Does It Work?

We’re proud of achieving some significant outcomes. Ballarat Evolve has helped creatives, artists and makers start new businesses. We’ve commissioned them to takeover empty shopfronts by asking them to turn them into works of art. We’ve stood by them as their micro-enterprises change shape and develop.

working with landlords

We pride ourselves on the relationships we create with landlords. Ballarat Evolve helps landlords activate spaces which might have remained dormant for long periods of time. We can assist in finding the right organisation or individual to take over special places, and we work with real estate agents and property managers to bring life and resilience to commercial locations.

Hear from Caroline Guirguis as she explains the value of the Ballarat Evolve program to landlords and land owners.

Helping creatives into shop spaces

Bridget Veld is the founder of Ivy & Coco Studio - a creative homewares space which specialises in handpainted planters and pots. Bridget has an eye for colour and always wanted to expand her creative practice.

“I handpaint pots and planters from my dining room table in Ballarat,” explained Bridget. “I absolutely love indoor plants and have always found it difficult to find unique colourful pots to put them in.

“My solution was to start painting my own, from there Ivy & Coco was born!”

Bridget was placed for a year in a small shop front in central Ballarat. She had a chance to trial the experience of operating a commercial retail space and she certainly had a challenging time! But Bridget is a quick learner and became a talented negotiator, and a little over a year later she was confirming her own retail lease. Bridget’s shop is now an important part of the Ballarat retail scene.

securing creative residencies

Although rare, our creative residencies are one of our most popular and powerful programs. We negotiated access to an under-utilised retail space at 16 Bridge Mall - giving free space to artists for specific periods of time.

takeovers of shop fronts

When COVID hit in 2020 and 2021 the impact upon our programs was immediate. Creatives were struggling to get back into spaces and lockdowns affected them hard - reducing sales and impacting incomes. We struck upon a novel idea - activating windows and helping make sales while maintaining distance.

In 2021 Ballarat Evolve took over five different window locations which profiled 35 different artists and makers, allowing passers-by to ‘shop’ the works via QR code.

THE ORIGINAL LOCATION – 716 STURT ST

The initial trial of the Ballarat Evolve program started in a commercial location that had been used as a medical practice. The space was a large 1920s Art Deco house that was been converted into medical rooms and was deemed perfect as a shared studio space.

This space was not open to the public, instead was activated as quiet studio space to permit each of the artists to focus on their body of works.

The owner kindly offered the building as a trial for 6 months, with an option to renew. Agreements with the artists commenced at the end of June 2018 and completed at the end of December 2018 when the owner successfully sold the building.