Main points:
- An Arts Hall of Fame will be established in the City
- It will celebrate the outstanding contributions of Cockburn’s arts community
- Nominations will launch in 2025 coinciding with the centennial of Cockburn’s iconic home of the arts, Memorial Hall in Hamilton Hill.
The City of Cockburn is preparing to recognise and promote the outstanding contributions of its talented and hard-working arts community with an Arts Hall of Fame.
The Hall of Fame’s first inductees will be announced in 2025 to coincide with the centenary of Memorial Hall in Hamilton Hill.
The heritage-listed limestone hall on the corner of Rockingham Road and Carrington Street has been the City’s iconic home of arts and culture for the past 99 years, hosting a multitude of art forms including live music, theatre, dance, comedy and visual arts.
Cockburn Council endorsed the City’s Arts Hall of Fame Policy at its 9 July Ordinary Council Meeting, with calls for nominations launching in 2025.
City of Cockburn Mayor Logan Howlett is a great supporter of Cockburn’s long-standing arts and cultural community which he said had in turn created a healthy local appetite for the arts over many decades.
“The City is working hard to shine a light on arts and culture and its appreciation in Cockburn, to give it a higher profile and help it strengthen and continue to grow,” Mayor Howlett said.
“This policy will allow us to forge ahead with plans to recognise some real champions of Cockburn’s talented and broad arts movement, without whom our community’s inherent love of and curiosity for arts and culture would not be the flourishing scene it is today.
“I am thrilled Cockburn Council has supported the establishment of the Arts Hall of fame and its supporting policy.
“It will recognise the outstanding achievements of individuals and groups who currently or previously lived in the City of Cockburn, and includes the proposed selection criteria for nominees to be considered eligible for recognition.”
City of Cockburn Head of Library and Cultural Services Brittany Cover said the Hall of Fame was a passion project the City’s Arts and Culture team would relish, after significant investigation and research.
“Celebrating the movers and shakers in our arts and culture community, those working diligently behind the scenes, and others with a higher profile and immense talent to share is an appropriate way to appreciate the arts,” Ms Cover said.
“For the City it is another significant way for our community to experience arts and culture with family and friends, and hopefully inspire people of all ages and abilities to explore their own artistic pursuits.
“The opportunity to appreciate arts and culture is fundamental to us all in a vibrant inclusive and diverse community.”
The Hall of Fame will be displayed onsite at Memorial Hall with various locations under exploration, including external pillars and prominent floor tiles and plaques.
The City has hosted its annual Show Off art exhibition at Memorial Hall for 19 years and the popular Side Splitter Comedy Festival has attracted entertainment-hungry crowds for eight seasons.
Earlier this year it hosted internationally renowned play BRUCE and the innovative Headphone Verbatim Performance The Quadrangle, which elevated the voices of Cockburn youth.
The Arts Hall of Fame would be akin to the City’s Sports Hall of Fame, which was established in 2004.
Earlier this year it added a further 14 sporting inductees, taking the total to 21, with plaques on display at Cockburn ARC and at the City’s Spearwood Administration Centre.
Caption: L-R Brittany Cover (Head of Library & Cultural Services), Anton Lees (Acting Director Community & Place), CEO Daniel Simms, Cass Cooper (Art & Culture Coordinator), Marie La Frenais (Events & Culture Manager) and Mayor Logan Howlett.