The Strutt Sisters

We first came to the former Parry Street address when the centre was known as the Newcastle Community Arts Centre, in 1996, fresh out of art school. We were in the right place at the right time as there was only one studio available at the time and we really thought it was THE most amazing space. We were so lucky to have scored one of the larger, wooden floored school classrooms on the top floor and we looked out over Newcastle through a wall of windows which blessed the room with natural light all day. We were so excited to start making art and moved into studio 18 straight away. When we met the other tenants and started bouncing ideas off each other, we knew we were part of something special.

Not long after we had moved in, we made and entered one or two works into a tenant’s group show, held in the downstairs gallery. During the opening, art dealer Damien Minton, looking for artists to represent, approached us and asked to see more work. After showing him other work upstairs in our studio, he immediately signed us into his stable of artists and so began our professional art career.

Damien had amazing contacts and we were soon in the yearly cycle of producing a body of work for solo shows and selling to many notable people in his contacts such as former director of Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art, Elizabeth Ann MacGregor and comedian Mikey Robbins. Thanks to Damien Minton Gallery, our work resides nationally and internationally in public and private collections and our public profile is represented in newspapers, lifestyle magazines, television and books.

Our relationship with our studio was meaningful and consistent. We treated the studio like our workplace and turned up for work every day. We watched Dr Phil during our lunch breaks and visited other studios for chats. We started our jewellery business in the studio, had buyers and over-seas students visit, conducted workshops, and even had SBS TV come and film us for a segment on their Insight program.

Every single art work and jewellery piece we ever made was created, on the floor and on the jewellery table, amongst the chaos. Jennifer’s son Isaac, found his passion for using hand tools in the studio as a toddler and played amongst the piles of fabric. Isaac painted his own artwork, entering it in a tenants group show when he was just three.

We will always treasure our time, the lifelong mates and the exhibitions we made at the centre and so when in 2016 it became time to leave our second home, after twenty years of tenancy, the heartbreak and pain was deep. Afterwards, we made our studio in our grandfather Hazza’s house and we look forward to building a new studio in the near future!

We are so happy the Newcastle Art Space survived and continues in its current address and wish it all the best for another 40 years!”