The new Sydney Fish Market design will provide more than 6,000 square metres of new public open space. It will pave the way for a future shared pedestrian and cycle path with waterfront access from Sydney Fish Market to Woolloomooloo.
Featuring new bars and restaurants, an extended waterfront promenade, a new park and local plaza, the new Sydney Fish Market will be a place for the whole community and visitors to enjoy on a daily basis. The new building will connect the water to the park and the two promenades on either side.
The renewal of the Sydney Fish Market also brings with it the opportunity to leave a substantial cultural legacy for Sydney. Visitors and locals will be able to experience the new building through public art.
The Public Art Program will encompass a diverse range of works that will be integrated throughout the whole of the public domain. The program will consider the deep histories of the site and its current function as a bustling marketplace, as well as the many audiences who visit the fish market yearly. Art and cultural expression will help the new building immerse itself into its location, providing meanings that invite deeper relationships with its place and the activities that give it life.
Cultural Capital, a Sydney-based public arts advisor, is curating a program of contemporary live and ephemeral performance works to activate this harbour-side location, creating a new 'Opera House steps' destination for art and culture in Sydney. The curated performance program will include a diverse range of established or emerging creative practitioners and thinkers. The program may include events such as performance art, dance, sound and spoken word, talks, and workshops. Performers may use a designated space and events will not be ticketed, small in scale, spontaneous in nature and will require minimal sets, props or audio-visual.