Help YMCA HQ keep growing as an industry leading youth arts hub and Australia’s only dedicated all-ages live music, dance, art and performance venue with regular events, art exhibitions and youth leadership & development activities! This campaign is to raise funds to complete the installation of the HQ Dance Space Project.
Who Are We?
Hi, we’re the YMCA HQ Youth Music and Arts Hub in Leederville, Western Australia. We’re a small and passionate team who dream big about the potential of inspired young people and how we can work through the arts to support diverse, sustainable and thriving communities.
Over the last 3 years, HQ has continued to grow despite a steady decrease in government funding across the arts and social services sectors. We run a tight ship and we've been able to find new sources of support and forge partnerships to deliver our programs and events. Finding money to upgrade our facility, however, is a little trickier with most funding opportunities limited to program and service delivery.
In 2017, HQ embarked on a comprehensive upgrade and redevelopment of our youth performance facility. We’re transforming our space into a hub for young people from all walks of life to engage with all forms of creative and artistic practice. We will continue to be Australia’s only dedicated all-ages music venue, but we’re growing our activities beyond this to include, dance, performance, visual arts and multi-media to become a multi-arts hub for young people and their creative communities.
In recent times the installation of a sprung floor and other upgrades to the HQ Gig Space has been driven by HQ Youth Worker, Taciano "T" Cavalcante. T is a former professional dancer and performer with more than 20 years experience in the national arts scene and his passion for providing opportunities for young people to grow through the mediums of dance, movement and the arts has been a major factor in seeing this project through to it's current stage. Now we need support from the you - our community!
Why Are We Launching this Campaign?
Our initial research indicated a shortage of affordable dance rehearsal and performance spaces in the Perth metro area and a high demand for space for young and emerging artists and collectives to use for events, artistic development, rehearsal, training and workshops. So, late in 2017, with the support of Federal Member for Perth, the Hon. Tim Hammond, we jumped on an opportunity and successfully secured a $10,000 matching grant from the Federal Government through their Stronger Communities program. This allowed us to embark on our journey and in March 2018 we began the first stage of this redevelopment installing a sprung dance floor in our performance space.
The next step in our transformation is to install mirrors, upgrade our curtains and install a new mobile and user friendly AV control station to power our sound system and lighting for events and other activities - making the space suitable for a range of physical arts practices including dance, physical theatre, martial arts and yoga. Then we will be upgrading our lighting system to offer a professional production capacity across a variety of artistic disciplines.
How Can You Help Us?
This is where HQ needs your help! By contributing financially to this crowd funding campaign you will be helping us complete our facility upgrade and become WA’s leading youth arts space!
The space will be accessible, safe and most importantly, affordable for young performers and artists to access. Emerging artists can enrol in a supported program that includes subsidised access to the space, back office resources (including supported workspaces in HQ’s YCollaborate co-working and project development space) and networking and mentoring opportunities. The space will also be hired to established practitioners and performers for rehearsals, classes and casual use as a way of generating income for HQ to reinvest in the facility and providing subsidised use of HQ’s space (across all forms of the arts) for young people in need of support.
Yours Sincerely,
The HQ team!
What Does The Community Have to Say About YMCA HQ and this Crowd Funding Campaign?
“There is nothing in Perth that compares to what HQ provides, and this kind of venue and facility is hard to find even across Australia. It provides such a valuable resource to young people and the wider community and it is really something special to have a place that young people feel like they have ownership over, that they feel connected to and isn’t just a ‘service’ but actually a cultural asset for them to be part of it’s a real achievement and not something that comes along often.” - Bonnie Davies – The Gelo Company
"We are fully supportive of (YMCA HQ's) intention to create a safe space for dance and other forms of movement at (their) venue. The flooring will not only create a safe physical space for the activity, it will also increase capacity to engage with young people through a range of programs that the new flooring will enable (YMCA HQ) to deliver. We are fully supportive of any initiative that will increase the access of young people to dance classes and workshops." - Gabriel Sullivan - Ausdance WA
"I wish to express my enthusiasm and support for the development of the YMCA HQ gig space in Leederville into a facility suitable for dance and other physical art forms. The proposed development would open up a multitude of applications that support cultural and community wellbeing activities. In particular I see great opportunity for the developed space as a place to support and engage with the highly active Perth dance community to train, rehearse and perform. With the rise in non-competitive and social forms of physical activity such as dance classes, cycling and swimming clubs, the development of the YMCA HQ gig space into a dance suitable space would also provide an exemplar of how to support and provide access for recreational dancers to come together, socialise, create and participate in one of Australia’s most popular past times." - Luke Hopper PhD - Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts
"Youth hubs are very hard to come by in central locations around Perth, and Propel has advocated for this type of space for almost 10 years. Not only is HQ very conveniently located but it has also been a Leederville institution for many years, primarily as a music venue. In recent years, Propel has partnered with YMCA HQ to present programming that goes beyond just local music and across other artforms, such as theatre, comedy, and visual arts. Propel has also assisted HQ in engaging directly with young people, and we believe that there is a great deal of potential for HQ to better service the young people of Perth with an infrastructure investment to make improvements to the space." - Jamie McGleave - Propel Youth Arts WA
"As a professional dance practitioner who works in education and community engagement, as well as a resident in the City of Vincent, I can see a real need for a space like this in the local area. Teenagers and young adults in our area have very little access to the kind of activities outlined above, outside of cost-prohibitive privately run studios. Facilitating easy access to these activities would assist YMCA HQ in fulfilling its mission of encouraging and supporting young people to make positive and healthy life choices." - Rachael Bott - Creative Moves WA
"I recently produced a show for the 2018 Fringe World Festival at the YMCA HQ. The team were really great and it was such a good spot to be able to put on a show. However the space could be so much more! Right near the main thoroughfare of Leederville and just by the station, it should be a prime spot for more productions of theatre, music and all other creative outputs. There is a great outdoor courtyard and the stage itself has such flexibility for different ideas. Having more money would mean that the space could be better equipped from a technical side of things and allow even more intricate ideas to be made and help so many people to grow." -Thomas Dimmick - Black Martini Theatre
"As a part of the YARN (Youth At Risk Network) I have had a lot of involvement and interaction with the staff @ YMCA HQ. The space they have is one of a kind and an amazing venue for Young people of Perth to attend and enjoy themselves in a safe place. We have held a number of events at HQ and all have been a success but the events are growing every year and are extremely important to the young people as they encourage creativity and a positive outlet for young people to express themselves. HQ is the only option for all ages music shows north of the river so it is imperative to be able to provide this kind of opportunity to the young people that we work with." Aaron D'Vaz (a.k.a. Bitter Belief), Mission Australia
