Ben Apfelbaum

CARRIAGEWORKS SAGA CONTINUES WITh NO END IN SIGHT

The sorry saga continues with more twists and turns. After an initial proposal for Carriageworks to be taken under the Sydney Opera House umbrella, a number of philanthropists raised two million in an attempt to save it.

The most generous donor is believed to be Board Director, major art collector and philanthropist  Geoff Ainsworth and his partner Joanna Featherstone,

Billionaire philanthropist Kerr Neilson and daughter Paris have pledged conditional financial support to Carriageworks provided Carriageworks comes to some arrangement  with its leasor, Create NSW.

As many as fifteen parties have registered their interest to the . administrators.

The Sydney Morning Herald has revealed that the historic complex owes more than two million dollars after it put itself into voluntary administration with KPMG.

Among the creditors are the Australian Centre For Contemporary Art, the Sydney Theatre Company, Moogahlin Performing Arts, chef Kylie Kwong, the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart, with the largest creditor being Create NSW which provided more than 2.5 million to Carriageworks which had been expected to be paid by July,.

The most poignant of its creditors are its employees who are owed $430,000 in leave entitlement.

The venue lost revenue as a result of the cancellation  of the Sydney Writer’s Festival, the Australian Chamber Orchestra Recitals, the Sydney Festival, Mercedes- Benz Fashion Week, Vivid shows and its weekend fresh food Farmer’s markets.

Watch this space.

 

Published by Ben Apfelbaum

My photography began when my father handed me the proverbial brownie box camera as a child. As cameras developed I went through Fujica and Olympus range finders graduating to my first single lens reflex camera, the Minolta SRT101, the latter being the greatest facilitator to my growth as a photographer. Digital photography has only added to this. I was a regular contributor to Camera Craft magazine (Australian Camera ) for over three years. During Australia’s Bicentennial year (1988) I made it a personal project to document the celebrations. This culminated in the creation of a book of my photos which was published in 1989. The book was called CELEBRATING AUSTRALIA and came with an accompanying calendar. My works have appeared in a number of publications including the coffee book entitled MY AUSTRALIA (1989), publisher Robertsbridge Severn. This book had a preface by the then Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke. I was a co-photographer on a book entitled SYDNEY- DISCOVER THE CITY with text written by Robert Treborland. Major Mitchell Press was the publisher. Also for two years I was the photographer for calendars celebrating Sydney’s multicultural communities. The two calendars were entitled MULTICULTURAL SYDNEY. My work appeared in a group exhibition held at Sydney’s Town Hall pertaining to the diversity of life in South America to raise money for orphanages there. I have over one hundred photos stored in the New South Wales State Library archive. I had a solo exhibition held in 2007 entitled Ben’s Lens at the Sydney Jewish Museum which celebrated the vibrancy of the Sydney Jewish community. Some of these photos are on the Museum’s permanent display. I have exhibited internationally firstly at the Spruill Gallery in Atlanta Georgia, united states, and in an exhibition entitled Kosher and Co at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Currently I am a regular contributor to J-Wire and this esteemed publication.