As a rising number of artists and creative businesses shut shop or leave town, a new report argues we should boost supply of affordable space for recording, rehearsing and making creative work.

Making It In Sydney, the new report from urban policy think tank Committee for Sydney, follows extensive consultation, and sets out a series of actions to protect and provide more creative floorspace.  

The data tells a powerful story, with chronic housing unaffordability, cost of living and especially the cost of space to make creative work taking a big toll on the workforce:

• Sydney’s home to Australia’s highest concentration of cultural production workers at 37%
• Sydney’s cultural and creative workforce contracted 6% over the decade to 2021, more than four times the national drop of 1.37%
• Creatives are paying out a huge 62% of median artist income on median rent (nearly doubled since 2008, when it was 38%)
• There is no data for workspace spanning the whole city, but 30% drop in the amount of creative floorspace in in the City of Sydney LGA over the decade from 2012 (a period when overall floorspace increased 15%)

Matt Levinson, report author and culture policy lead at Committee for Sydney, said creatives were under enormous pressure.

“Sydney creatives are paying out more than half their income on rent, with a third of the city’s space for creative work being redeveloped over the past decade. We’re seeing a growing number of these businesses shutting shop and leaving town, and it should be keeping all of us up at night.

“The grim reality is a city without space for creative culture is a city with less of the originality, surprise, delight and meaning we need in our everyday lives. Less of the work that tells our stories in favour of the kind of established performers or work imported from other places that comes with a lower risk profile.

“We’ve compiled this report to make the case for protecting and making more affordable floorspace, a critical enabler that will allow creatives to take risks and tell our stories.”

Read the full report: Making it in Sydney