Melbourne Athenaeum

Athenaeum

The Melbourne Athenaeum
Address 188 Collins Street
Melbourne
Australia
Designation Victorian Heritage Register, Register of Historic Buildings
Capacity 880 (theatre one)
Current use Live theatre, comedy, library, readings
Construction
Opened 1839
Rebuilt 1885-1886
Years active 176–177
Architect Smith & Johnson
Website
www.melbourneathenaeum.org.au

The Athenaeum or Melbourne Athenaeum is one of the oldest public institutions in Victoria, Australia, founded in 1839. Its building in the Melbourne City Centre consists of a main theatre hosting a range of theatre, comedy and music performances, a small studio theatre, and a subscription library. The building was added to the National Trust's Register of Historic Buildings in 1981 and is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register.[1] The theatre is part of Melbourne's East End Theatre District.

History

Early history

The first President was Captain William Lonsdale, the first Patron was the Superintendent of Port Philip, Charles La Trobe and the first books were donated by Vice-President Henry Fyshe Gisborne. Originally called the Melbourne Mechanics' Institute, it was renamed in 1846 to the Melbourne Mechanics' Institution and School of Arts.[2][3]

The building at 188 Collins Street was completed in 1842. The Melbourne City Council met in the building until 1852 when the Melbourne Town Hall was built.

The Institution changed its name to the Melbourne Athenaeum in 1872.[4][5] At that time, as now, a focal point was the library. In 1877, membership was 1,681 and in 1879 there were 30,000 visits to the library. In 1880 it was reported 'that the floor of the large hall was the only one in Melbourne expressly constructed for dancing'. The front of the building was rebuilt in 1885 and 1886.

Theatre and cinema

In October 1896, the first movie was shown in Australia in the Athenaeum Hall. The Hall became a regular venue for screening films and the premiere of The Story of the Kelly Gang by the Tait brothers, the world's first dramatic feature film, was at the Athenaeum in 1906.

The theatre in its present form, a proscenium arch theatre with 880 seats on three levels, was created in 1924. It was the first venue in Australia to screen talking pictures, presenting The Jazz Singer in February 1929. From the 1920s to the early 1970s, the theatre was mainly used as a cinema for British films. The Melbourne Theatre Company (MTC) leased the theatre from 1976 to 1985 when the lease was taken over by various entrepreneurs who formed AT Management in 1997.

The upstairs studio theatre ("Ath 2"), created from the former art gallery by the MTC, has been used as a theatre space and the venue for The Last Laugh Comedy Club after it moved from North Melbourne.

The Athenaeum housed a small museum in its early days and then an art gallery. The gallery hosted the first exhibition of Frederick McCubbin's The Pioneer in 1904.[4] The gallery also showed paintings by Rupert Bunny, Hans Heysen, Albert Namatjira, Tom Roberts, John Rowell, Constance Stokes and Arthur Streeton, before closing in 1971.[4][6] The gallery also hosted talks by the Melbourne Society of Women Painters, including one in 1935 at which Mary Cecil Allen spoke.[7]

Subscription library

Membership of the Athenaeum's subscription library peaked at 7,579 in 1950, after the State Library of Victoria ceased lending of its books in 1939.[8]

Today

Today, the Athenaeum Theatre is used for a range of theatre, comedy and music performances, including as a principal venue for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and Melbourne Opera. The Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas presents discussions and talks at the theatre. The Hillsong Church also uses the theatre for its Sunday services.

The subscription library has a 30,000-strong collection and hosts regular events, talks, book clubs and a screen club.

Melbourne Athenaeum is not related to the nearby Athenaeum Club.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Melbourne Athenaeum, Victorian Heritage Register (VHR) Number H0501, Heritage Overlay HO587". Victorian Heritage Database. Heritage Victoria.
  2. ↑ Clancy, Frances M; Victoria. Department of Infrastructure (2000), The libraries of the Mechanics' Institutes of Victoria : report prepared for Department of Infrastructure, Victoria – Department of Infrastructure, ISBN 978-0-7311-0937-1
  3. ↑ Baragwanath, Pam (2000), If the walls could speak : a social history of the Mechanics' Institutes of Victoria, Mechanics Institute Inc, ISBN 978-1-876677-32-9
  4. 1 2 3 "175 years of the Melbourne Athenaeum Library – where to from here? Paper presented at the Library History Forum, State Library of NSW, November 2014." (PDF). State Library of New South Wales. Retrieved 12 January 2015.
  5. ↑ "MELBOURNE ATHENAEUM.". The Argus. Melbourne: National Library of Australia. 27 January 1921. p. 9. Retrieved 12 January 2015.
  6. ↑ Summers, Anne (29 March 2014). "Portrait of a mystery". The Canberra Times. p. 20.
  7. ↑ "Women Painters Entertain Miss Allen.". The Argus. Melbourne: National Library of Australia. 10 October 1935. p. 15. Retrieved 11 March 2015.
  8. ↑ Brown, Jenny (13 October 2014). "Original high church of culture and books". Domain (The Age). Retrieved 22 April 2016.

Coordinates: 37°48′54″S 144°58′02″E / 37.81504°S 144.96736°E / -37.81504; 144.96736

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