Ipswich City Council in Queensland is recruiting artists and designers from their large regional base and assisting them to create their own incomes through the work they are already trained to do.
Artists are particularly vulnerable to economic downturn for two main reasons...the business cycle and the role of other jobs in a tight employment market.
They may not have been characterised as 'artist run initiatives' but exhibition spaces run by artists have been around, in one form, or another for a long time.
A recurring feature of recent initiatives is to be self-funded or to operate with a minimum level of government funding and frequently to begin with a limited time frame in mind. The social side of such organisations cannot be underestimated and is probably as important as any art that eventuates.
A brief guide to Melbourne's artist run galleries: Ether Ohnetitel, The Women's Gallery, Gallery Gecko, The COOP, A For Art Space, Making Sense Contemporary Art Space, The Basement Project, Argyle Street Studios, West Space, Arts Post, RedPlanet, Another Planet Posters, Red Letter Community Workshop, A.R.T. (artaroundtown), First Floor, Store 5, Room 4, ROAR Studio, Temple 29 and 41 Gold Street.
The Premier of Victoria may claim that his government has opened Victoria for business, but it is the important role of local government and the Federal Government in developing arts training and facilities that is really making the running. Artists are no longer in their garrets but in front of pcs in their offices.
Operating both as an industry training ground and as a space for creative experimentation, low budget film and video production must be thought of as an economic and a cultural investment.