face being evicted.
So far, they have raised just over a quarter of what is needed.
Clockwise from top left: the front door still retains the original signage from when the building was a lingerie factory; colourful stairs just inside the entrance; a mural for the volunteer welfare program Food Not Bombs; a mural featuring the work of several artists.
From top: the front door still retains the original signage from when the building was a lingerie factory; colourful stairs just inside the entrance; a mural featuring the work of several artists; a mural for the volunteer welfare program Food Not Bombs.
The origins of Irene Warehouse as a community arts space are murky, but it seems to have been established in 2003 by a small collective looking for cheap working space in Brunswick catering to a diverse community of artists, activists, musicians, and performers.
The building itself was built in 1964 as the headquarters of several lingerie manufacturers trading under the name of Tena Lingerie Pty Ltd. It was designed by Anthony Hayden (born as Abraham Hershman), a renowned Polish-born architect of the period who is credited with designing synagogues in Caulfield and Kew in addition to numerous industrial and retail buildings.
Signs of the building’s past life still exist, including a conveyor belt, a massive metal safe that is attached to the concrete floor, and original sockets for an intercom system.
Its entry in the Victorian Heritage Database says it has aesthetic significance “as a fine and notably intact example of the ‘Featurist’ style of the late 1950s and early 1960s”. This style saw conventional and block-like buildings enhanced by decorative ornaments. The original signage is typical of Hayden’s work.
It is believed that manufacturing in the building ceased in the late-1980s and it sat empty for much of the following decade or so. Over the years since it was taken over by artists, the interior has been partitioned and adapted into several dozen small studios, some of them taking advantage of natural light and ventilation. There are also a couple of large spaces used for dance and performance rehearsals and by trapeze and circus artists, along with a professional photography studio used for fashion shoots.
The interior walls are festooned with murals and stencil art contributed by its occupants over the past two decades.
Co-caretaker Aleisha Manion is a circus artist, while Jordan ‘Jore’ Brown is a musician and film maker.
But the building’s ageing charm is also its biggest handicap.
“The council came and did an inspection in February, and we got issued with a building notice in June-July,” said Brown.
“It’s all about fire safety and meeting modern building regulations, which is totally reasonable, but with an old building like this it’s become a challenge trying to bridge that [financial] gap.
“We’re all voluntary here and it’s definitely a labour of love, so it’s difficult.”
Making use of a bequest from a now-deceased former tenant, the co-operative has already spent about $5000 on improvements and has to show the council by November 25 that it has a plan to complete them.
The changes have already meant some studios which are non-compliant on a mezzanine on the south side of the building have had to close.
But there are many other improvements still to be done, some requiring modifications to the building such as removing and replacing old stairways, adding emergency exit lighting, replacing exterior doors with fire escape doors and safety hardware, and overhauling the ageing electrical and gas piping infrastructure. There are other smaller jobs like installing fire extinguishers and changing door handles.
The budget for these works is estimated at about $10,000 – money which none of the artists using the building can spare. An online fundraiser launched by the caretakers has so far pulled together almost $3000 towards that target.
The caretakers say they are fighting not just for the future of Irene Warehouse, but for the arts community in Brunswick which is under siege from gentrification as old industrial sites are swallowed up by residential property developers.
Rising rents and a dearth of suitable spaces has led to an exodus of artists from Brunswick that accelerated during the Covid pandemic.
“There used to be all sorts of places [in Brunswick] for art and projects and this area was known for that, but now it’s not so much,” said circus artist and aerialist Aleisha Manion, another of the caretakers, reeling off the names of now defunct arts spaces.
Along with providing physical space for their creative practice, Irene serves a second purpose of allowing networking and cross-collaboration by people from all kinds of disciplines.
“There’s a real community, that northside arts vibe where people want to come here to Brunswick and to this area and want to be where there’s other artists and arts spaces,” said Manion.
Dressmaker Samantha Ives says Irene reminds her of her native San Francisco “before Big Tech took over”.
“This is the most inter-disciplinary creative space I have ever seen,” Ives says. “You’ve got drag artists, musicians, circus performers, people doing pottery.”
Ives arrived at Irene after her previous studio near the Upfield railway line closed when the building was redeveloped into apartments. She said her sewing machines are noisy, meaning most co-worker spaces in Brunswick would be unsuitable for her business.
Maryanne Doyle has a light and airy studio at the front of the warehouse overlooking Pitt Street in what was possibly the old factory manager’s office, where she spends two to three days a week working on her oil paint portraits.
A studio within walking distance of her Brunswick apartment allows her to pursue an interest in painting that she resumed after retiring as a film and sound archivist in 2020.
“To find something locally is fantastic,” she said.
“I live in a one bedroom apartment and because oil painting requires light and ventilation there aren’t a lot of places available close by so without this I would have to look further afield.
“We need a creative community in Melbourne and it’s very important we have these venues where people are able to pursue their interests which may not give them much income but which contribute to the fabric of the area.
“Brunswick is changing so much with all the apartments being built and we need a balance with these spaces as well.”
In a large, light-filled mirrored rehearsal space on the same floor as Doyle’s studio, members of the drag and burlesque cabaret company YUMMY were practicing dance routines for an upcoming show at Brunswick’s Howler on Halloween.
Irene Warehouse has been home base for YUMMY for about five years in between touring the Australian and international fringe circuit, including London’s West End and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
“Spaces like this are really hard to come by,” said YUMMY’s artistic director and founder, whose stage name is Valerie Hex, during a break in rehearsals.
“This dance and circus space is really affordable and professionally run, there’s a real community factor, and an amazing energy around the place.”
Left: instruments and effects pedals set up for a recording session. Right: stencil art of Norman Gunston shares space with a political message.
From top: Maryanne Doyle began taking oil painting seriously after she retired; Max Missingham (behind drum kit) and sound engineer Tom Keyte in Keyte’s ground floor recording studio; instruments and effects pedals set up for a recording session; stencil art of Norman Gunston shares space with a political message.
Jordan Brown says the building’s long-erm owners — a Caulfield family — have been supportive and conveyed that they want Irene Warehouse to continue as an arts space as long as the caretakers make the improvements needed for it to comply with the council’s regulations.
A couple of years ago, the community in Irene Warehouse was involved in the ultimately successful campaign to prevent a giant Bunnings warehouse being built across the road from it in Pitt Street.
Now, Brown says the battle to protect Irene is also about preserving the soul of Brunswick.
“A few years ago, Brunswick was so different and there’s been such a rush of gentrification with all of those apartment buildings on Lygon Street that it’s flushed out a bit of the Brunswick grit,” he says.
“We need to save this space because otherwise it will become just another apartment building with a supermarket underneath it.”
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