‘Ghosts of the Picture Palace: Word and Sound Art’ brings award-winning and emerging artists from Melbourne and Adelaide to St Arnaud for a unique performance. Poets Melinda Bufton, Michael Farrell, Leah Muddle, Alex Sutcliffe and Lucy Van will share the stage with cellist David Moran and sound/visual artists Alex Hamilton and David Palliser.

The genesis for the event came out of a random town encounter between an arts council member and two of the poets, who saw an opportunity to bring locals and city artists together.

A sequence of contemporary works will honour the layered history of the iconic RSL building on Raglan Street. Originally designed as a picture palace, it was re-purposed as a corset factory in the Second World War, and again as meeting place for our returned soldiers and resident ghosts.

This unique event, interweaving word and sound art, promises to be as reinventive, haunting and resonant as the performance space itself: new art on old foundations. St Arnaud (Dja Dja Wurrung Country) is a picturesque town on the eastern edge of the Wimmera. It sits between Melbourne and Adelaide if you take the creative and scenic route through villages named in homage to Byron and John Stuart Mill, and our finest wine growing country.

For out of towners, make a day trip and explore the gardens and streetscape of this lovely town, or why not stay the night?

RSVP through EventBrite. Tickets to be purchased at the door. Brought to you by the St Arnaud Arts Council Inc., with the generous support of the Northern Grampians Shire Council.

Media release available here