Posts Tagged ‘appeal’

With governments keep pulling the plug on heritage, the general media keep bashing heritage and key lobbing organisations resolving to give up the ghost, it is refreshing to see people power picking up the slack.   While a wave of inappropriate development is whittling away what little heritage is left – heritage philanthropy, it would seem, is on the increase.

Even in this troubled financial crisis which has put Victoria on the brink of recession and individuals straining to pay the bills, an increasing number of public pledges proves the public really does care about heritage.

In the past couple of years, St Pauls Cathedral on Swanston Street and Skipping Girl sign in Abbotsford received a large amount of public money generated through appeals.  In Kew, two large amounts – $250,000 and $50,000 were generated by private benefactors for the restoration of the Kew Court House as a community building.

Historically, when people are passionate enough to put their money where their mouth is, government and the media follow.

Just to prove that the Melbourne public do care about heritage, a low key appeal to restore Audrey the Skipping Girl sign, which we helped to promote late last year has reached its quota and work will begin shortly on restoration of the neon sign.

Thanks to all our readers (myself included) who chipped in !

Now if only we could use the same resources to stop developers from laying waste to the rest of Melbourne and bringing back a sense of community pride ….

The Age has published a great story, “Library’s Queens Hall worthy of royal treatment” highlighting the plight of Queens Hall, a little known but nonetheless spectacular 1856 interior space in the State Library of Victoria.

The hall is lined with giant columns, ornate ceilings and skylights and features elaborate Victorian murals.  Closed to the public since 1976, it has been rented out by the State Library only for private functions.

There is currently no funding allocated to restore and reopen the hall to the public, however the growing campaign to make it a priority may help to change the priorities of the state goverment.

Interesting article from the Age about a call to restore the Athenaeum on Collins Street.
I have many fond memories of this theatre and often admire it during the Comedy Festival. Perhaps the only sad thing about Melbourne’s fantastic range of pre-war theatres is that there are so many of them remaining. It is hard to work out which should get the royal treatment and I find it an amazing by Melburnians that they can all continue to operate as theatres.

A star is forlorn: ageing theatre queen cries out for a little make-up

• Carolyn Webb
• August 9, 2008

Amazing grace: The fading faces of the Athenaeum in Collins Street. Photo: Craig Abraham

IN 1968, Kevin Quigley wandered in to the Athenaeum Library to feed his reading habit.

The young chartered accountant found it a “wonderful, welcoming” space with floor-to-ceiling windows over Collins Street, brass lamp-holders shaped like angels and an old copper sign saying “subscription, one guinea per annum”.

For a $28 annual fee, he devoured thrillers by Raymond Chandler, Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. He has borrowed four or five books a week since then, and his thirst isn’t sated.

Mr Quigley, now the president of Melbourne Athenaeum, which runs the upstairs library and the building’s two theatres next to Melbourne Town Hall, wants to preserve the unique ambience of Melbourne’s oldest cultural institution for future generations.

He says the 169-year-old place where Melbourne City Council first met, Mark Twain lectured and the world’s first feature film premiered, urgently needs a $4 million overhaul.

The facade is cracked, the foyer drab, the paint faded and peeling and the carpet worn. The backstage dressing rooms are pokey. “They need heating, cooling and rewiring,” Mr Quigley says. “You get these great actors coming out and the conditions they have to operate in are appalling.”

The drains block and the iron roof leaks when it rains: performers have complained of drops falling on stage.

Mr Quigley said the venue, which hosts the Melbourne Comedy Festival, opera and musicals, receives no regular government funding.

Income last year, mostly from theatre receipts and library membership, was $340,000. A $2.5 million ANZ bank grant paid for the last renovation in 1991. The last big grant came in 2004 — $36,000 from Heritage Victoria for a basic exterior paint job.

Playwright Ray Lawler said the Athenaeum, founded in 1839 as a Mechanics Institute to educate working men, was a reminder of the graceful Collins Street of old and had played a key role in Melbourne’s — and his own — artistic life. From 1936, when he was 15, he would go there “because it was the only place in Melbourne you could see English films”.

He gravitated to the art gallery (now the Athenaeum 2 theatre) upstairs, and in the late 1930s joined the library on the mezzanine level. After he returned from 20 years in Europe in 1977, he directed The School for Scandal, the first play after the Athenaeum Theatre stopped showing films and was converted as a base for the Melbourne Theatre Company. His own play, The Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, played at the Athenaeum in 1985.

Lawler called on the State Government, city council and public to support the appeal.

There are currently 750 library members (who pay $65 a year) but management aims to boost this to 1500. Five years ago, the catalogue and lending system was computerised. The library is now in an internet “hot spot” for laptops and charges the public $4 for all-day internet use.

Mr Quigley would like the building to be attractive to younger people.

“Look at the Princess Theatre, it’s glorious,” he said. “That refurbishment cost a great deal, but we’d like to see this place restored to that level where we could be really proud of it.”

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