7 Inner West town halls now open as free arts venues
Wednesday 3 July 2024
Mayor Darcy Byrne
Councillor Mat Howard
All 7 of the Inner West’s town halls have now been converted to arts and cultural venues available free of charge as spaces for live performance, rehearsal and exhibition.
The town halls have been made even more attractive for use by artists with an $800K investment in sound systems, audio-visual equipment, performance and recording studios to be used across all the venues.
Council has also created a concierge service to assist artists and organisations to identify the best venue for them and to curate the best use of these amazing spaces.
Inner West Mayor Darcy Byrne and Councillor Mat Howard, who has driven the conversion, said 7 new, fully fitted-out venues would secure the Inner West as the national capital of independent arts and culture.
“Converting all 7 of our town halls to arts venues massively expands the spaces available for our artists to display, practice and perform their work,” Byrne said.
“Better yet, we are providing these spaces with the equipment needed for live performance and have made them available to the arts community for free.”
Councillor Howard said the converted Marrickville Town Hall would be the flagship for the program with the basement to be reinvented as a major performance space.
“This is a major investment in our local arts and creative industries that will transform the capacity of both professional and community arts organisations to rehearse, perform and attract new audiences,” said Clr Howard.
“Rather than sitting empty for much of the time, our town halls will be filled with music, dance, theatre and film.”
“Our town halls have always been at the heart of cultural and civic life in our communities and now we are breathing life back into them and welcoming more and more residents back through their doors.”
All 7 Town Halls will see an investment in general audio, lighting and mirrors of $40,000 each for a total of $280,000.
Marrickville Town Hall will be further upgraded in the coming months to finalise its conversion to a live performance venue, including:
- General audio and lighting plus staging: $60,000
- Specific furniture fittings including floorings and curtains: $341,000
- Construction of three soundproofed studios: $120,000
The overall Council investment in town halls will total $800,000.
Inner West town halls being converted to arts venues
- Marrickville Town Hall
- Petersham Town Hall
- Leichhardt Town Hall
- Annandale Town Hall
- St Peters Town Hall
- Balmain Town Hall
- Ashfield Town Hall
Explore more details here:
Inner West creative town halls
ENDS
For media enquiries please contact Margaret Merten, margaret.merten@innerwest.nsw.gov.au