fortyfivedownstairs

fortyfivedownstairs Information

Until the middle of the 20th century, the building at 45 Flinders Lane housed the industrial equipment and cloth bales of the rag trade.

In the early 1990s, with Span Galleries on the ground floor, the lower ground warehouse space was first set up as a commercial gallery. Mary Lou Jelbart and Julian Burnside took over the space, founding fortyfivedownstairs in 2002 with a vision for it to become a unique curated space for both live performance and visual art.

fortyfivedownstairs' doors opened with works from the Keene Taylor Theatre Project - a series of outstanding short plays by Daniel Keene, directed by Ariette Taylor, and from its inception the venue gained a reputation for presenting remarkable theatre productions. Seasons have included a series of contemporary European and new Australian works by Theatre @ Risk, Keep Breathing, Black Hole and many other contemporary, established and emerging theatre artists. Seasons and performances have been staged for the Melbourne International Festival, the Next Wave Festival, the Comedy Festival and the Melbourne Fringe. Events and launches have been held for the Melbourne Fashion Festival, Mietta's Forums and Writers Week. Playreadings and book launches have become frequent, and music recitals from classical, contemporary and jazz to folk and multicultural performances became regular fixtures in the venue calendar.

Artists exhibiting in the gallery have included Julie Dowling (presented by Artplace), Elizabeth Milsom, Damian Broomhead, Stephen Nova, Prudence Flint, Richard Stringer, Peter Daverington, Cathy Drummond, Richard Wastell (presented by Bett Gallery, Hobart), Nobby Seymour and many, many others.

Following a successful first half decade, in 2007 fortyfivedownstairs expanded and took over the derelict basement of number 45 to create a dedicated performance space on the floor below.

Upstairs, the space became two dedicated galleries, in which a curated programme of exhibitions has hung almost constantly since.