Maverick Citizen: Friday Activist: Mariapaola McGurk’s quest for smarter solutions By Ufrieda Ho
Confrontation doesn’t faze Mariapaola McGurk. Not that she’s flippant about it because taking a stand can be bloody hard work. But challenging norms for better outcomes means having skin in the game.
“I called it The Coloured Cube in opposition to the white cube of gallery spaces and what the white cube represents,” she says, drawing from the good, bad and ugly experiences she had as a curator at the University of Johannesburg’s gallery.
The central idea of the Co-Lab is for creatives to use the space, tools, equipment, peer support and training on a membership basis that even includes a day rate option. It started as a collaboration with graduate students from the School of Architecture at the University of Johannesburg, but is now open to all members and includes business skills and entrepreneurship training.
The Creative Co-Lab is also located literally on the wrong side of the railway tracks, where the inner city meets Joburg’s eastern suburbs. Some of her corporate clients are initially put off when they’re confronted by the grit and grime of Joburg’s neglected space that is almost impossible to avoid when getting to their premises.
“There’s no such thing as ‘those people who do good’. No, those people are you. It’s just choosing to stand up for what you think is right in every situation you find yourself in. I do this because I get my juice from experimenting, from collaborating and trying to do things that have relevance in a city that can be very harsh,” she says of her beloved Jozi.
She’s learnt this herself only as an adult. She admits to being a shocking student, more angry and rebellious than present and focused, and with report cards of failures to show for it.
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