11/09/2014
The City of Melbourne has ordered that we must immediately paint over the artwork displayed on
premises 290 DRUMMOND STREET CARLTON - our potential site for a community based café - due to an outdated, unclear and excessive piece of policy framework, regarding heritage / heritage overlay areas, written by state and local planning councils in 2009.
Because of this seemingly archaic policy, our heritage colour based, contemporary style art piece (loved by the community) will be painted over with a standard drab and miserable ‘suit the street’ dark grey!
The policy framework states its purpose being: “to ensure that the development does not adversely affect the significance of heritage places.” It’s not at all clear how a timely, thoughtful, well-planned, up-to-date, culturally significant and effectively executed piece of art could possibly be deemed to be adversely affecting the worst house in the street, before being painted, of its historical significance.
If anything this ‘piece’ will serve to create our current history so, when we walk down the street with our grandkids in years to come, we can see our own past, instead of holding onto some unappealing, passé façade which has been fading into the mix of daunting grey apartment blocks and office buildings filling up this ‘historically significant area’.
In closing, History is not stored in the superficial and plain layers of paint that cover a building; history is nurtured and flourishes through the stories from the people of the community, viewed in photos/videos, written in books and told through artworks like this one.
To take this away would be nothing short of a social travesty when weighed up against the suggested infringements of this planning policy.
We thank you for taking the time to read and sign this petition and hopefully with a successful outcome, we can laugh about it over coffee and some yummy grub at our homely café.
