Important Arts House update

Read Artistic Director Emily Sexton’s update on venue closures and event cancellations as the City of Melbourne rallies to help slow the spread of COVID-19 within the community.

As you may have heard, Arts House’s doors are currently closed as the City of Melbourne works to try and help slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus within the community.

Our venue will be closed until further notice. The closure applies to other cultural venues within the City of Melbourne: ArtPlay, Signal and the Meat Market, as well as libraries and recreation centres. There are no confirmed cases within the City of Melbourne workforce.

I also write with an update on our upcoming exhibitions and performances, we are deeply saddened to share that exhibitions and performances as part of Spectral will no longer go ahead.

Additionally, as you may have heard the 2020 Next Wave Festival will not be going ahead as planned, and this unfortunately includes our two presentations: Possession by Marcus Whale and In Perpetuity by Ivey Wawn.

All tickets will be automatically refunded. If you have any questions you can contact Arts House  here.

We sincerely thank all of our artists for their immense efforts in the creation of these works, and express our deep regret to not be able to present their shows at this time. We recognise that sharing art with an audience is only the culmination of an extended, heartfelt period of invisible work that has happened prior. As a leader in the development of new Australian performance we see that work and we value it enormously. We are inspired by the ways artists are gathering, sharing resources and mobilising the community in a range of ways – one example can be found here, there is also I Lost My Gig, and many others.

We join with colleagues across the sector during this period of uncertainty in highlighting the following resources: for immediate mental health support: Beyond Blue  1300 224 636 or Lifeline on 13 11 14. Support Act delivers crisis relief services to artists, crew and music workers; Arts Wellbeing Collective also has a range of industry specific resources.

For more information and the latest on COVID-19, please visit the Department of Health and Human Services.

Take care. We hope to see you all very soon,

Emily Sexton
Artistic Director, Arts House