NORPA (Northern Rivers Performing Arts) is celebrating significant milestones in its journey to establish a new creative hub in Lismore. The Joinery will provide the region’s premier performing arts company with a permanent home and a vibrant cultural space for the Northern Rivers.
A significant contribution to the first phase of The Joinery’s development has been secured through the Northern Rivers Towns and Villages Resilient Business Activation Program, enabling initial repairs and restoration of major services to the historic Hampton and Larsson factory in central Lismore to create its new home.
This phase gives NORPA office and temporary rehearsal spaces; and an important step towards the building’s transformation into the flood resilient cultural facility NORPA is envisioning for its future.
This announcement directly supports NORPA’s long-term sustainability and resilience, allowing the theatre company to occupy the building immediately, while also showcasing how low-cost, climate-resilient solutions can help small and medium businesses recover from environmental events.
“Repairing and utilising this building is a vital step in NORPA’s return to Lismore and a powerful act of cultural renewal. Most importantly it gives NORPA and our artistic community a home,” said NORPA Chair, Damian Kassabgi.
Creative spaces in the Northern Rivers region are ranked as the cultural sector’s most urgent need in a newly released report, Who Are We (Arts Northern Rivers). It calls for investment in affordable and accessible venues for making and presenting work. The Joinery answers this call, providing a central space for creative practice, collaboration and long-term cultural recovery in the Northern Rivers.
The Joinery Project embodies NORPA’s trademark ability to adapt unique locations into performance spaces, while providing the company with a much-needed permanent home. NORPA’s signature works are often site-specific and place based but the need for a permanent rehearsal and making space has been the company’s greatest challenge since the 2022 floods.
After several years of disruption, the company is turning challenge into creative energy, with this concept of The Joinery as a new home – while also staging works across Australia and creating new projects that engage with the region’s local creatives.
This year NORPA’s My Cousin Frank, the extraordinary true story of the first Aboriginal Olympian, is being staged in Adelaide, Albury Wodonga and Melbourne while Laboratory of Light – a science education show is bound for HOTA on the Gold Coast. Currently, Dinner Party at the End of the World is in development which is a multi-artform project that engages with some of the leading artists in the Northern Rivers.
“NORPA is busy behind the scenes seeding new works, collaborating with incredible artists locally and further afield. We are not waiting for things to return to normal. We are developing something very distinct and complementary to our style of work and our operational needs. The Joinery is a vital part of NORPA’s future vision,” said Artistic Director, Julian Louis.
As NORPA continues to grow and adapt, The Joinery will be the centre of its work, a place of possibility, offering an inspiring space for artists to gather, rehearse, experiment and develop their practice.
“The development of The Joinery will be ongoing for several years, and this is just the beginning. We are so grateful to our old and new friends, partners, community and collaborators who are on the journey with us. There is still so much to achieve, so we hope the vision continues to inspire,” said Executive Director, Libby Lincoln.
With funding support from the NSW Government and philanthropic partners, NORPA is now within reach of its goal to secure the historic Hampton and Larsson timber factory in central Lismore.
NORPA invites the community to be part of the region’s future and help bring The Joinery to life. Donations can be made at: www.norpa.org.au.
For more information about NORPA and its programs, visit: www.norpa.org.au for details.
Image: The Hampton and Larsson Building in Lismore (January 2025) – photo by Rohan Shearn