Stretching our Canvas to Melbourne for the New Year

Stretching our Canvas to Melbourne for the New Year

Posted by Jessica Rosten on

In what has been a crazy COVID 18-months, Left Bank Art Group battened down the hatches for what we thought was going to be a bumpy ride. And sure, it hasn’t all been smooth sailing for us and a lot of other companies, but we have been pleasantly surprised by the amazing support we’ve received from our loyal clients and a bunch of new ones we’ve welcomed to the Left Bank family.

With the rolling lockdowns Australia-wide, many self-styling home lovers decided to zhuzh up their pads considering they were spending a lot more time indoors. Pair this with around 30,000 new South East Queensland residents migrating from the southern states, and you’ve got an influx of singles, couples and families keen to style recently purchased homes in their desired look. Many commercial clients also found time to refresh their businesses with updated prints and wallpapers; particularly in Queensland where we luckily avoided a series of mandatory business closures. We’ve literally been sending online purchases to every corner of this wide, brown land! So, in what has been a universally unpredictable time, the Left Bank crew has been flat out servicing a national market that's been hungry for artistic inspiration — perhaps to provide that ray of light in what has been a somewhat cloudier time.

On the flipside of our client world, we have our beautiful artists. Again, due to more time at home and/or in-studio, they could fire up their creative juices and push through the pandemic by creating a series of new works that sustained them both professionally and emotionally. And thank god for that! Because we got to expand our artist catalogue extensively and offer clients of all types an exciting new range of stunning, homegrown prints.

All this unexpected activity at Left Bank Art Group leads us to some very exciting news. We’ve been able to stretch our canvas of services down south to the cultural capital of Australia — MELBOURNE! In the past few years, we’ve seen increased demand from the city and now it’s time for our local clients to benefit from direct support through a dedicated location and team.

To hit the ground running, Toby (our manic-yet-organised Managing Director) fast-tracked a deal to expand Left Bank Art Group’s brand with Milkbar located in uber-cool Collingwood. This busy artistic hub is already home to a renowned group of artists whose work features from Silo to Sidewalk, Band Poster to Gallery. Our Milkbar artists walk through the door and walk out with fine art prints of their work, stickers, totes and tees.

Being in the heart of Melbourne’s creative precinct was a huge drawcard as Toby explains, “We’ve been wanting to get into the Melbourne market for a while now and when the opportunity arose to team up with Milkbar, I jumped at it considering the business had established a great reputation that we could continue to grow”.

Now that we’re fully operational right in the “The Pies” backyard, there are a few huge benefits our southern clients can look forward to.

First off, and most importantly, we’ve got a full-time representative on board who can service all requests at the local counter — we welcome to the store Briah Crowhurst, who has taken on the role of General Manager at Milkbar. Having the ability to offer personal advice regarding the fine details on jobs is reassuring, especially when you can conveniently drop in and chat about it face to face.

Briah is also happy to conduct site visits for both private and commercial clients which is important when sizing up spaces for artworks, wallpapers and murals. For Briah, it’s all about nurturing mutually beneficial relationships, “Milkbar really is the corner store for artists with a great sense of community that only has the potential to grow. Our loyal clients come to us for premium service and quality and I'm happy to play a big part in maintaining that connection. It truly excites me to advise emerging and established artists and bring their ideas to fruition”.

On the equipment front, industry-leading scanning and printing technologies means Melbourne clients can now receive their prints back faster than dispatch from our Gold Coast HQ. Through our new partnership with Milkbar, we also have the capacity to print custom t-shirts, decals, wallpapers and signage presenting a world of reproduction possibilities for clients looking to expand their artistic footprint. For quality framing needed fast, we’re partnering with a renowned local company that works to the high standards we’re accustomed to at competitive prices. Alternatively, for combined printing and framing requests that aren’t urgent or may be in a package deal, Left Bank Gold Coast can still perform these jobs with expedited despatch to Melbourne as per our tried-and-tested processes.

Briah and the team are excited to welcome existing and new clients into the expanded arts hub to experience the new combined offering of Left Bank Art Group and Milkbar.

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