Trocadero Artspace

A volunteer committee of practising artists has run this Footscray space since 2005, incorporating as a not-for-profit two years later and building it into one of the west's longer-running artist-run initiatives. Four distinct rooms — two galleries for solo and group shows, a stairwell space called Nooky for performance and experimental work, and Wallspace, a free zone for painting, drawing and paste-ups — let the program run several exhibitions in parallel, changing roughly monthly. Current shows move between textile-based work, a study of transparency and preservation, and a group exploration of desire and change, typical of the emerging and experimental practice the space favours over anything overtly commercial. It sits two minutes from Footscray station, on the corner of Leeds and Chambers streets, wheelchair accessible with all-gender bathrooms. Thursday to Sunday, it is an easy add-on to a visit to Footscray's markets — proof that Melbourne's artist-run scene extends well past the inner-north postcodes usually associated with it.