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DESTINASIAN.COM – AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2019
At the corner of Campbell and Collins streets
in central Hobart, the building taking shape seems
like any other urban construction site. But this US$70
million project, called The Hedberg, has global am-
bitions. A joint endeavor between state and federal
authorities and the University of Tasmania (UTAS), it
will put this city’s performing arts on the world stage
when it opens early next year, housing a new campus
for the university’s Conservatorium of Music, perfor-
mance spaces of varying dimension and scope loaded
with hi-tech wizardry, and a full recording studio. The
facility will also encompass the adjacent Theatre Roy-
al, an 1837 landmark that is the oldest working theater
in Australia. It’s an ambitious undertaking for a city of
200,000 stationed at the cusp of a continent.
“The Hedberg will do for Hobart what MONA
[Museum of Old and New Art] did,” said Conservato-
rium director Andrew Legg, who has been involved in
the project for more than a decade. “You will hear and
see things here you have never heard and seen before.
The Hedberg makes us truly international.”Designed by Singapore-based architecture firm
WOHA and Hobart’s own Liminal Studio, the com-
plex is being built on the location of the city’s first au-
tomotive garage, the brick frontage of which (dating
to 1925) has been retained as The Hedberg’s Collins
Street entryway. Elvio Brianese, a founding director
at Liminal, pointed out some highlights as we walked
around the site. “The red bricks from the original
buildings were repurposed and now show the foot-
prints of preceding developments. There are layers of
history here—we uncovered 3,500 colonial-era arti-
facts.” The items include old storage bottles and small
carvings that will be visible as glazed inserts in the
floor, or integrated into walls as displays.
The center of the complex features a light-filled
courtyard, while a giant glass screen at the main en-
trance will project performances visible to passersby.
“The building is porous enough to allow anyone from
the street to walk in and experience culture,” Brianese
said. “A grandfather and grandchild can come in and
both be inspired to create.”
Legg added, “We want The Hedberg to be affordable,
not exclusive. There will be versatility and diversity
in the venue, and we expect it to serve as a platform
for generating local talent.” The finished complex will
also showcase an enhanced Theatre Royal, which re-
opened in May following a six-month refurbishment.
Hobart may be the capital of Australia’s smallest
state, but artistically, it has long punched above its
weight. The city has a buzzing, well-documented con-
temporary art scene, a resident symphony orchestra,
jazz bars, numerous choirs (including the Southern
Gospel Choir at UTAS, the largest such ensemble in
the southern hemisphere) and concerts and festivals
galore. Musical luminaries like Brian Ritchie of the
Violent Femmes and German composer Johannes
Fritzsch live here, drawn, like many, by the sense of
community, the safety, the energy, and the allure of
nature—62 percent of Hobart is bushland, and its set-
ting on the River Derwent, with Mount Wellington as
a backdrop, is undeniably mesmerizing.
And then there is the history. Some of the earliest
art in Hobart came from convicts transported from
Britain in the early 1800s. In a climate-controlled pri-
vate room at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery,
senior curator Mary Knights showed me fine sketches
of England’s Dover coast drawn by a Norwegian paint-
er turned counterfeiter named Knut Bull. “There is a
strong tradition of landscape painting and photog-
raphy here,” Knights explained. “Tasmania’s rugged
outdoors has an incredible influence on artists.” The
English landscape painter John Glover, who moved
to Hobart in 1831 and is considered to be the father
of Australian landscape painting, produced a striking
body of work in his adopted home.
Yet it wasn’t until 2011 that the world took notice
of the local art scene. That’s the year Hobart-born
multimillionaire gambler David Walsh opened MONA
in the north of the city to showcase his extensive andBelow: Liminal Studio
co-founding directors
Elvio Brianese and
Peta Heffernan outside
The Hedberg, Hobart’s
still-under-construction
performing arts center.
Opposite, from left: An
underground corridor
at MONA; Emine Lewis
in the lobby of the
Henry Jones Art Hotel,
where she acts as “art
liaison” for the hotel’s
extensive collection of
Tasmanian artwork.
DISPATCHES ART SCENE