Fifty years of Shopfront: still owned by the kids
As youth-led Shopfront Arts Co-op celebrates a half-century, its mission to empower young people through arts continues
On a recent Saturday, with young voices echoing around her, a local woman in her forties walked into Shopfront Arts Co-op in the Sydney suburb of Carlton and burst into tears.
Now a barrister in the Supreme Court, she hadn’t been back since spending a decade there as a teenage participant.
“She said, ‘I didn’t understand that without this place, I wouldn’t have the confidence to speak in front of a courtroom,’” says Natalie Rose, Shopfront’s CEO and Creative Director. “‘I wouldn’t have had the confidence to pursue a career like this that has knockbacks and that you need a tough skin for.’”
Shopfront was founded in 1976 as the St George Theatre for Young People by theatre directors Errol Bray and Garry Fry. It’s been a place for young people to explore their creativity through performance, filmmaking, singing, visual art and technical theatre, guided by a simple mission: that young people lead it.
“I don’t think Shopfront has ever wavered in its ethos over those 50 years. We’ve stayed really true to young people leading the organisation and we’re not budging on that,’” Rose says.
“Young people have always been co-owners of Shopfront and we operate on a ‘one voice, one vote’ model, meaning an eight-year-old has as equal a voting right as I do as CEO.”
Natalie Rose, image by Joshua Morris
Natalie Rose, image by Joshua Morris
“Young people voted together to buy the building and held fundraising events and a 50-hour ‘act-a-thon’ to raise enough money,” says Sophie Florence Ward, Shopfront Alumni, current Administrator and previous Young Leader.
“The fact that young people feel like they do have ownership over the space means that they contribute. That’s been really deeply embedded.”
Over the last decade, Shopfront has further built youth leadership into its operations. Young people have two board seats and a Young Leader role is a conduit between participants and staff. There are also five advisory panels covering People with Disability and/or who are d/Deaf, First Nations, Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) and LGBTQIA+ representation.
Inclusion runs into workshops too: 29 per cent of Shopfront’s participants live with disability and 26 per cent identify as CALD, and every workshop is designed to be accessible.
Since 2018 more than 19,100 young people have taken part in its programs – 2,500 last year alone.
Ward joined Shopfront’s workshops at age 11. She never left, becoming a workshop facilitator, then Young Leader and now, at 27, Administrator.
“When I found Shopfront, it was like, ‘Oh, these people understand me. They’re not trying to make me fit a mould. This is a place where I can be myself,’” Ward says.
Sophie Florence Ward, Shopfront Administrator
Sophie Florence Ward, Shopfront Administrator
...and alumni
...and alumni
“At Shopfront we value the process more than the product,” Rose says. “Those skills that you can learn through genuine collaboration with other young people builds confidence and resilience … Life skills that you can develop through an artistic process and creation are transferable to any other area of life.”
Access to the arts is also shaped by socio-economic barriers – something Shopfront felt in 2020, when COVID-19 prevented in-person workshops. Rose’s team ran free online programs and hand-delivered creative learning packs to participants across Sydney. Participation jumped and, once in-person learning resumed, Shopfront moved to a pay-what-you-can model.
“In the past a parent would have to come to us and disclose financial hardship. Instead, they could go onto our website and put in $0, $10, the $250 suggested workshop price, or they could put in more,” Rose says. “Our workshop participant numbers increased by about 200%.”
Shopfront didn’t lose revenue and families who could pay more often did, effectively covering those who couldn’t.
Shopfront is now backed by multi-year funding from Creative Australia, Create NSW and philanthropic support.
“We are willing to shake things up and try different things,” Rose says. “But four-year funding is so important because it takes the pressure off so we can strategise without this pressure cooker way of ‘We need to figure out how we’re going to survive.’”
Shopfront now offers around 200 scholarships a year to provide more access to its programs and, since a 2019 renovation, has opened the venue to other creatives.
“We’ve given away to emerging artists and independent collectives 10,000 hours of free space to rehearse and make work, which equals about $340,000. That’s some real impact,” Rose says.
She feels the organisation is in a rare position to create change.
“I think of Shopfront as a bridge between tertiary education or community theatre to the main stage arts sector,” she says. “Having a place like Shopfront for young people to figure out who they are and what type of leader they want to be is so important.”
Those leadership instincts will be on display when hundreds of young people descend on the Sydney Opera House in October for Shopfront’s free Youth-Led Conference. It opens after a 50-hour ‘act-a-thon’ fundraiser, recalling the 1980s campaign that saved Shopfront.
Its theme, ‘Redefining Success’, and program are designed by Shopfront’s youth panels.
“There’s been a lot of talk about how success looks different for everyone … and learning that failure is not something to be terrified of – it’s a normal part of growing and building resilience,” Ward says.
It includes a workshop on slowing down called ‘How to be a Nokia 3315’, a session on learning from failure, discussions with professional artists, educators and community leaders, a clothes swap and even a room of snacks.
As Shopfront enters its sixth decade, young people will, as always, be in the driver’s seat.
“A bunch of our young people want to learn how to podcast, so we do a term of podcasting workshops. Or we do a term of a Dungeons and Dragons workshop. Introducing things like the Youth-Led Conference because they’re ideas that our young people and our advisory panels are passionate about. I hope we always have the ability to be flexible and adaptive,” Ward says.
“What I try to envision for Shopfront is how we provide more leadership opportunities for young people,” Rose adds.
If its first 50 years are anything to go by, Shopfront is well placed to help make that happen.
For more information on Shopfront Arts Co-op and its programs, click here. Young people can also register for Shopfront’s Youth-Led Conference, held at the Sydney Opera House on Monday 12 October 2026, by clicking here.
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We acknowledge the many Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and honour their Elders past and present.
We respect their deep enduring connection to their lands, waterways, and surrounding clan groups since time immemorial. We cherish the richness of First Nations peoples’ artistic and cultural expressions. We are privileged to gather on this Country and to share knowledge, culture and art, now and with future generations.
