About West Space
West Space is a leading independent, non-profit contemporary arts organisation in Naarm/Melbourne, started by artists in 1993.
West Space supports the next generation of artists in Australia. Our year-round program reflects the breadth of artistic practice in this nation, and the complexities of our times.
West Space is a place where artistic safety is cultivated, and where creative community can gather to test and imagine around art and ideas.
Programs
West Space Gallery
Our main space, showcasing visual art commissions and curatorial projects.
West Space Window
Our micro-project space, on the facade of our gallery.
West Space Offsite
Our digital platform, publishing writing and discussion in support of our artistic program.
West Space Studio
A fully subsidised studio, offering residencies above our gallery and office.
Values
First Nations First
West Space operates on Wurundjeri Country, in a nation with an Aboriginal past, present, and future. First Nations voices are embed across our organisation, from our governance to our program.
Creativity
West Space commissions groundbreaking art. We support practice that is conceptually rigorous, experimental, socially engaged, and self-reflexive about the role of art in society.
Advocacy
West Space creates space for voices across culture, class, gender, and ability. Responsive to the needs of artists, West Space mentors and advocates for artists and arts professionals, and leads conversations across the nation and beyond.
Personalised Approach
West Space strives to be open and welcoming. This is a place for creative community to gather to test and imagine around art and ideas. With an understanding that art is for everyone, we contextualise works of art, and communicate complex ideas clearly.
West Space does not seek funding or partnerships from those silencing artists, supporting the genocide in Gaza, or other sites of racial slavery, conflict, social or ecological devastation. Read on.
West Space, 1993 → 2025
West Space was founded by artists Brett Jones and Sarah Stubbs, in the western suburb of Footscray.
In the 1990s, West Space was of the few artist-run spaces in Naarm/Melbourne presenting a critically engaged, multidisciplinary program, accessible through peer-assessed applications.
In 2000, West Space relocated to Anthony Street in the CBD, and in 2005, formed a Board with the strategic skills to steer and grow the organisation.
In 2011, West Space moved to a site spanning five exhibition spaces on Bourke Street. In 2014, we began actively commissioning new work, and in 2017, introduced NAVA-rated fees for all exhibiting artists. As one of the few organisations our size to take this landmark and critical step, West Space is recognised as an exemplary model for best practice. West Space began presenting major commissions spanning the entirety of our galleries.
In 2020, West Space moved to the inner-north, to a single space in multi-arts precinct Collingwood Yards, alongside fellow creatives, not-for-profit organisations and social enterprises.
Here, our focus is on ambitious projects with long incubation periods by artists at all stages in their careers. This is exemplified by the West Space Commission, offering 12-18 months of support across the development, delivery, and communication of new work.
In 2023, West Space launched our Studio program, offering short-term residencies for local artists and international visiting artists among the cohort of studio artists in Collingwood Yards.
West Space's current program involves five major projects in our main space each year, activated by performances, discussion and smaller-scale works in-person and online. We largely program by invitation, with Commissions, Windows and Studio residencies accessible via open-call.
Today, West Space combines the flexibility and creative freedom of an artist-run initiative, with the professional infrastructure and curatorial support of a larger public institution. This affords us a unique position - with the ability to act as a conduit across the arts ecology, connecting national and intergenerational peers and concerns.
