about udb

Ngā mihi nui kia koutou katoa. Nau mai, haere mai. 

Urban Dream Brokerage provides space for new community building ideas from artists, creatives and social practitioners in our cities. 

We run this service at a time when our world is going through a significant change and we need to open our space to new ideas and ways of working together to help our cities regenerate. Our key focus is making relationships that allow ideas to be tested and flourish. We are a conduit between creative & social practitioners and the stakeholders who are transforming our cities, to be more accessible for all. 

We wish to create a network of community good and connectedness, to strengthen the city's response and resilience. Working independently to draw partnerships together across the city, utilising property that is increasingly available as the city learns to work together in new way. This is social capital. 

Who we are:

Broker Manager - Jason Muir - 027 389 8559 | Administrative Producer - Linda Lee - 021 0222 6386 | Media - Mark Amery - 027 356 6128 | Content | Florence Hilyer-Brandt

UDB Meet the Panel - The Founders | Sophie Jerram & Mark Amery

Advisory Panel - Wellington:

  • Mark Amery - Founder, Letting Space & Arts Writer/media personality

  • Sophie Jerram - Founder, Letting Space, independent researcher & artist

  • Ash Holwell - Property Owner & Public Artist

  • Walter Kawikaka'iulani Aipa - Artist

  • Alison Pharaoh - Wellington Commercial Property Manager

  • Suzanne Tamaki - WCC Event Producer & Artist

  • Sam Trubridge - Performance Arcade & City Theatre Director

  • Tanya Ruka - Artist & Educator

Previously UDB has been involved with activating space in other cities, Dunedin, Masterton and Porirua. Notably, we assisted in establishing a brokerage in Dunedin that successfully continues independently in its own right.

UDB operates under the auspices of the Maverick Creative Limited.

Electro Magnetic Geographies - Julian Oliver - 106 Cuba St, 2021

Matawhānui - Vision 

Commonspace - Mouthfull Collective - 113 Taranaki St, 2021

  • UDB assists through its work, Te Whanganui-a-Tara to be resilient, vibrant and have developed with its citizens a sense of optimism and possibility for its future through participation.

  • We gain strong mana whenua support and partnership to promote kaitiakitanga, rangatiratanga and whaihanga 

  • Our creatives are healthy, thriving and embedded in the city. 

  • We care for our whenua and adapting to big changes to the climate and communities 

  • Engage with an increasingly diverse community who are empowered by what we do 

  • We provide diverse physical spaces for artists and community groups to collaborate and develop long term. 

  • Our projects provide a wellspring of diverse new ideas for how to live 

  • We create space for collisions of ideas and transformational magic moments 

Working between property stakeholders, artists, individuals and community groups, UDB brokers the temporary use of space, be it public or commercial, empty or underutilised, for innovative projects assisting in urban revitalisation. Currently UDB has brokered space for over 150 projects with more than 60 site stakeholders, big and small, assisting them with keeping their properties cared for and dynamic as they seek tenants, refocus their property goals or enliven public spaces.

Urban Dream Brokerage is a service that was founded in 2013 by Letting Space under the auspices of the Wellington Independent Arts Trust. Programs were also run in Dunedin, Porirua and Masterton, between 2012-2018. In late 2020 the programme relaunched with Maverick Creative managing the brokerage, mentoring from  Letting Space and funding through the Wellington City Council. 

Cities and towns have changed. Urban Dream Brokerage, along with other agencies around the world reflect the need for us to work differently to meet the challenge of reflecting an increasing need for a diversity of functions.