The Gold Coast Cultural Scene Is Growing Fast: These Are The People Making It Happen

There’s something strange about Elephant Rock. An unlikely splash of dull bronze almost hidden in the natural browns and greys. It could almost be a trick of the light if there weren’t people crowding down there, craning their necks at the base of the salted outcrop. 

Wandering closer, something starts to take shape, maybe twice the length of a grown man, with long, slender legs curled as if to leap into the Pacific Ocean.

It’s a frog. A bloody great frog sat on a rock in the sun. According to the Swell Sculpture Festival guide book, its name is Little Tree Frog and it was built by Jay Sikora, a Geelong sculptor that works in metal fabrication.

Little Tree Frog, Jay Sikora. Photo by PBR Images

Dev Lengjel, the festival's arts curator, tells me that they feature a piece on the Currumbin landmark every year. It definitely grabs your attention.

There’s plenty to look at down here at eye level though; 50 pieces spread out along the natural gallery of the Currumbin coastline.

One that draws a lot of attention is Jaco Roeloffs’ call to action on recycling, Superegg. Usually when someone leaves 3,000 used coffee pods on the beach there’s an uproar. Roeloffs did it and won the festival’s Emerging Artist Award, and deservedly so.

Superegg, Jaco Roeloffs. Photo by PBR Images.

Heading down the shore there are ten-foot-tall rusted caltrops, which on closer inspection are actually twisted human forms, an incredibly elegant 3D-rendered self-portrait of artist Itamar Freed, and an aural sculpture that responds to movement with humming synth drones, a little reminiscent of a John Carpenter soundtrack.

While I wander barefoot through the collection, Lengjel shares that in its 17 years, Swell has grown from an event attracting 6,000 visitors to now attracting close to 300,000. It's genuinely astounding growth, which is a running theme early in my visit.

The first conversation I have in the Gold Coast is about progress. Andy, the chatty, middle-aged Uber driver that snags me at the airport points out the cranes and high rises sprouting over and in between the city’s more long-lived landmarks - a giant, grinning golf ball on a stick, Miami High’s Hollywood-style sign, the Surf Life Saving Clubs.

For some reason we also talk at length about the rising cost of visiting Bali (“Can’t say I’ve ever been, sorry”). It’s the last I’ll hear about Indonesia over the weekend, but the Gold Coast’s rapid development comes up so often that I’m convinced it’s probably the first conversation everybody has here.

If you live in any other major city along the east coast, you’ll have a met jaded GC expat or two. They’re usually in their early 20s and fairly vocal about finally living somewhere with something going on. 

It doesn’t take long though before you get the impression that the Gold Coast is full of people actively, and passionately, working to make that change. And they’re excited. Things are happening and it’s exciting.

One of the biggest is obviously HOTA. A very good sign that a city is taking its cultural scene seriously is an art gallery/architectural marvel with an acronym for name - GOMA, MONA, NGV (we make you spell it out in Melbourne ‘cause we’re snooty like that) - and the Home Of The Arts aims to rival the best of them.

The main gallery and its surrounding precinct have been designed by award-winning firm ARM Architecture with an eye for bold colours and a honeycomb-looking “3D Voronoi”. The $60.5 million project won’t be complete until 2020, or early 2021, but the finished outdoor stage is a clear statement of City Of Gold Coast’s ambitions.

Four curved supports hold a pointed, 'honeycombed' oval shade cover over a black box theatre, which is disguised as a tiered garden full of native plants. Functionally, it’s a 5,000 capacity open-air theatre space. Visually the effect is of the shell of a colossal, impressionist tortoise peeking out over a lush sand dune. It’s stressed that the plan for HOTA is to incorporate and amplify the natural surrounds and it’s hard to imagine they could have achieved it more spectacularly.

HOTA outdoor stage.

On the grassroots level is the recently opened Mint Art House. Mint’s ethos is that “creativity is free for all - and best expressed openly” and it’s a good argument for art being a reflection of its environment. The Gold Coast seems too bright and outgoing to have an exclusionary art scene and even the underground is shot through with light.

The space is home to a group of artists that have pooled their resources together so that everyone benefits from some extra elbow room. Between the crew there are painters, ceramicists, crocheters and wood burners, and their Wednesday ‘Sip and X’ workshops are an open invitation to join the community. BYO bottle of your preferred plonk and make planters with Judy, or find out what pyrography is from Emily Rose. Learn to sculpt with Andrew Cullen, last year's Swell Award winner. 

If you’re not sure what outlet suits you, the gallery space also has its official opening on 21 September where you can give them all a crack.

Mint Art House. Photo by Kirra Smith. 

Elsewhere, rumblings that a 10,000 capacity arena could be in the works and the push to develop a music and entertainment precinct in Southport are both excellent news for the city's music lovers. A more immediate gap in the landscape though has been venues that cater to local touring acts - it’s not just your big name international artists that have a habit of skipping over the GC on their way up and down the east coast. 

The team behind Mo’s Desert Clubhouse are looking to fill that gap. 

When I walk in, the place is a very low-key hive of activity. The grand reopening is this Saturday, 21 September (so you can work on your watercolours at Mint during the day and not feel guilty about sleeping through Sunday) and there’s still plenty to do. Psyche-desert murals to paint, construction mess to clear, interstate journos to humour.

Co-directors Kimberly Ferguson, Emilia Ugarte and Christian Tryhorn converted the Burleigh warehouse around two years ago and have been tangled in "intense red tape" almost ever since. During that time it’s powered on and grown into a community hub, housing a rehearsal space for bands, studio spaces, and vintage op shop, Thryft GC. But first and foremost it’s always been a gig venue, and now they've been cleared as a fully licensed bar, they've been able to give the place a top to bottom kit out. They’re free and clear to go ham, much to the benefit of people looking for a good show of a weekend.

Mo's Desert Clubhouse. Photo by Sam Wall.

There is a lot going on up here - three days isn't nearly enough to get around it all - and these are the people making it happen.

To discover Gold Coast’s year-round smorgasbord of arts, culture and live music visit wearegc.com.au.

Disclaimer: The writer was the guest of City Of Gold Coast, Swell Sculpture Festival and HOTA, Home of the Arts.