Dean Taylor is a sucker for any kind of creative work. Photography, painting, music, party planning and Brazilian drumbeats are all forms of expression that have a home at his Brisbane arts hub,He loves this diversity of creative disciplines. “They’re all different,” he says. “And they’re all weird and wonderful.”
But like many small businesses, Urban Jungle has had to withstand a number of challenges to get to where it is.When Taylor first acted on his crazy idea – taking over the old Queensland University of Technology production campus and turning it into Urban Jungle Studios – he was new to Brisbane. “It did take a substantial amount of time to get it and capital to get it up and going,” Taylor says. “And I think we were sort of close to where we would want it to be and to grow from at the beginning of 2020.”
“I got a Prospa business line of credit, which enables me to pull money in and out as I need it and only pay interest for the parts of it that I’m using at various times,” he says. “I actually host some of the photo workshops, and then some of the other photographers that have come through and been our clients initially are actually now at the stage where they’re hosting their own workshops as well,” he says.