'Like a sausage sizzle on steroids' is how Biennale of Australian Art director Julie Collins describes the latest venture of the art program which came to Ballarat last year.
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A new venue called BOAA BAR has opened on Lydiard Street in the premises formerly occupied by JD's Sports Bar, the late-opening night spot which closed in 2016 after a fire and licensing woes.
The BOAA venture opened last week, and Ms Collins says it exists purely to raise funds for clearing the debt left by the Biennale, which amounts to around $200,000.
"It's an enterprise set up to donate the profits to BOAA, and it's an art gallery as well, with changing works which people can come in and purchase," says Ms Collins.
I had run a bar in Melbourne for eight years on a similar scale in a similar building with the same sort of licence, so it wasn't entirely out of my wheelhouse to set one up.
- Julie Collins, BOAA director
The venue had been part of the BOAA exhibition spaces, and Ms Collins says she negotiated with building's owners to transfer the existing liquor licence to her name in order to open a late night venue, as it is a 3am licence.
"They contacted us about doing another pop-up, whether it was a gallery or something else, and I suggested we do a pop-up gallery/bar, which was perfect for us as we needed to be taking steps to clear some of our debts," Ms Collins says.
"I had run a bar in Melbourne for eight years on a similar scale in a similar building with the same sort of licence, so it wasn't entirely out of my wheelhouse to set one up."
The building had to be completely refitted as the previous tenants had stripped out all the bar fittings and plumbing, but Ms Collins said local tradespeople had come to their aid in completing the refit.
"Obviously post-BOAA we were faced with some hard decisions," Ms Collins says.
"We were getting advice to fold up and move on, and that would have meant the people we owed money to wouldn't have been paid or would have got 10c in the dollar. And we weren't comfortable with that. So it may take a little bit longer for everyone to get their money but we are committed to paying everybody every little bit of money that we owe."
An email sent out to BOAA artists in the past week from the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA) raised several allegations about the conduct of BOAA and asked for information from participating artists.
Julie Collins says she was not sent the email by NAVA, but did have it forwarded to her, and is now the subject of legal advice.
She is adamant the NAVA email contains factual errors.
"Particularly where they make an assertion that a meeting was set up for us and I didn't turn up; there are a lot of strange things that NAVA are saying. Our board will be contacting their board. Look, NAVA weren't sponsors of BOAA; they weren't interested in BOAA; they didn't come to BOAA. I realise we have artists who are members of NAVA, that's why they're involved; but we'll handle the inquiries as they come.
"At this point the only contact I've had with NAVA is when I contacted them because an ABC journalist said they had spoken to them. They have never contacted us."
On February 15 the City of Ballarat released the following statement regarding the final payments of the grant given to BOAA last year, following an ABC query:
"As per the strategic partnership funding agreement between BOAA and the City of Ballarat, payments to BOAA were staged over several key milestones with related key performance indicators. At this stage, all payments have been made except the final post event milestone payment.
"The City of Ballarat is in close communication with BOAA and we are working closely with them to help them ensure all artists are paid, which is the milestone for the final grant payment as per the strategic partnership grant contract signed between BOAA and the City of Ballarat.
"We have had preliminary confidential information provided to us at this stage as to the economic benefits of BOAA to Ballarat, but it is up to BOAA to release this report publicly.
"Information discussed in the confidential section of a council meeting remains confidential."