Southbank Campus to open for Open House Melbourne
Open House Melbourne visitors can be among the first to see the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music’s new world-class spaces at Southbank on 27 and 28 July, as part of a broader Open House Melbourne program at the University of Melbourne.
Located in the heart of Melbourne Arts Precinct, the Southbank campus of The University of Melbourne will open several ambitious, landmark projects as part of Open House Melbourne on 27 and 28 July 2019. Highlights include:
The Ian Potter Southbank Centre
The newly completed Ian Potter Southbank Centre (IPSC) offers state-of-the-art teaching, learning, rehearsal and performance facilities in a building designed for the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music by leading architect John Wardle Architects. It’s the $109m centrepiece of a once-in-a-generation transformation.
Programming will include tours, special performances and a public talk featuring Professor Alan Pert (Melbourne School of Design) and Kah Fai Lee (John Wardle Architects).
The Stables
Designed by Kerstin Thompson Architects with conservation works directed by Lovell Chen, The Stables (formerly home to the Victorian Police Riding Branch) have been transformed into dynamic visual art studios and a performance space, the Martyn Myer Arena, for the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music – proud home to the Victorian College of the Arts and Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. A major arts exhibition by the Faculty – First Commissions – will be shown in the Martyn Myer Arena during the Open House weekend.
Buxton Contemporary
Melbourne’s major new contemporary art museum, Buxton Contemporary, is situated within the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music campus at Southbank and showcases the philanthropic gift of the Michael Buxton Collection to the University of Melbourne.
Two expert talks over the weekend will discuss the building and its current collection. On Saturday 27 July there will be a Bauhaus Now! exhibition walk-through with curator Dr Ann Stephens and Professor Philip Goad, Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor and Chair of Architecture, The University of Melbourne. On Sunday at 1pm, Fender Katsalidis will lead an architectural tour.
Southbank Theatre
Southbank Theatre by ARM Architects will host a special event over the Open House weekend, Designing Cultural Spaces and Precincts, that brings leading Melbourne architects Meaghan Dwyer (John Wardle Architects) and Ian McDougall (ARM Architects) together with journalist Ray Edgar. Hosted by Melbourne Theatre Company and the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, the event will use the Melbourne Arts Precinct in Southbank and some of the iconic buildings within it as a springboard to look at the evolution of this creative neighbourhood over the past decade and the art of designing cultural spaces.
The Hub
Visitors to the Southbank campus can also tour the new home of the largest performing arts and music library collection in Australia: The Hub building by Lyons Architects, a newly completed, dynamic space that houses both rare archives and digital technology.