Gaffa in Sydney aims to foster young artists and designers, developing their careers and giving much-needed exposure. The Arcade Project is just another of their initiatives.
We spoke to Sarah Thornton from the Finders Keepers market, who will be taking over The Arcade Project for the next 3 months.
What is The Arcade Project and how has Finders Keepers become involved?
The Arcade Project was an initiative started by Gaffa, in which they opened retail pop-up shops for 3 month leases. We were keen to get involved and change the lease periods to smaller blocks of 4-5 weeks and rotate new designers more often.
We also wanted to collaborate with designers to include our own collective and use this opportunity to host our first series of workshops at Gaffa.
How will the next 3 months work?
We really wanted to move into something different from the markets that we usually run, something that helps further build designers profiles beyond the market stalls.
This is an exciting opportunity for designers to directly experience a retail setup without having the major commitments.
Reading in the Frankie magazine bookstall
How did this partnership come about?
Gaffa approached us to get involved in some way, shape and form so we decided to put together a proposal.
Instead of just occupying one space we really wanted to use the whole space to its full potential, in this way we’re helping facilitate but it’s still up to the designers to really utilise the space and the connection with their direct networks.
Why the shorter leases?
We thought it would be a good idea to offer the shorter leases and also start the collective for the designers who weren’t ready to occupy a full space either because they didn’t have enough stock or financially it was a big step for them. It was nice to be able to group together and offer an alternative opportunity via Gaffa.
I think we are bringing something new to Gaffa.
What’s the response been so far?
We have just launched, we actually are having the launch party this Thursday! Come along.
So far the response has been great, I think as it’s such a unique opportunity we have had lots of initial interest. It will be interesting to see the response as it builds over the next few months.
The Finders Keepers
thefinderskeepers.com
Gaffa
gaffa.com.au