Introducing the December venue for Creative Drinks; Bleeding Heart Gallery- Brisbane. For those who haven’t been Bleeding Heart is a fantastic, open air space with plenty of room for all our friends!

To learn more have a little read to get yourself acquainted and be sure to check out their site for yourself….

Bleeding Heart is many things – a great place to meet friends, a cafe, an art gallery, a retail outlet and a wireless internet hub.

However, when you visit us, in the historic School of Arts building at 166 Ann Street, you’ll notice that we are a business with a difference.

Sporting the motto, “Using our powers for good and not evil”, we pride ourselves on our operation as a “profit for purpose” organisation.

This means that every dollar YOU spend goes into funding charitable and community enterprise.

We encourage and support positive activism, societal and economic inclusion, education and self-supporting, ethical business practice.

http://www.bleedingheart.com.au/

What happens when a builder, soon-to-be teacher and a student of mechanics engineering get serious about old office space off Elizabeth Street in Brisbane’s CBD?  The Alley: Brisbane’s freshest art and performance space.  Nathan, Wade and Jacob are wiping down the bar, throwing open the plush red curtains and lifting the boom-gate for Creative Drink’s October event.

The guys are keen to get amongst the creatives and business representatives at next Thursday’s event.  With plenty of mingling space, a custom built stage and comfy seats indoors and a an alleyway to lounge in outside, The Alley will play host to an exciting bunch of presenters including Mel from Moonshine Madness, Adrian of Rinzen Design and PARKing Day’s Amy.

Creative Drinks spoke to Wade and Jacob recently to find out more about The Alley and their perspective on the creative vibe in Brisbane.

How did The Alley come about?
Jacob Complete luck I guess.

Wade We stumbled on the place when we were looking for a rehearsal space.  It used to be Jimmy’s on the Mall offices.  We started living here for a while back then, there were walls everywhere and a lower ceiling.  We went away for a few months over Christmas and when we came back we thought we should do something serious with the place.  The coffee shop next door had started up and was doing pretty good business.  They weren’t in there when we first started renting.

We gutted it in one weekend pretty much and just spent months and months getting it to this stage.

Who’s helped you out to make The Alley happen?

W My brother’s an electrician, he’s done all the electrical work.  Our friend that works at music 440 at Indooroopilly, he’s really helped us out.  He’s the singer in Jake’s band, I am Tiger.

How do you describe The Alley to other people?

W It’s an art and performance space.

J A versatile arts venue.

What kind of events have you had here so far?  I know you’ve had the 2high Festival launch and 4C arts collective party.

W We opened with  a BYO night in August.  Same bands played then as they did at the parties we used to throw illegitimately back in the day.  And the I Oh You parties.  It’s a good vibe for BYO.

What makes The Alley different to other spaces? Do you think it fills a niche in the space market in Brisbane?

W Yeah, people really seem to appreciate it.  250 people came this Saturday night (4C art collective party) and it was raining.

J And Dappled Cities were playing at Lightspace Festival.

Where do you see The Alley in 3 years time?  Have you got great visions for it, or are you just taking everyday as it comes?

W Well, this building is for sale, as well as the front of the shops.  The owner is a development corporation.  They want to sell it and build a 67-storey skyscraper.  We’ve got until next year.  After that, it’s uncertain.

J Maybe it might be in a new venue.

Do you do any promotion for the space, or is it all word of mouth?

W The coffee shop is our main outlet: people ask, “What’s going on next door?”  This happened especially when we were in the construction stage.  So I’ve started doing a couple of shifts there to field some of the questions.

Website not up yet, but we’ve got a Facebook page.  Word of mouth really.

You were lucky to be in this space before you turned it into a versatile arts venue, what advice would you give to people wanting to start up a project in a certain space?

J I don’t know if we’re the ones to be giving advice, we’ve kind of just fumbled our way through it, but just have a go.

W There’s a lot of red tape.  We’re still ironing that out as well.  Try to talk to the right people, rather than just make phone calls and send emails.  Get there and talk to them directly.  Helps a lot.

J Established connections and relationships are really important.

For the creative drinks event that’s coming up, we are hoping to get creatives and business people in the same room, mingling and getting projects happening.  Do you think there is anything in common between these 2 sectors?

J I think there’s a lot in common.  I think a lot of the time, those people that are trying to be creative don’t have access to resources and outlets to get their creativity out there.  So I guess that’s where some help from more business minded people would be really helpful.  I think they both go really hand in hand, I mean the best business people are going to be creative in business.

We’re looking forward to that event.

What do you feel is happening in Brisbane at the moment to keep you here, to keep other creatives here?

J I think there’s a really good scene developing here right now.  I think it used to be if you wanted to do anything, you had to go to Sydney or Melbourne, whereas now it seems that there is a really good cultural scene in Brisbane.  Especially like this alleyway shift.

W There’s a real push to keep people.

How do people go about holding an event here?

W Best thing is to contact us via email, info@thealley.com.au, with specs on the event and whatever you want to do.

We’ll back to them from there.

Creative Drinks: 6pm Thursday October 14, The Alley (down Stereo Lane off Elizabeth St, opposite Ticketec).

Creative Drinks 2010 will be launched this July at the iconic Stone’s Corner Hotel (T-Bar). Against the backdrop of historic Brisbane, Creative Drinks will stir together a cocktail of new talent for one deliciously and creatively thirst-quenching evening.

This dynamic event will also celebrate the buzz currently permeating what is arguably promising to be one of Brisbane’s most exciting regions of creative revival; following on from  previous local cultural events including the ‘Artists as Residents’ showcase and the recent ‘Stones Corner Street Festival’ which saw main street come alive for young and old.

July 15th will see the T-bar decked out and ready for a night of creativity and innovation.

The 5thCorner Technology Lounge is a 450m2 purpose built, state of the art audio visual venue. It has been designed to demonstrate the latest in audio visual and home automation technologies available for the residential and commercial market.

The architecturally designed space is unique in that it’s avant-garde and edgy and one-of-a-kind in Queensland. Because of this, it makes for an awesome venue. It has been likened to an underground Japanese nightclub and if you like the Powerhouse, The Met, Lychee Lounge or Barsoma then you’ll love the 5thCorner Technology Lounge. Picture an experience so intensely wild that your every sense will be overloaded!

The Lounge has been host to fashion shows, product launches and corporate events in the past and is frequently requested by photographers and film makers for location shoots. Constantly changing contemporary art from local artists adorns it’s many walls making sure you are NEVER stuck for things to look at.