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Business View Australia - January-February 2016 37
INFRASTRUCTURE
Moonah Arts Centre
Since its opening about a year ago,
this community arts centre has be-
come extremely popular and both de-
velops and presents about 60 events
and activities annually. These include
a variety of exhibitions, concerts, art
and craft workshops, a school holiday
program and special events including
contemporary dance and theatre.
The Glenorchy City Council’s Annual
Report for 2014-15 stated as follows:
“In March, the doors of the wonder-
ful new Moonah Arts Centre (MAC) of-
ficially opened! MAC was made possi-
ble by a Commonwealth grant and has
become known as an iconic communi-
ty arts space.”
Peter Brooks said there was already
healthy evidence of the new MAC re-
vitalising the Moonah business dis-
trict, with more shops and restaurants
opening up on Main Road.
“Increasingly, people from outside
the City are seeing Moonah as a des-
tination, and this means more visi-
tors and increased spending in the
City. It is great to have such a venue in
Glenorchy, and this will certainly con-
tinue to add to the City’s growth and
development.”
The project was financed by a $4 mil-
lion grant received from the Australian
Government through the Department
of Regional Australia, Local Govern-
ment, Arts and Sport in June 2012 to
“provide a new facility for the perform-
ing and visual arts in Glenorchy to re-
place the existing Moonah Arts Cen-
tre”.
Morrison and Breytenbach, Archi-
tects, were selected to design the
building and the selected builder, Vos
Constructions commenced work in
December 2013. The Moonah Arts
Centre was officially opened in March
2015.
A large number of residents of
Glenorchy and Hobart visit the new
centre. While the number of visitors
to the old centre averaged 6,000 to
8,000 annually, the new centre re-
ceived 21,000 visitors within six
months of its opening.
The Moonah Arts Centre was also
‘Highly Commended’ in the Australi-
an Sustainable Cities Awards 2015.
The building in which the centre is
housed is almost carbon neutral and
has achieved the equivalent of a 5
Star ‘Green Star’ accreditation. Its key
design features include a 10kW solar
panel installation and a passive wall
heating system that incorporates the
use of solar radiant heat to heat the
two main spaces within the building.
The building has been constructed
using low-impact ecologically sustain-
able materials and uses double glazed
windows linked with high-quality win-
dow furnishings to promote energy effi-
ciency. Natural lighting has been used
in the display galleries and in several