Every New Zealander needs a Third Place

Preston from Waltham

Title inspired by this article:
thespinoff.co.nz...

Kia Ora,

Thank you for the opportunity to apply and for your work providing resources to community projects and organizations.

This turned into more than I was originally going to share, so I'll lay it out for you:

• INTRODUCTION
• PURPOSE
• WHY WE DO IT
• WHAT WE'VE DONE
• AN EXAMPLE
• WHY WE'RE APPLYING
• WHAT WE'D DO WITH FUNDS
• THANK YOU

• INTRODUCTION:
My name is Preston and I'm the Exchange Operator (the less intimidating version of "Operations Manager") at Exchange Christchurch. The locals know us as "XCHC".
xchc.co.nz...

• PURPOSE:
Exchange was set up as a charitable trust (now a Social Enterprise) in the post-quake context to give people a place to gather and particularly to be creative, develop creative practices, or engage with others through creative events and activities. We do this by providing 4 types of spaces, a "Makerspace" where artists/creative can affordably work together in shared studios (currently about 30 residents). Once you produce your creative work, you need to Showcase it, so we have a venue/gallery for the community to use to showcase their ideas and host events. While showcasing, you obviously need the public, so we have an on-site Cafe/Bar to support the events and give people a place to experience art/creativity in a casual, fun and exciting way. Finally, we have Accommodation, to encourage traveling/international artists to come and contribute their creativity to our Christchurch community, connecting us with talent and ideas from all over the world.

• WHY WE DO IT:
There is no doubt that creativity and the freedom of expression has a profound effect on our mental health and positively influences those around us. This recent article is good evidence of what we do:
medium.com...

From a city-wide perspective, creativity adds diversity to the economy, resilience to its communities and sends a welcoming and innovative message to the rest of the world. We've been privileged to be one of if not the only entity willing to take this risk in Christchurch; a not-for-profit cafe that pays their staff the living wage, sources locally, gives work experience to people who have had serious upsets in their lives and just need some support to get back on their feet AND an arts organization that has not been grant reliant for the last 3 years. This means funding has been able to go towards other groups that need it, and we can self-sustain our impact.

• WHAT WE'VE DONE:
We've hosted over 500 community/creative events, 80+ showcased exhibitions (mostly by emerging artists), and have had over 60 creatives working out of the studios.

• AN EXAMPLE...
...of sustaining this creative ecology can be seen in our upcoming event this Saturday, Everybody Eats, Everybody Helps.

Inspired by Everybody Eats in Auckland providing food for the homeless, I saw the need for Christchurch to address the issue locally and support our street whānau as a community. Working with peoples creativity, I often sense the embarrassment of some because of the stigma that exists around wanting to be an "artist"; I could see the connection, people often form preconceived negative ideas about the homeless without ever taking the time or having the space to better understand them. So I decided to host a potluck event at XCHC welcoming the street whānau for the day and give the community, who has often felt helpless with the issue, a chance to get close to them and show their support by gathering together and having some kai and korero.

As a part of this event, I thought we could bring an artistic element of the streets into our venue so they feel more at home; street art. Young artists in our city are begging for opportunities to create the art they're good at. This is often opposed in the city unless it meets a criteria/commissioned etc. We opened the venue for a day and let over 30 people come and engage with creating a street art exhibition as a community, and 7 murals from professional artists have been installed. The youth involved said they've never been given this freedom before... until now. We're fundraising to pay the artists for the materials and their time.
We were interviewed here:
blog.watchthisspace.org.nz...

We now have some sponsors and are not only eating together as a community, but providing haircuts, skill building, hygiene care, and fundraising for a local charity that wants to develop the Everybody Eats model in the city.
The event here:
www.facebook.com...

This has been just the last 2 weeks, and we'll be doing something completely different for the next 2 weeks. It's the nature of community development, open, inclusive, and adapts to what shows up when its needed.

• WHY WE'RE APPLYING
Exchange Christchurch turned 4 yesterday and has always been/is still on a shoestring budget, making it hard for us to get ahead.. sometimes even just getting the lighting or signage we need.

We've gone against all odds, surviving as a cafe outside the CBD (actually across from the abandoned AMI stadium) surrounded by industrial businesses and lower decile neighborhoods, 2 parking spots, expensive rent, paying our staff the living wage, and myself being the only point of contact/operations of this 4-in-1 social enterprise/hub; we may be missing opportunities to even better serve our vulnerable communities (YOUTH).

I can't remember the last time we had more than $10k in the bank, but I also can't remember when it mattered. We do what we do because we love it and it needs to be done. $6k will help us do it that much better :)

• WHAT WE'D DO WITH FUNDS
We would use the fund to get some equipment and lighting to make the venue more welcoming and practical for our communities events. We also need a new website to better tell the stories of the people we've positively impacted and things we've done. Help with marketing means we can also finally reach the people who don't yet know we exist but may be desperate for a "third place".

He aha te mea nui o te ao. He tāngata, he tāngata, he tāngata
What is the most important thing in the world? It is people, it is people, it is people.

• THANK YOU
From myself, the community, the XCHC team, the resident artists, and our mascot cat Walter.

View 1 more…

CoffeeKai2.pdf Download View