Who we are

Arts House is Melbourne’s home for contemporary performance.

With a year-round program of dance, theatre, music, sound, new technologies and community projects, Arts House is one of the major forces shaping Melbourne’s cultural and social landscape. We cultivate diverse new audiences for independent artists’ ambitious new work, and we build relationships at both local and international levels.

This is a house where change happens. From the crisis of extinction to the rapid transformations of technology, we know that the futures of humanity and art are entwined. We want to be hopeful.

As part of Melbourne’s cultural landscape, Arts House expresses the deep forces that shape that terrain. Our programming pays respect to Traditional Owners and the land on which our work takes place, and reflects Australia’s ongoing history of migration and displacement.

Arts House also seeks to ask questions about power: who has the power to speak, and what is the power of listening? We explore new ways of distributing curatorial power, and commit to an artistic vision that is transparent and connected.

What we do

What goes on in here falls into three areas: Investigation, Development and Presentation.

Investigation is our laboratory stream: artists conduct experiments and explore new ideas. The outcomes are open, and what matters is that artists have the freedom and confidence to go wherever their investigations lead them. They’re often surprising to everyone involved.

Development is where ideas are transformed into practice. Our CultureLAB program helps independent artists and companies fashion the strongest work they can with the best support available. Some art is born quickly, and some takes years to gestate. Time is one of the most potent assets we can offer artists.

Presentation is the visible face of Arts House, with around 25 new works presented to audiences each year. Our reach is broad, and we have a particular commitment to making sure that the people who walk through our doors are as diverse as the city itself.

Arts House is a key project for the City of Melbourne, complementing programming at sister venues Artplay and SIGNAL, at the city’s First Nations festival YIRRAMBOI and in our libraries and hubs. At the core of our vision is partnership: we collaborate with individuals, festivals, co-commissioners and other groups both in and outside the arts world. An Arts House work might feature artists from five continents, or it might be hyper-local in scale.

Sustainability

“Set out from the very beginning of a project to articulate some environmental guiding principles with your team, so everyone understands that these considerations are tantamount to the art, or indeed, that an environmental thinking can co-exist with art-making.’ Nicola Gunn, SANS HOTEL

At Arts House, we strive to be a leader in sustainability. We consider environmental sustainability in the making, administration and delivery of works. We have adopted greener alternatives across Arts House and promote sustainable practice across our activities and business practices.

Some of our key sustainability initiatives include the Greenie-In-Residence Program, which saw Matt Wicking from Tipping Point spend time with us to facilitate a year-long program of workshops, consultation and networking events based on greening the arts; we have implemented a paperless ticketing system; we have a healthy compost for all staff and Arts House artists, and an edible garden on the Arts House terrace. For more information on Arts House’s approach to sustainability, read our Sustainability Action Plan, or get in touch.  We’d love to chat.