CULTURAL & HERITAGE PROJECTS

ArtsNational Projects

Members and friends of ArtsNational enthusiastically record older buildings and churches across a wide range of Australian communities, including rural, remote regions. Projects, large or small, may cover social, cultural and architectural aspects along with items of historical interest. Church records, bound or in digital form, are lodged with the National Library, State Libraries and the Royal Australian Historical Society. Enquiries are always welcome: adfasinthecommunity@artsnational.au

CHURCH RECORDING & CHURCH STUDY

Religious fervour in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries saw the construction of numerous churches of several denominations across metropolitan and regional Australia.

Many of these churches have become redundant to church usage for a variety of reasons, resulting in demolition, removal to another site or conversion to homes or other uses, while others have simply been abandoned and therefore are prone to gradual decay over time.

All churches, no matter how grand or modest, are highly significant as an expression of cultural and religious beliefs of the people of a locality at the time when they were built. All are worthy of recording in some way.

ArtsNational Society members have recorded over 50 churches across Australia. Some are as far flung as  St. Therese’s Catholic Church, Bathurst Island, NT and as small as The Heber Chapel, Cobbity, NSW.

 

Click here for the current list of completed Church Recordings & Church Studies

 

SCHOOLS OF ARTS & MECHANICS INSTITUTES

Historically, the School of Arts movement, also known as the Mechanics’ Institute movement, spread through the English-speaking world in the mid-nineteenth century.

Most Australian towns and small settlements at some time had the equivalent of a School of Arts or Mechanics Institute building – some were grand buildings, others humble halls. Although time and progress have taken their toll, many of these buildings remain, although sometimes now ‘disguised’ and used for different purposes.

Schools of Arts & Mechanics Institutes provide a snapshot into our past and one of the objectives of ArtsNational Societies across Australia is to record our often lost or forgotten social history.

 

Click here for the current list of completed School of Arts & Mechanics Institutes