CAQA Studio Aurora
Studio Aurora is a multi-disciplinary creative company that brings design, visual art, screen and live performance together under one roof. From a converted warehouse in Collingwood it runs a graphic and spatial design studio that serves commercial and cultural clients, a public gallery with six curated exhibitions a year, and a 180-seat black box theatre that presents music, dance, theatre and comedy seasons. A Docklands unit produces short-form screen content, documentary and branded video with full post-production. Studio Aurora also tours work to regional Victoria through its Bendigo venue partnership.
The company is organised into six departments: Design Studio, Gallery and Exhibitions, Screen Production, Live Production and Events, Audience and Marketing, and Studio Operations and Finance. Core staff work weekdays, while gallery front of house, theatre crew and screen crews work rostered evenings and weekends around seasons and shoots. Freelance designers, artists, performers, camera operators and technicians are engaged by contract for each project. Every project starts with a brief and a job number and moves through the Project and Job Board from concept to delivery, invoice and archive.
Studio Aurora manages quality through peer review of creative work, client sign-off gates and a post-project review recorded against every job. Safety in the theatre, workshop, gallery and on location is managed under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (Victoria), with production risk assessments before every bump in and shoot and a live incident and hazard register. The company is a child safe organisation, holds public liability insurance for venue and touring activity, and manages copyright, moral rights, image consent and performer releases through controlled documents so that every piece of work can be licensed and published lawfully.