If These Halls Could Talk

Arts Northern Rivers delivered a region-wide season of contemporary arts events held under the banner If These Halls Could Talk, in seven community halls from the 17 September – 17 December 2016. In 2017 we bring a selection of the arts events alive again with four Regional Gallery exhibitions.

The line-up of international and locally renowned artists and creative teams each transformed one of the seven halls into an immersive site-specific work in response to the unique narrative of the hall and its community. The huge program touched on theatre, music, opera, visual arts and film to bring bold and captivating new works that reactivated these historic spaces, giving new life and creating new memories for small halls and their communities.

ABOUT

The Northern Rivers is a region of villages, most with a hall that lay at their heart. Some sit proud on hills, some tilted with age but all are places of stories and keepers of secrets.

If These Halls Could Talk is a multi-arts project celebrating these halls and the role they play in our communities. Arts Northern Rivers received Arts NSW Regional Partnerships funding for the two-year project that invites everyone in the Northern Rivers to nominate their local hall for a chance to be involved in the exciting community arts project.

Seven halls from across the Northern Rivers will be selected to have a community engagement coordinator begin to work with their community, gathering histories, object, images and any tall tales that folks want to tell. While this could be done in a number of ways it will surely include a good old community hall get together and a few cups of tea.

Next, the community engagement coordinator will join forces with a renowned artistic team tailored to the hall to develop an artistic response to the material gathered from the communities. The artistic team embedded in each hall could potentially be made up of visual artists, theatre producers, musicians, installation artists, dancers or any other artform that can help tell the story of the hall.

The project will culminate in a region-wide celebration of the halls!

If These Halls Could Talk is managed by Arts Northern Rivers in conjunction with a steering committee of leading professional arts and cultural development practitioners from around the region.

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