Unbelievable news in today’s Courier.

http://www.thecourier.com.au/story/3000218/ballarat-mayors-plan-to-drain-civic-hall-funds/?cs=62

Hard to believe that this Council has formally approved the community design process that will determine the future of the whole site of the Civic Hall, but is now engaged in underhand deals to remove its funding.

Help us celebrate the Civic Hall’s 58th birthday with a fundraising film at the Regent on Wednesday 20 August at 6.30pm.

“The Hundred Foot Journey” is a great film starring Helen Mirrin about an Indian family that moves to France to set up a restaurant.

Tickets are $15 and the profits go towards either VCAT action to prevent demolition, or, if this is not necessary we’ll fund a celebratory community event there.

Tickets from SCH committee members. Ring Zero419324042

Do you have items or information relating to the Civic Hall?

We’d love to hear from you!

Barbara, Judith and Merle are now working on an exhibition about the Civic Hall, for Heritage Weekend 2015. Several people have already come forth with original ball tickets from the 1950s and 60s, and we have several programmes of the first concerts, posters from events held there over the years, and wonderful photographs of the bands that performed there.

We know that many people did their Deb, or attended balls there. It would be wonderful to borrow one of two of those frocks!

The Gold Museum has also offered to be a safe repository for any items which are donated. So they will be preserved for the future. But of course we would be happy to just borrow items closer to the time of the exhibition.

And as we are gathering information about the Civic Hall, we’d also be delighted to meet with anyone who has stories or other things to share.

Get in touch if you’d like to talk – Merle: 0419 324042 or Barbara: barbarac@comcen.com.au or Judith: 5335 6290

Last Sunday’s forum, held at the lovely old Ballarat Mechanic’s Institute presented three very inspiring and informative speakers.The focus was, how do we refurbish or adapt old buildings to vital community hubs.

Ammon Beyerle, Co Director of Here Studio, and a founder of Ballarat Coworking, asked us to consider –  Do we change the use of the Civic Hall? Or change the building? Do we want large, or small changes? Are there things we want
to keep?He showed images of arts and community spaces in Europe and Australia that have been developed by creatively adapting old buildings such as Paris’ Museé D’Orsay, once a railway station and London’s Tate Modern, formerly a power station. Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art was once a maritime services building.

Jeremy Gaden, Director of The Substation, Newport, gave an inspiring account of how the derelict 1915 railway building has become a leading conte
mporary art space in the western suburbs.

Long considered an eyesore that nobody wanted, its rejuvenation
began with just two enthusiastic people and finally involved the whole community.  Today businesses nearby are thriving and there are are fewer closed shops. Gaden said that a key problem is that The Substation was neverdesigned to accommodate people. (Unlike Ballarat’s Civic Hall, which was designed to accommodate many people for a wide range of functions).

 Phil Roberts, historian and Secretary of the Ballarat Mechanics Institute, spoke of the $5 million process to restore the Ballarat Mechanics Institute. he meticulous restoration was achieved in stages, over fifteen years, with funding mainly from the Brumby state government, major philanthropic trusts, local service clubs and businesses.

Save Civic Hallis currently continuing discussions with the City of Ballarat regarding their proposed community engagement process. This is seen as a timely process to heal the rift between Council and community and to further discuss some of the ideas put forth at the forum.