Please note: this is an old article
It was published in April 2012, so the information may be out-of-date.
Hopefully you had a chance to check out the Pop-up Art Shops while on display from 9 March to 9 April at 62 High Street and 314 Wyndham Street. The project transformed these two temporarily vacant shops into spectacular multi-media art installations by two leading Australian contemporary artists.
At 62 High Street the film I Am Not a Joke (2007), by Sydney artist Kate Mitchell was projected across the shop window. The film showed the artist sawing a hole in the floor and falling through like a scene from a Looney Tunes cartoon.
At 314 Wyndham Street Melbourne artist Andy Hutson filled the former newsagency with the paper-mâché installation Lucky Strike (2012) that showed a life size diorama of gold mine where the lucky chaps had uncovered an enormous gold nugget in the middle of an abandoned shop.
The project was successful in delivering one of the key objectives of the Shepparton CBD Strategy (2008) which is to ‘create public art in the CBD that projects the character and uniqueness of Shepparton and enlivens public spaces.
We received positive feedback from traders in the CBD who were happy to see these vacant stores being put to good use.
The project also added to the SheppARTon Festival program and a number visitors to the Shepparton Art Museum were prompted to visit after seeing the Pop-up Art Shops.
There a number of examples both nationally and internationally where people have taken the Pop-up concept to set up temporary art galleries, community libraries, and other creative industries. These Pop-up shops seemingly appear and disappear creating points of interest and a sense of adventure to a city.
Watch this space....you never know what might pop-up in the Shepparton CBD next. It may be a new shop, restaurant, bar or perhaps even a kooky new community art project.