Council applauds new support to build arts audiences

Ararat Rural City Council has applauded a State Government offer to help build audiences for its new arts precinct.

Victorian Minister for Creative Industries Martin Foley visited Ararat today to announce an $80,000 grant through the Creative Victoria ‘Full House’ funding program to help the soon-to-be-revamped Ararat Arts Precinct to attract more patrons and visitors when it is re-opened in 2018.

Minister Foley also lifted the curtain on plans for a regional Victorian tour of Kylie on Stage – an exhibition featuring costumes, photographs, footage and objects from Kylie Minogue’s tours dating back to 1989.

Ararat Rural City Council Mayor Cr Paul Hooper said he was delighted to note the Minister’s strong interest in the planned $6.235 million redevelopment of the iconic Ararat Town Hall as a state-of-the-art home for the Ararat Performing Arts Centre and Ararat Regional Art Gallery precinct.

“We’re thrilled that Ararat is one of just four regional cities that will host the Kylie on Stage exhibition,” Cr Hooper said.

“We’ve not yet turned the first sod on our redevelopment, but already it is proving attractive to organisers of a major event of this calibre.”

Cr Hooper said he hoped the new and improved facilities would prove similarly attractive to regional arts lovers when they were re-opened in 2018.

“When this redevelopment is complete, we’ll have more space and greater capacity than we’ve ever had before.

“Today’s announcement of an $80,000 Victorian Government grant will enable the Performing Arts Centre and Ararat Regional Art Gallery to build their audiences so that we really can take full advantage of the magnificent facilities that we’ll have here.”

The Ararat Arts Precinct redevelopment is due to get underway in early 2017.

The project was funded through a partnership between the Victorian Government ($3.7 million), the Federal Government ($945,000) and Ararat Rural City Council.