Simone Sheridan's FailureLab brings Newcastle to Sydney

Simone Sheridan told the Mercury FailureLab will bring together innovative minds to discuss challenges, obstacles and knock-backs they experienced on the journey to success.

The line-up includes a healthy vein of Hunter talent including Heddon Greta performance poets Casio Gloria and the man behind Renew Newcastle, Marcus Westbury.

“They’ve been successful, but I want them to talk about failure,” she said.

“Because that’s the whole point, it’s about how they dealt with failure.”

Ms Sheridan became fascinated by the Hunter’s slow march toward reinvention while walking past seemingly endless empty shops in Hunter Street Mall in the late 2000s. Across the city creative initiatives were springing up in the spaces no longer able to support industry and business.

She started to notice parallels between Newcastle and Detroit, Michigan – the United State’s most prominent casualty of heavy manufacturing decline.

“In Newcastle I think people felt weighed down by the failures,” she said.

“But in Detroit there were those who stayed and fought to turn the failures into wins.

“Newcastle became the Detroit of Australia – it’s such a cool place now.”

She began Street Art Walking in 2011 to transform Newcastle with public art and traveled to Detroit to see how other creatives were reclaiming their city. Now in 2016 Ms Sheridan said Newcastle was a model for renewal and she was excited to share the stories with those in Sydney. 

“From a Sydney perspective everyone feels rushed, clamped down by the lockout laws and there’s a growing interest in Newy,” she said.

“It’s exciting to be a part of that.”

Failure Lab will be held as part of the Vivid Ideas program on May 28 from 8pm at the Giant Dwarf Theatre. 

Maitland Mercury