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Lane Cove's Journey to a Performing Arts SpaceLane Cove Theatre Company, in collaboration with other performing arts groups in Lane Cove has been working with Lane Cove Council for more than 20 years to find a viable, sustainable, multipurpose performing arts space for use by all performing arts and cultural groups in the LGA.
The goal is to create a 150-200 seat, flexible, multipurpose space for use by performing arts and cultural groups in Lane Cove LGA. This timeline below is form 1991 – 2021 when Lane Cove’s population grew from ~31,300 to ~38,700. Reference |
1991 |
Lane Cove Town Hall, a venue that was regularly used as a multipurpose space, particularly for music, dance, drama and meeting space, was demolished to make way for the new Lane Cove Council buildings as they stand today.
Lane Cove Music moved its performances to Lane Cove-Mowbray Anglican Church. |
1992 |
The Lane Cove Youth Orchestra was founded by Robyn Mah and Lyndall McNally.
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1994 |
The Lane Cove Music and Cultural Association was established in former Ladies Bowling Club building at 266 Longueville Road. The venue included teaching studios and a small 90-seat performance auditorium. This venue became the Lane Cove Music and Cultural Centre.
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1995 |
The Lane Cove Cultural Taskforce was formed by the Lane Cove Music and Cultural Association consisting of representatives from all cultural and arts groups in Lane Cove. The name was later changed to the Lane Cove Visual and Performing Arts Centre Working Party.
Lane Cove Theatre Company was founded. |
2002 |
The Lane Cove Visual and Performing Arts Centre Working Party presented to the Lane Cove Policy and Corporate Development Committee about the lack of facilities for the arts community in Lane Cove.
As a result of this presentation. Lane Cove Council agreed to:
Lane Cove Council established the Cultural Advisory Committee which consists of key representatives from the community arts groups, council staff and councillors, specifically to address the cultural needs of the community. The Cultural Advisory Committee continues to meet four times a year. |
2003 |
The Cultural Advisory Committee commenced and the Cultural Planner was appointed.
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2004 |
After extensive community consultation the (award winning) Lane Cove Cultural Plan was written and became a model for the state of NSW for future local government cultural plans.
Lane Cove Council adopted the Plan Expressing Our Culture: A Cultural Action Plan for Lane Cove, on 6 December 2004. It was presented to Council and the community, with promises to address the need for improved cultural facilities for Lane Cove. One of the key goal/actions was to Design and construct a multipurpose cultural facility with a timeframe of five to 10 years. |
2006 |
Lane Cove Council appointed ARTD/CSR Consulting to consult with the community to develop a vision for a cultural centre for Lane Cove.
Consultations were held with cultural and community groups, and the wider community. A Seminar was also held with directors of several successful Sydney cultural centres. A report was delivered to Council recommending that Lane Cove Council:
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2007 |
A professional consultancy firm Hassel Ltd was contracted by Council. The Hassel report was produced after lengthy community consultations, identifying specific cultural needs for the many diverse arts groups in Lane Cove.
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2008 |
The single most outstanding need identified by this report was that the community of Lane Cove wanted a Cultural Centre, a purpose-built building housing facilities for local art, music, dance and drama.
A site was chosen at 160-180 Longueville Road, opposite the Lane Cove Library. A basic costing was done to build a Cultural Centre containing teaching studios, an auditorium with associated facilities and gallery space for Lane Cove. The estimated cost for the proposed Cultural Centre was $20m. Twelve years of consultations and cultural planning for Lane Cove came to an abrupt end when the project was immediately cancelled by Council. Council resolved not to proceed with any further investigation into the feasibility of designing and constructing a Cultural Centre in Lane Cove. Council announced it would now look at redeveloping existing structures to provide facilities for the arts groups. It was noted that most cultural groups had reached their capacity and could not expand further due to limitations with facilities. |
2009 |
A further Lane Cove Council-funded Cultural Needs Study was conducted by Pegasus Performing Arts Consultancy Group. The Pegasus Report provided Council with recommendations on how it could best provide support to community cultural groups.
The recommendations on the Pegasus Report’s recognised the request for a performing arts space that would have an audience capacity for 150-200 people, sufficient backstage space, foyer and ticketing space. |
2015 |
Council received and noted a petition with over 1,000 signatures calling for a dedicated performance space in the Rosenthal Avenue Carpark Redevelopment.
At the February 2015 Lane Cove Council meeting, Council received the petition and advised that the Cultural Centre would not be going ahead as part of the Rosenthal development. Council requested a detail business case on the performance space from Lane Cove Theatre Company which was delivered. Council introduced a Cultural Venue Hire Subsidy Fund to provide up to $4,000 per year per cultural group for performances in venues more suitable for their performance needs. There was formal community consultation on the draft Cultural Plan from 30 November 2015 – 1 February 2016. Submissions were received from performing arts groups reiterated their agreement that the provision of a cultural performing arts space is critical however suggested the use of the word “investigate” should change to “commitment”. The draft plan presented for consideration at the February 2016 Council meeting maintains “investigate” in the language. Petitions for a Lane Cove Performing Arts Centre have been presented and signed at performances and concerts by all and sundry local arts organisations for the past 20 years. A petition of more than 1600 signatures was presented to Council in February 2015. |
2016 |
Create Lane Cove: Cultural Plan was adopted by Council in February 2016. The language remained to “Continue to investigate opportunities for a multipurpose cultural performance space and work alongside community cultural groups to ensure the solution is viable and sustainable.” This was again deemed critical.
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2017 |
Lane Cove Music and Cultural Centre moved its teaching operations to new facilities provided in the Community Hub, Little Street. Due to the performance auditorium of the present Music and Cultural Centre not being replaced, no further public recitals will be possible, resulting in considerable loss of income for the Centre.
The 260 music students will be taught in six new studios and the 8-10 annual student concerts will be reduced to 4 due to the additional cost of hiring an alternate venue and piano. Centrehouse (arts and crafts, language tuition, etc) will move into the premises on Longueville Road presently occupied by Lane Cove and Northside Community Services. Lane Cove and Northside Community Services transitioned into new premises in Little Street. |
2017 |
Lane Cove Music and Cultural Centre moved its teaching operations to new facilities provided in the Community Hub, Little Street. Due to the performance auditorium of the present Music and Cultural Centre not being replaced, no further public recitals will be possible, resulting in considerable loss of income for the Centre.
The 260 music students will be taught in six new studios and the 8-10 annual student concerts will be reduced to 4 due to the additional cost of hiring an alternate venue and piano. Centrehouse (arts and crafts, language tuition, etc) will move into the premises on Longueville Road presently occupied by Lane Cove and Northside Community Services. Lane Cove and Northside Community Services transitioned into new premises in Little Street. |
2019 - 2020 |
To date, Lane Cove Theatre Company have made submissions as part of the community consultation process, to be included in the following Lane Cove Council developments:
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