A new leaf — Local Paddo

Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf is the new kid on the eastern suburbs artistic block and it’s a history-filled beauty. Found within the 122-year-old St Brigid’s building right above Murray Rose Pool at Double Bay, it’s a site beloved by locals.

While many may not know that this was once the headquarters for the Royal Commission on Espionage, countless people would have whiled away hours here when it was Double Bay Library. Today, it is the perfect, garden-framed setting for a vibrant program of exhibitions and artists’ residencies.

The gallery’s coordinator is Sebastian Goldspink, a descendant of the Burramattagal people of western Sydney. Goldspink is also curating the 2022 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art and he co-founded ALASKA Projects in Kings Cross, which saw him fill unused and disused spaces with the work of more than 500 artists.

Having grown up in Double Bay, Goldspink has a strong connection to the space.

“I would come here, to the library, every day after school,” he says. “It’s the building I learnt to read in, I learnt to swim at Redleaf, I caught tadpoles in Blackburn Gardens. I would come here and it was time by myself where I could do whatever I wanted. It was a place of discovery. I could read whatever books I liked, I could go swimming, I could hang out, so it was very formative for me.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to travel in my life and no matter what time of year or what time of night I fly back into Sydney, I always go to Redleaf. It could be the middle of winter, it could be midnight, but I dive into the water, and that feeling of piercing the water here tells me I’m home. My soul comes back into my body.”

This connection to the site is shared by many of the gallery’s volunteers — especially those who have called the eastern suburbs home.

“It’s quite uncanny when you first walk in because you have these childhood memories that come flooding back,” says Goldspink.

“There are parts that you don’t recognise, but there are parts that you absolutely do. In particular, that big window looking over the harbour. It used to have desks all the way around it and when I did my HSC, that’s where I studied, looking out on that view. That’s something a lot of people who grew up in the area have spoken to me about very passionately.”

Well before it was a library, St Brigid’s was one of Sydney’s grand homes, and this has been celebrated in the gallery’s design and curation. Originally designed by English architect Frederick Moore Simpson and built in 1897, and now one of Sydney’s few remaining original harbourside mansions, St Brigid’s began life as the family home for Captain Arthur Lassetter.

The restoration by Tanner Kibble Denton Architects to create four high-calibre exhibition spaces, has retained the building’s original details including crown moulding, arched windows and original wooden flooring.

Instead of being an immense stark space, it is intimate and welcoming. It has been adorned with furnishings and upholstery from Paddington’s Utopia Goods, a way of paying homage to the homes of the 1800s while giving the interiors a contemporary twist.

For Goldspink, one of the most beautiful nooks is the old head librarian’s office, which has been transformed into a reading room featuring the collections of the late gallerist Eva Breuer, and Elizabeth Ann Macgregor, the outgoing director of MCA Australia. Given that this is where Goldspink first devoured art books, the space feels particularly poignant.

Sydney’s east is synonymous with creativity — and Woollahra has been home to Banjo Paterson, Patrick White, Charles Blackman, Russell Drysdale, Fairlie Kingston, Margaret Olley and many more. As such, the gallery comes with a formidable lineage.

“Artists have always lived here, cultured people have always lived here,” says Goldspink. “We have the highest concentration of commercial galleries in the country here in the east. Our ambition is to be a home and a focus point and an amplifier of all the amazing artistic stuff that is happening here.”

Goldspink is also interested in exploring the area’s Indigenous history, and the gallery has worked closely with the La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council. Many of the original inhabitants of Double Bay and Rose Bay were moved to a mission at La Perouse, and some of their descendants still live in the suburb.

“It’s really special for us as a council to be able to make that connection back and honour that,” he says. “The art world is a vanguard to the celebration and acknowledgement of First Nation’s practices and traditions.

“[As a gallery] we want to be representative of all sorts of things. We want to be a diverse and interesting place. Because we have such an ambitious exhibition program where we’re turning over exhibitions every month, we have the opportunity to explore so many different things. Whether that be sexuality, gender diversity, Aboriginality, racial background, different mediums, new technologies, old technologies. We want to be a dynamic place for the community that inspires.”

When I ask Goldspink what he hopes people will feel walking into Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf, his answer is simple, and reveals just how much this space means to him: “I want them to feel warmth and I want them to have a sense of coming home. This is their place, it’s for the community.”

WOOLLAHRA GALLERY AT REDLEAF

548 New South Head Rd, Double Bay

woollahra.nsw.gov.au