Future work Katrina Sedgwick, CEO, ACMI
The future of the workplace is here, and its name is ACMI X
What business does a cultural institution have opening up a co-working space? Everything, according to Katrina Sedgwick, who took the helm of the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) in 2015. ACMI X is a coworking space that houses the institution’s 120 full-time staff, the National Film and Sound Archive office, as well as space for over 60 tenants. In many ways, it mirrors the museum’s philosophy of multi-disciplinary collaboration.
ACMI X’s journey started when Sedgwick took on the top job in February 2015, and began thinking more “holistically” about what ACMI offers to Melbourne. “We wanted to consider how we make the most of ACMI’S strength as a cultural institution that engages right across the creative industries,” she says. “Our lease happened to be running out for our old office and we pitched the idea by asking, ‘Why don’t we bring in the people who we would work with at the end point of their work and work alongside them throughout the process?’
“As a 21st-century museum, we’re not just about showing the finished work for people to view, it’s much more participatory and responsive,” she says. “In the creative industry, too, there’s a blurring between platforms, but there’s still a need for specialist skills. ACMI X’s open-plan workspace offers the proximity for spontaneous conversations to blossom between say, a
“An open-plan workspace means conversations can blossom”
digital company and a theatre group, or a virtual reality producer and an app developer.”
In recent years there has been a boom in co-working spaces. Spaces like Richmond’s Inspire9, and Queens Collective and York Butter Factory in the CBD offer an all-inclusive home base for small businesses; tenants typically get access to everything from high-speed internet to chill-out spaces. The appeal of this arrangement to workers, explains ACMI X studio manager Emma Shearman, is the ability to draw on an easily accessible pool of talent across different industries. “True collaboration can happen by getting a mix of people with skill sets that will work well together. We’ll be drawing on our industry connections and partner to host events like talks and pitch sessions.”
Sedgwick thinks that the future of Melbourne’s economy will be bolstered by these inter-disciplinary collaborations that co-working spaces encourage. Tech startups have been among the most fervent adopters of the co-working space model, but ACMI X may well show arts-based companies that this is the way forward. “It’s an interesting experiment for us; in a way we’re bringing the concept of the [arts] collective to the future.”
ACMI X Lvl 4, 2 Kavanagh St, Southbank 3006. www.acmi.net.au/acmi-x/.