in sydney, i live in an artists community in the inner city. it was created by a bunch of artists who had previously run a co-op gallery in ultimo for 3 years. we selected the people from that gallery who were positive, and who had been prepared to work to help make the thing run.

our community is a co-operative, and we acquired land (two adjoining derelict factories)through a housing program. We put in a huge submission in the late 1980s and were granted enough money to purchase the land, demolish the existing buildings . we interviewed over 20 architects and chose two architects who designed us a great co-op.

The people who live here are mostly visual artists,and a couple of musicians. we have a property which is bordered by two streets, an open back yard with shared gardens, a co-op studio in the middle of the back yard, and 11 units. this year we will renovate one of the units (mine) into two townhouses - a 2 bedroom upstairs for my two younger children (aged 22 and 24) and a 1 bedroom self contained unit downstairs for me.

we also have friends who live nearby, and my best friend and her husband bought the house over the road from me.

this has been a good place for us - we have people here from all sorts of backgrounds and countries, and it has given us all a secure "old artist's home" to look forward to.