Arts House reveals Season Two

Arts House Assembly Operation by Speak Percussion - Image by Damian StephensMaintaining its reputation as Melbourne’s home of all things experimental and contemporary, Arts House reveals a brave and bold new season featuring a diverse program of events, installations, performances and conversations.

“Works that explore urgent social issues and experiment with form can take us to unfamiliar places but combined with each other and the energy of our audiences, they also offer new, inspiring worlds of thinking, feeling and acting,” says Arts House Artistic Director, Angharad Wynne-Jones said:

Season 2 2017 begins with a clutch of works that explore the always complex, sometimes divisive concept of place and displacement head on featuring local and international artists including Nastio Mosquito (Respectable Thief), wani (Tales of an Afronaut), Sethembile Msezane (Excerpts from the past), PYT Fairfield (Tribunal), and Samara Hersch & Lara Thoms (We All Know What’s Happening).

Midway through the season, Arts House will present the premiere of new works by Melbourne based artists Stephanie Lake (Pile of Bones), Melanie Lane (Nightdance) and Speak Percussion (Assembly Operation). A collaboration with Melbourne Fringe on The Children’s Party aims to critically empower young people, while Survival Skills for Desperate Times is a collaboration with Melbourne Festival, highlighting 18 artists as the ultimate survivalists.

In November, Arts House will join with the community and emergency services partners to present the second instalment of Refuge – a five-year investigation into the role of artists and cultural institutions in preparing for, and building resilience to, climate change.

As part of Refuge, Arts House will investigate and rehearse the impacts of extreme heat and collaborate with emergency management professionals, artists, local and international communities to prepare and transform the North Melbourne Town Hall into a designated emergency relief centre for 24 hours.

Arts House audiences will dream a little with multidisciplinary artist Fleur Elise Noble’s ROOMAN, before ending the year in song with Sam Halmarack and Joseph O’Farrell’s (JOF) We are Lightning!

“The works and events as part of Arts House Season 2 will challenge, provoke and entertain,” says Chair of Arts, Culture and Heritage at City of Melbourne, Councillor Rohan Leppert. “From world premieres by international artists to incredible local works by some of Melbourne’s best, Season 2 at Arts House is not to be missed.”

Tickets are now on sale. For more information, visit: www.artshouse.com.au for details.

Image: Assembly Operation by Speak Percussion – photo by Damian Stephens