Jewel in our creative crown THE FUTURE IS NOW, AS TASMANIA’S WORLD-CL ASS CRE ATIVE HUB COMES ONLINE After more than a decade in the making, the heart of Hobart’s creative precinct, The Hedberg, is beating.
“We are seeing this reflected in our courses, for instance in music and video collaborations between the Bachelor of Music, Bachelor of Media and the interdisciplinary Creative Curriculum student cohorts.
Visionary donors played a fundamental role in delivering one of the State’s most ambitious cultural and arts infrastructure projects — the University of Tasmania’s new world-class learning and teaching space, which is designed to foster creativity and contribute to positive social change.
“In terms of industry engagement, we are able to invite
Music and creative arts students were welcomed onto campus in 2020 and preparations were underway for an official opening when COVID-19 changed the course of events for all of us.
and orchestrated a piece of music, which Classical
Prior to the pandemic, a small group of donors were privy to a curtain raiser, enjoying a bespoke private event to thank them for their generosity and to unveil the facility’s named spaces — The Ian Potter Recital Hall, Claudio Alcorso Foyer, and Vanessa Goodwin City Room and Vanessa Goodwin Roof Garden. While the main official opening is yet to come, the transformative effect on students and staff is already underway. Professor Kate Darian-Smith, Executive Dean and ProVice Chancellor, College of Arts, Law and Education, said the University was thankful and incredibly proud of The Hedberg and all it has to offer students, staff, the Tasmanian creative industries and the community. “The Hedberg has taken us boldly into the creative future, giving our music and creative arts students a world-class learning space that brings teaching and research together with industry and community,” Prof Darian-Smith said. “Generous philanthropic support has been critical to this magnificent project becoming a reality for us. “It has enabled us to evolve our curriculum and equip our students with the agility needed for contemporary creative careers and leadership.
A YE AR IN REVIEW 2020
cultural and creative professionals into our spaces, opening up more opportunities for work-integrated learning and for performing and recording with the creative industries.” Commercial Music Creation student Kenny King composed Performance students performed in The Ian Potter Recital Hall in 2020. “It was mesmerising to hear what the space sounds like, to sit in the room with the orchestra was a special experience that made the hair stand up on the back of my neck,” Kenny said. In the future, Kenny is looking forward to tapping into the state-of-the-art music technology, particularly the complex speaker array, which he said could make a small, intimate space sound like a cathedral. The Ian Potter Recital Hall is set to feature a variable acoustic system and is one of a handful in the world capable of reproducing a reverberation field between 0.6 and 15 seconds. When it is installed, this technology will recreate the perfect sonic environment for the widest variety of performances, and opens possibilities for space to form part of cutting-edge compositions. The $110 million project was delivered through a collaborative partnership between the University, the Australian and Tasmanian Governments and the Theatre Royal. It is also supported by a $5 million gift from The Ian Potter Foundation and other cultural and arts leaders who have had their generosity acknowledged in the following named spaces:
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