Chris Maver, local artist, has received a Lord Mayor’s Suburban Initiative Grant to record the history of The West End Community Arts Archives to research, and document, histories from Kurilpa cultural and arts organisations, individualss and ephemera, over past 50 years.

Chris will be conducting and recording interviews on Friday the 30th of November from 10:00AM to 5:00PM and on Saturday the 1st of December from 9:00AM to 1:00PM from at the West End Library for the purpose of stockpiling stories, anecdotes and collecting ephemera for this West End Art History Community Project.

West End has and continues to be a vibrant Performance & Arts based community and for this reason alone, its importance as not only an historical area but as a major contribution to the history of greater Brisbane.

Chris ironically was there the night back in the early ‘60s as a child, when he saw the flames tragically consume the West End School of Arts.

He is still holding his breath to see the arrival of the Indigenous Cultural Centre which has been promised for so many decades which has been promised for Musgrave Park by various Councils. Currently, there is no Community Arts Centre or School of Arts in the area, and considering the Inner City population of this area, it screams for a house/facility to platform Projects and events, showcasing its vast array of talent and artistic resources.

With the arrival of World Expo 88, Rents and Land Values of South Brisbane soared and a lot of artists could not afford to live in the area and this is very much the case today.

West End and the South Brisbane area over the years has suffered culturally because of this artistic dispossession due to these rising costs of Inner City properties and living.

Chris has worked at the Rialto Theatre, when it was a live theatre in the ‘90s, with shows Little Shop of Horrors and Star Buck both independently produced. He has worked at the Princess Theatre, Woolloongabba in the mid ‘80s with the TN Company when they reopened the theatre with Zen and Now.

Also in the 90s, Chris worked with Street Arts, a Community Arts Theatre based in West End and producing local productions about West End’s colourful history. The She Goat was a production about a big fat Greek Wedding. He has also worked with Pride Festival at Musgrave Park and the Boundary Street Festival and most recently, its reinvention – The Block Street Party. Notably, staging Cabaret events with the West End Community Association Cabarets at Ahimsa House showcasing West End and Brisbane’s finest cabaret artist.

The West End Community Arts Archives project is stockpiling the local artist stories of today for tomorrow’s generation of artists.It is hoped that this Project will be seen, and maybe read and enjoyed for generations to come. – It is envisaged that Professional and amateur historians, arts practitioners, performers, documentary filmmakers, the local business community and, the West End Library will benefit.

Contact Chris on cmaver@hotmail.com or 0404 703 709 if you are able to contribute.

Â