Connectedness1. The Cross Art Projects 2003-2021

The Cross Art Projects is a contemporary art project space situated in a busy laneway in Sydney’s Kings Cross. Its location, exhibition program and stage-like shopfront help to foreground the multiple relationships between art, life and the public sphere. The audience is primarily local and informed: from the homeless to epidemiologists and, of course artists, writers and other creators—all despite the gentrification that is common to large cities.

Kings Cross was the first place in Sydney to host high-rise residential architecture, from the architecturally grandiose to intimate studios.1 The neighbourhood has fought a 50-year contest over access to inner-city housing and the right to be heard in public spaces: from the Green Bans (1971–74/5), to the seminal gay rights march of 24 June 1978 on Darlinghurst Road, that ended with the arrest and charging of 53 participants and morphed into Sydney’s Mardi Gras Festival. It is not a shy place. Over the years Kings Cross has fostered innovations in queer, feminist and counter-culture, music culture, food culture and art culture.

Cultural sensitivity
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that Connectedness1 publication contains images and names of deceased persons.

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