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History
About Performance
Space
During the 60’s
and 70’s, contemporary performance
makers in Sydney were challenging the certainties
of modernist theatre, but each time had
to create anew the context in which to present
the work. What was needed was a place to
provide focus and continuity.
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1980's
While we mark our organisational
beginning as 1983, like the birth of any
institution, this is preceded by serious
work undertaken by its founders. In our
case, the story starts in October 1979 when
our Founding Director, Mike Mullins, was
looking for a venue to present his work.
Sydney’s theatre spaces, even the
experimental spaces in the large performing
arts complexes, were prohibitively expensive
for artists attempting to make contemporary
work
Performance Space opened
in February 1980 with Mike’s production
of First Blood.
Mike spent the next couple
of years agitating, organising and lobbying
to set up a constituted organisation and
create a home for a practice that was substantively
unrecognised by funders, the media and the
mainstream arts world. A practice driven
by ideas and politics – that was as
much an exploration of form as content.
In general terms, the artists set out to
challenge conventional notions of theatre
and representation, and explore critical
intersections between performance and visual
cultures, new media, film and sound.
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1990's - Now
Since then, Performance Space has facilitated
and accommodated an enormous variety of
work that has been recognised locally, nationally
and internationally. We have triennial funding
from state and federal governments, a permanent
staff of eight, solid media profile, a respected
position within the sector and a vibrant
constituency.
The space has been
a hub for thousands of artists and their
work, for hundreds of thousands of audiences,
and most significantly has created a profile
for hybrid practice and offered an endurance
to the obstinately ephemeral.
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