OFA


Open Field Agency

  
An infrastructure for making things public and making public things. 



























An artist-led experiment in delivering public art the other way around. 




RESIDENT CALL OUT



Contact

Country





Dharawal Knowledge Keeper Shannon Foster:

We acknowledge that the Country now known as Waterloo is Nadunga Gurad (sand dune Country) known for millennia for its nattai (sweetwater/freshwater) wetlands.

We pay our respect to all of the people connected to the kinship system of this Country including the Dharawal, the Dharug, the Eora, the Gaimaragal, the Gundungurra and the Guringai.

Ngeeyinee bulima nandiritah
(May you always see the beauty of this earth)




The Open Field Agency and MAPA Art and Architecture acknowledge that this research, design and creative work is happening on the unceded country of the Awabakal, Dharawal, Dharug, Eora, Gundungurra, Gadi,  Gaimaragal, Guringai and the Worimi people.

We respect the wisdom of the Elders past, present and emerging. This continent always was and always will be Aboriginal Land.







About

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Open Field Agency is an artist-led experiment in delivering public art over time within private development through durational residencies.  It is public art reframed as a slow, incremental process of making a place more public.

The Open Field Agency hosts artists, scientists, architects, carers, historians, performers, reserachers, students and others in a residency space. The task of Open Field Agents is to tend to the openness of this place. Its’ social and spatial openness through their own work, research, conversations and creations.  

We are an artist and an architect, finding our own agency in the context of city making. Since 2017 we have had many conversations with locals about their desires and fears for this place and these have been the catalyst for the Open Field Agency.  

The Open Field Agency is being delivered by  MAPA Art + Architecture (Hugo Moline and Heidi Axelsen)  and funded by developer contributions to public art for the Danks Street South Precinct in Waterloo, NSW, Australia. 


Register your interest in the Open Field Agency

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→   OFA IN THE MAKING - WIP 




News

→ 2025










Festival of Urbanism:  Open Field Agency

14 September 2025
Preview with Heidi and Hugo (MAPA) 

Book here

 

→ Call out for 2026 + 2027 residents


Where.  921 Bourke St, Waterloo (entrance of Young Street)
Duration.  1 - 4 months
When. 24/7 access
Cost.  Free

Residents gain access to a 12 sqm private studio space and a  12 sqm openable workshop space designed for public programs.  

The residency takes place within the construction site of 921 Bourke Street, Waterloo, so residents should expect noise. Evenings and Sundays are construction free times. 

You can apply to use the space free of charge and there are a limited number of funded residencies available to apply for. 

More information on how to apply coming soon, register here

to be the first to know! 



Criteria. 

• Regenerative practice
• Enacting care for public space and publics through creative practice.
• Socially and/or spatially engaged work

Each resident is to propose a process of open research by which they produce:

• An event or series of events (this could be a workshop, discussion, meal, tour, event or social happening). Events should be open in that they allow for input by participants and frame a process of mutual discovery. Further events related to the dissemination, culmination and celebration of this work are encouraged.

• An addition or additions to the Open Field Agency archive (this could be film, audio, photography, scientific analysis, an interview, a field recording, a flag, a map, a diagram, a song, a recipe etc.) These works should be produced through or in connection to the proposed events. 







More information.


The Open Field Agency reframes public art as an ongoing, community-based project, working closely within the complex processes of urban redevelopment. This approach was conceived of for the Dank Street South Precinct after many discussions with locals and community organisations about how to maintain social and spatial openness of a place which is undergoing rapid transformation. In our discussions with the local community about the Dank Street South Precinct we were faced with a series of questions:

• How can this place become and remain truly public?
• How can we bring together the voices of new and old communities and in process enrich a public space where all feel welcome?
• How can we harness the power of redevelopment to resist exclusive gentrification and make space for existing communities of First Nations, working class people and creatives in the city?
• How can we embed ongoing creation of culture here, now and into the future?

In response to these questions, the OFA will facilitate an ongoing series of creative residencies for artists, First Nations knowledge keepers, scientists, historians, researchers, community groups and others. Each resident will be tasked with inciting and continuing discussions with the diverse publics of this site, proposing new uses, forming new collectives and augmenting the public space.

Re-imagined as a process of slow, repetitive care, public art becomes the ongoing practice of tending to a site and the many publics who may use it. The project’s new approach to public art moves beyond the creation of one- off interpretive objects to become an ongoing practice of tending to a site and its many publics. It creates an ongoing practice of making things public. Of nurturing and caring for the publicness of a site. In this case it particularly involves tending to and maintaining the site’s openness of access, of meaning and of opportunity.


Learn more about the background of the project here:

Open Field Agency Public Art and Public Domain Strategy


 

Supporters + Partners





A big heartfelt thanks to all the people who contributed to the development of this project. It began in 2016 when the City of Sydney invited high level concepts for public art in the Danks Street South Precinct.

We would like to extend our deep thanks to all the individuals who took the time to meet with us and share their knowledge, stories, ideas and understanding of this place and for whom it is special and important place. We would like to thank all those who spoke with us and helped us define the program and infrastructure of the Open Field Agency Residency.

Thank you to the design team, City of Sydney staff and developers who have supported our durational approach to public art and supported the communities vision to make this place a special, inclusive and truly public place.

We would also like to thank the following organisations who have contributed to the project.

107 projects, Artbank, Bangawarra , Counterpoint Connect , City of Sydney staff, City West Housing, DAHUA, DASCO , Inner Sydney Voice, Friendship Bridge, Future Method, Kepos St Community Centre, National Centre of Indigenous Excellence, Redfern Community Centre, We Live Here, WEAVE, Wyanga Elders, Yui Ming Temple, Urban Art Projects, University of Newcastle.


The delivery of the project is funded by DASCO and the City of Sydney .