Ballarat is renowned for not only its magnificent physical heritage, but its artistic history as well.
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After all, Ballarat has produced a diverse range of performers from opera singers Marie Collier, Jacqueline Dark, David Hobson and Elsie Morrison to musician Warren Ellis of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds fame, renowned conductor Ben Northey and award-winning movie score creator David Hirschfelder, most well-known for Strictly Ballroom, Shine, Sliding Doors and Australia.
Dancer Craig Revel Horwood, political cartoonist Will Dyson and film producer Roger Donaldson also all hail from this region, along with Australia’s best known artistic family, the Lindsays, born in Creswick, while much loved Ballarat-born Australian actor Bill Hunter was renowned, before his untimely death in 2011, to pop into local hotels and have a beer and a chat with old friends.
Given Ballarat’s wealth of beautiful and well-preserved artistic buildings, it’s not surprising we’ve been able to produce artists of such calibre.
Her Majesty’s Theatre has been continuously used for live performances since it was built in 1875.
However, the theatre was first known as the Academy of Music to overcome religious and temperance concerns about patronising a “theatre.”
The academy was built by the wealthy gold mining Clarke family, opening on June 7, 1875.
Soon after the theatre opened, the large supper room above Lydiard Street was leased to William Bridges, a former miner, who ran it as an art gallery, displaying an excellent collection of European and Australian artworks, including his own tapestries.
After Bridges moved his operations to Melbourne in 1883, the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery was formed and ran from the theatre until 1890, when the present Art Gallery in Lydiard Street North was opened.
The theatre was renamed Her Majesty’s Theatre to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee after the death of its founder Sir William Clarke.
In 1891, the first Royal South Street Society competitions were held there.
Now Australia’s oldest and longest running eisteddfod, it has seen over one million aspiring singers, dancers, orators, writers, musicians and composers pass through its doors.
As the eisteddfod grows, it continues to be one of Ballarat’s major draw cards and contributes over $14 million a year to the local economy.
Legendary opera singer Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, is one of the most illustrious alumni of the South Street competition, winning the 1966 Herald-Sun Aria at the start of her career.
But in 1927, she returned for an unexpected encore.
“A characteristically generous act on the part of Dame Nellie Melba met tonight with a fitting enthustistic response from the music loving citizens of Ballarat. The South Street competitions are a great Australian institution, and it was in the highest degree appropriate that Australia's most famous daughter should be among the first to come to their help,” the paper reported.
And she was not the only artist keen to give back to the birthplace of so many performing careers.
Ballarat-born opera singer David Hobson summed it up during an interview with The Courier earlier this year when he described his childhood: “By the time I’d done all that (formal training), I’d already done television, stage shows, recordings all within Ballarat because it offers so much, even back then in the 1970s because it’s a culturally rich place to grow up in and there were a lot of people who were aspirational artistically.”
While the Art Gallery of Ballarat has always housed an impressive collection, in 2014 its board announced a strategy to transform the ageing institution. It included an audacious plan to host Australia’s most popular art prize, the Archibalds.
“Many regional galleries have abandoned a commitment and connection to their local community,” Art Gallery of Ballarat director Gordon Morrison told The Courier. “For our gallery, that relationship is a pillar of strength and sets us apart.”
In 2015, the Archibald Prize came to town, with more than 50,000 people flocking to Ballarat. It was the first of two years of the must-see exhibition on the Victorian arts calendar drawing further crowds and kudos to Ballarat.
Arts Minister Heidi Victoria told The Courier: “I think one of the things you have got here in Ballarat is an amazing in-house collection and what you do is go one step further and take on great touring exhibitions.”
This year, Ballarat ramped up its first-class artistic reputation by hosting its first ever White Night event. The Courier wrote: “We’ve never seen the city come alive like this and it is certain to go down as a night that won’t be forgotten.”
Tourism and Major Events Minister John Eren said Ballarat’s superb streetscape was perfect for the event; "What better location for the first ever regional White Night? This event will attract visitors from all over Victoria, Australia and the world.”