Thursday, 18 March 2021

Footscray community arts funding

Ms HALL (Footscray) (09:56): I was thrilled this week to visit the Footscray Community Arts Centre, which many people would know is one of Australia’s leading community arts centres, to announce funding for Henderson House, the historic building—once a piggery—that was saved by the former Meat Workers Union for the purpose of providing arts to the people of Footscray and Melbourne’s western suburbs. The historic Henderson House will be revitalised with new creative spaces, helping to connect the west’s diverse communities through art and performance as part of the West Gate Tunnel community partnerships grant round, which I was thrilled to announce there.

They are not the only group that will be benefiting. There are 16 projects across the inner west, including $500 000 for the 100 Story Building, supporting young people to develop through creative writing, and that is right in the heart of Footscray. They are going to have a new podcast studio and new writing spaces. I was also pleased to announce funding for Cinespace, which is also based at the Footscray Community Arts Centre and which is going to be a multicultural screen arts project. This is fantastic news for our arts community in Melbourne’s inner west that I am very proud to support.