By Tyler Wright
A car crashed through the window of Kapi Art Space in Kalorama in the early hours of Saturday, with thousands of dollars worth of art being damaged.
It’s alleged an Audi lost control while driving along Ridge Road shortly after 3am on Saturday 13 August, running through the stone barrier and into the front of the business.
This comes only two months after another vehicle crashed into the building’s stone barrier.
Six teenagers are in custody, including one girl who was quickly arrested nearby on police arrival.
Officers were patrolling the area looking for the outstanding offenders as the report came through of an attempted car theft on nearby Price Road.
After noticing a ride-share vehicle passing by, police located four teenagers, three males and one female, who were taken into custody.
It was the Dog Squad that rounded up the last male youth.
Police said five teens were expected to be interviewed on the morning of Saturday 13 August, while the sixth offender was taken to hospital with a leg injury after being bitten by the police dog.
Kalorama CFA Fire Brigade, Olinda CFA Fire Brigade and Lilydale SES attended the scene to help clear debris from the roads and remove the artwork from inside the building.
A Yarra Ranges Council building engineer was called and Brigade members helped temporarily prop up the roof.
Kalorama CFA Fire Brigade captain Bill Robinson said the passengers were lucky to escape the vehicle without injuries.
“They were going that fast that [the car] actually exploded the rock cage [at the front of the gallery], and sprayed rocks all the way over to the other side of the road,” Mr Robinson said.
“We’re talking about rocks that are probably about 150 millimetres in diameter, so that’s about 20 odd rocks pushed onto the other side.”
He said the previous incidents at Kapi Art Space were a result of speeding drivers being caught off guard by the road’s dog-leg bend.
“The rock wall’s got heaps of damage from over the years where cars have hit [it]…they’ve misjudged the corner.”
It is believed extensive repairs will be needed before the gallery re-opens; a process which may take several months.
“With the storms, trying to get builders and people to work on houses up here as it is [is difficult], and insurance companies are not quick, so [the gallery] is going to be out of business for quite a while,” Mr Robinson said.
“We’ve only got three shops in Kalorama, so we’ve just lost a third of our shops.”
Kapi Art Space managing director Heather Bradbury was “shocked” after receiving the call from her landlord and seeing the Audi pushed a number of metres into the gallery.
She said while the vehicle narrowly missed some very expensive pieces of artwork, it did destroy pieces from other artists.
“In the last five months we’ve had two other cars smash into the wall outside the building…and we had only just finished renovating from the last car that smashed the wall,” Ms Bradbury said.
“We just finished installing a beautiful new door, (blind roller) and got our keys the night before… we were all very excited, getting plants ready to put along the edges and make it look pretty, but not now.
It will happen.”
Ms Bradbury is remaining hopeful, with a massive show of community support for the gallery over the weekend.
“We had a number of people who kind of helped shift, we had to shift all the art into a lockable back room, clean up all the debris and get it ready for boxing up so it was safe.
“[I was] so overwhelmed by the response, my phone was going all day; I think I counted nearly 80 personal messages from people saying ‘what can I do to help?'”
While the front of Kapi Art Space is being repaired, Ms Bradbury will be working on getting power to the building and giving remaining artwork back to artists.
She then hopes to transform the back of the building into a welcoming space for art classes and a community hub.
“[On Sunday 14 August] I met with some of the students that would normally be meeting for classes, we met at a cafe across the road, and they were sharing beautiful stories of how they loved the community.
And I said ‘what’s important to me [is] we’re always going to have curveballs that come at us and things that don’t go the way we expect.
But I think these things are here that encourage us to then care for each other, move on, and find new and better ways to do things,” she said.
Any witnesses, anyone with CCTV/dashcam footage or any other information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submit a confidential report online at www.crimestoppersvic.com.au
