About
The Arts Circus schedules The Gym for festivals and events around the central Free Theatre New Works and Education Programme. If you would like to inquire about hiring the space please contact us.
Comments by Event Partners
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Jodi Wright
Director, Jazz and Blues Festival: "We hired the space as one of the venues for this year's Jazz and Blues Festival (April 7-12) and it worked out amazingly well. The Gym served the festival’s Jazz Cabaret Club very well, and the response from the artists and audience was great. The Gym is a well-equipped space and ideal for performances of a particular size creating a lovely intimate ambiance that makes the audience feel involved in the performance. The Christchurch Arts and events community has been forced to endure a severe lack of venues in the post-quake inner city and so it wonderful that The Gym is now available in The Arts Centre. We fully support The Gym as an ongoing performance space, and we hope to be able to use it in years to come. It is well managed by working artists, and this is to the benefit of the arts community and the wider community it serves." |
Craig Cooper
Director, Christchurch Arts Festival: "The Gym at The Christchurch Arts Centre provides a unique contemporary performance space. As an intimate space with just over a 200 seat capacity and a found-space aesthetic it is perfect for independent companies who wish to push performance boundaries without the restrictions of more traditional venues. With the current venue situation in Christchurch it is essential that this venue continue to be available for the presentation of contemporary work in the central city. For the 2015 Festival The Gym has proved to be a key venue, ensuring that the programme can return in strength to the Festival's natural home at the Arts Centre. The Gym has now successfully developed an identity as a place where interdisciplinary experimentation can take place." |
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Rata Foundation Chief Executive Louise Edwards wrote:
"Last night was fabulous! Thanks so much for your help and support in making it such a success. I loved your wonderful venue and have had lots of feedback from people saying how much they enjoyed being there. Thanks again." |
Arrow International Strategic Developments Director, Steven van der Pol wrote:
"The event was a great success – we have had reviews from our Christchurch clients and consultants that they enjoyed themselves and they were raving about the venue. You undoubtedly have some new fans and I would expect some of them will be attending the extended season of Kafka's Amerika! The Gym will be one of the new hotspots in Christchurch and we wish the Free Theatre the very best of luck, as you become one of the pillars of Christchurch’s Art and Performance community." |
Arts Centre Chief Executive André Lovatt wrote:
"The Arts Centre trustees met last night and have asked that I write to express our thanks and appreciation to FTAC for the use of the Gym for our event last Thursday evening. You were wonderful hosts and we were delighted to be able to give some of our stakeholders the opportunity to see, and interact with, the set for Kafka's Amerika." |
Arts Circus: a project in development
The Arts Circus is a post-earthquake initiative that was proposed to provide a transitional arts and entertainment village in the central city. Inspired by the Tollwood Festival in Munich, the Arts Circus design is based around a series of small to medium sized performance venues that will present a range of arts from the conventional to the experimental with accompanying and integrated hospitality and markets (initially proposed to sit beside and include the Odeon Theatre). It offered to host the city's established festivals and conceived new events like the Festival of Temporary Architecture (later FESTA) that engaged with the new city. The project gained widespread support from the arts community (promoted by Arts Voice) and was drafted into the original Christchurch City Council (CCC) Plan for the recovery of the city and the subsequent Christchurch Central Development Unit (CCDU) Blueprint. A partnership with Free Theatre has allowed the project to come to life in the Arts Centre. While working with the Free Theatre to programme The Gym for festivals and events around the central New Works and Education Programme, Arts Circus also looks to provide support and facilitate other post-quake arts and creative initiatives.
The original Arts Circus proposal in April 2011 was centered in a carpark next to the historic Odeon Theatre. Combining a series of venues and hospitality around a central marketplace, the Arts Circus was designed to offer a unique experience to complement new transitional ventures in Christchurch such as Re:Start and EPIC. When the original site was lost to the Central Government development of local regional council Environment Canterbury, further sites were explored most significantly Cathedral Square where a committee of local landowners voted to site Arts Circus around the cathedral. However, with the Blueprint focus shifting to permanent buildings and projects such as the new Convention Centre, the Arts Circus looked elsewhere for a site. Designers: George Parker, Jason Mill and Sam Martin.
It has been a joy to recently see the plans for the ‘The River of Arts’ and the ‘Arts Circus.’ I strongly support the philosophy behind the projects and see them as a great opportunity to weave together and make visible the numerous under currents of the arts that have made Christchurch a city of excellence and innovation."
Neil Dawson
"Christchurch could be revamped and made into a more beautiful and enviable city than it has ever been. One way to do that is to embrace the concepts put forward by River of Arts and Arts Circus. Now is the time to become leaders here, not lapdogs; to seize the opportunity to produce something that we would be intensely proud of and others would admire."
Brian Turner
The vision here is outstanding."
Chris Doig
Arts Circus, Mark II. Designed by Jason Mill (Pivnice), this container venue was proposed for Market Square in the Arts Centre. An MOU was signed with the Arts Centre Trust board and supported by CCC, CERA and CNZ but the project has not gone ahead due to a lack of funding. However, Arts Circus has commenced through the partnership with Free Theatre in The Gym.
Media
"Munich yields concept for Christchurch Arts Circus", The Press, 18 October 2011
"Can Christchurch be revitalised", The Listener, 16 June 2012
"David Yencken: creating places for people". The Listener, 14th July 2012
"Can Christchurch be revitalised", The Listener, 16 June 2012
"David Yencken: creating places for people". The Listener, 14th July 2012
