Never, a new music and art venue for city
Frankton’s artist-run gallery has been repurposed and rebranded as a performance and display space for visual and aural creatives alike.
Never Project Space, as the venue is now known, was founded in 2015 by artist and curator Eliza Webster who christened it Skinroom, in homage to its previous life as a tattoo studio.
The Commerce St gallery has undergone a transformative facelift and a diverse programme of events, including art exhibitions and music gigs, will now be held on Fridays for the next two months.
Among the first artists to perform at Never is veteran singersongwriter Chris Thompson, whose carefree voice and dexterous guitar playing can be heard on the evening of July 17.
The change in name and programming came about as the result of a serendipitous encounter between Webster, former director of the Wallace Gallery in Morrinsville, and Nicholas Walsh, an expat who recently returned to New Zealand after living and working in Shanghai.
A musician and promoter in Auckland’s underground music community before moving overseas, Walsh was interested in finding a workspace in Hamilton that could double as a music venue.
After meeting Webster, the pair found an easy kinship and a shared goal of facilitating and supporting the city’s arts and music communities, as well as hosting artists from around the North Island.
Walsh said he liked the challenge of putting on music events in a space that primarily functioned as an art gallery.
‘‘We have noise restrictions due to the nature of the space, so the focus is less on your traditional setup of ‘loud rock band on a stage’ and more geared towards intimate shows.
‘‘We will host anything from folk to experimental to beat music. I feel like the way most people listen to music these days is they cherry-pick what they like out of a whole range of different genres. So the music programming will reflect that approach.’’
As well as functioning as a gallery space and venue, the building – which has also hosted a gay club in previous incarnations – hosts four studio spaces and a recording studio, hence the descriptor ‘‘project space’’.
Webster said the partnership worked well because they came from different but complementary disciplines.
‘‘What we have in common is that we both come from that scrappy DIY spirit of putting events on because you feel compelled to do it. You learn as you go and there’s something exciting about that.’’
The pair also have a keen interest in supporting community projects and Hamilton’s literary scene.
‘‘Really the goal is to utilise the spaces we have available as best we can,’’ Walsh said.
‘‘Beyond art events, we have plans in motion for pop-up shops, workshops, photo shoots ... whatever works and whatever there’s a need for.’’
Originally scheduled to rebrand and reopen in May, the Covid-19 pandemic forced plans to be delayed but did not completely halt progress. They moved an exhibition online and hosted a live-streaming event featuring three local artists as well as a Tokyo-based producer.
‘‘I think a lot of creatives are feeling strangely optimistic about life after lockdown. It’s definitely shaken things up, and thrown plans out of whack but that can also be exciting. People have a renewed sense of purpose and are hungry to get back into seeing art and music ‘in real life’ again’’, Webster said.
Webster was particularly passionate about the neighbourhood and the ‘‘unique vibe’’ it brought to Hamilton.
‘‘Our day-to-day life is very much spent on and around Commerce St and there’s nowhere like it in the city,’’ Webster said.
‘‘We’re proud to be a part of this little community and excited about the future of Frankton.’’