Fremantle Arts Centre

This article is about the building. For the organisation, see Fremantle Arts Centre (organisation).

Museum and Arts Centre, Fremantle
Front of the Fremantle Arts Centre, as seen from Ord Street
Map
General information
TypeHistoric building complex
LocationOrd Street, Fremantle, Western Australia
Coordinates32°02′51″S 115°45′15″E / 32.047469°S 115.754137°E / -32.047469; 115.754137 (Fremantle Arts Centre)
TypeState Registered Place
Designated16 November 1993
Reference no.875

The Fremantle Arts Centre[1] is a historic building complex on Ord Street in Fremantle, Western Australia.

The heritage-listed building complex was built using convict labour between 1861 and 1868 and was used as a psychiatric hospital, initially called the Fremantle Lunatic Asylum,[2] and often as Fremantle Asylum.[3][4] It was later renamed the Asylum for the Criminally Insane,[1] and also known as the Lunatic Asylum & Old Women's Home.[1][5]

The site is owned by the state of Western Australia, through the Department of Lands and is vested in the City of Fremantle under a management order, whereby the City is responsible for the buildings, its conservation and routine management.

It currently houses the Fremantle Arts Centre, an organisation through which the City of Fremantle offers a program of exhibitions, residencies, art courses and live music.[6][7] Funding is received from the City of Fremantle, and the Western Australian State Government's Department of Culture and the Arts.[8] It is located opposite the Fremantle Leisure and Aquatic Centre, and is near John Curtin College of the Arts and Christian Brothers College.

  1. ^ a b c Heritage Council. "Museum and Arts Centre, Fremantle". stateheritage.wa.gov.au.
  2. ^ "Fremantle Lunatic Asylum". Victorian Express. Vol. XV, no. 40. Western Australia. 11 August 1893. p. 4. Retrieved 1 September 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
  3. ^ "The Fremantle Asylum". Western Mail (Western Australia). Vol. III, no. 121. Western Australia. 7 April 1888. p. 4. Retrieved 1 September 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. ^ "The Fremantle Asylum". Western Mail (Western Australia). Vol. VI, no. 270. Western Australia. 14 February 1891. p. 32. Retrieved 1 September 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. ^ Reference to the 'Old Women's Home' "History of Fremantle". The West Australian. Vol. 54, no. 16, 310. Western Australia. 8 October 1938. p. 23. Retrieved 1 September 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
  6. ^ "Fremantle Arts Centre - Attraction - Tourism Western Australia".
  7. ^ "Our History".
  8. ^ "dca.wa Department of Culture and the Arts".