Rotorua Lakes Council (RLC) is encouraging inner city landlords and local artists to attend a forum to gauge interest in an empty shops enhancement project.

Re-vibe Rotorua is a council initiative promoting pop up stores on short term leases of vacant inner city premises and other spaces for creative and community uses.

A meeting will be held at 1pm on April 30 at Te Runanga Tea Rooms to further explore the concept, with members of the public invited to attend.

RLC senior lead advisor, Tania Short, said Re-vibe Rotorua is a creative response to empty inner city shop spaces while supporting the development of a visible and thriving creative sector in Rotorua.

The project also complements the council’s Rotorua 2030 goal around revitalisation of the inner city area.

“Artists need spaces to work in, but most work from home to save costs. Commercial buildings that would otherwise be ideal artist studios are charged out at market rates which tend to be prohibitive for artists,” said Short.

“The whole idea of a renew project is to make use of spaces that are temporarily empty. It’s not about trying to create permanent arts centres or enduring infrastructure; it’s about reusing and recycling temporarily empty spaces to create hubs for creative activity in the knowledge that creative activity is a great vehicle for urban renewal.”

Short would like to hear from inner city landlords prepared to provide their empty shops for the short term on ‘meanwhile lease’ terms. She also wants to hear from home-based artists and creative industry specialists looking to take their enterprise idea to the next level and test it in an inner city store environment.

For more information contact Tania Short at Rotorua Lakes Council on 07 351 8066 or by email, creative@rdc.govt.nz.