Address: Founders Room

A young, white male holds a red guitar and faces the camera. He wears a grey shirt with a collar and s standing in a alleyway

*** CANCELLED! ***
Sadly, Harry is now unable to travel from Melbourne so we will need to cancel this performance scheduled for Friday evening. Apologies for the inconvenience and we hope Harry can join us at another time.

Harry Tinney is a Melbourne-based touring and recording artist, who is quickly cementing his place within the Australian improvised music scene with a characteristic approach to the guitar. Harry has worked with Australian jazz luminaries Barney McAll and Julien Wilson, as well producing his own music with his co-led Hammond trio “Organix” and post-rock outfit “Wastelands”. Harry released his debut album “Kingsnake” in 2019, and his sophomore album “Wastelands” is due for release in late 2022.

For this performance Harry will be playing his original compositions, joined by Alf Jackson on drums and Hamish Houston on bass.

Silikill
Silikill is a nipaluna/Hobart based ensemble that unites an eclectic range of styles into a collaborative musical and gestural language to explore concepts and noise. They are primarily engaged with performing original compositions and free improvisations from within the group. The works themselves often stem from current personal interests, general bouts of confusion, and revelations which are tied with a sense of playfulness and lust for autonomy.

Photo pf the Founders Room : a room with dark wooden floors and exposed beams in the vaulted ceiling. In the foreground are red chairs and black tables set in cabaret configuraion. In the background is a stage with a baby grand piano aginst a black curtain backdrop. — Photo: Nicole Robson

Nestled beneath the vaulted gables of an 1840’s warehouse is the Founders Room. With polished oaken floorboards, limewashed sandstone walls and heritage windows that look out over the SAC Courtyard on one side and Woobys Lane and Salamanca Square on the other.

Dedicated to the Founders of Salamanca Arts Centre, this venue is the perfect location for Live Music Performances, Private Functions including Wedding receptions, cocktail parties, seminars, training sessions, launches and promotional events.

Venue Hire Rates

Not for Profit / Educational Institutions / Schools / Rehearsals:
$179 per Half Day (maximum 6 hours) / $244 per Day / $1,189 per Week

Commercial / Government Departments:
$283 per Half Day (maximum 6 hours) / $406 per Day / $1,699 per Week

Venue Hire Package Private Functions / Events* (includes weddings, dinners, parties, conferences etc.)
$1,400 per event (maximum Hire Period of 3 Days)

Venue Hire Package for SAC Supported Local / Touring Performances*
$244 per event (maximum Hire Period of 1 Day)

All prices are inclusive of GST and valid from 1 January 2025.

*Venue Hire Rates are planned to increase as of 1 January 2026.
For details of 2026 Venue Hire Rates, please refer to the Founders Room Venue Hire Pack / Conditions of Hire (PDF)

Applying for the Founders Room : 2025 Calendar REMAINING DATES

Salamanca Arts Centre (SAC) is currently seeking applications for inclusion in the Founders Room 2025 Calendar (May – December 2025).

Applications were for both Public Events and Activities, including Performances, Live Music Events and Concerts, Film Events, Workshops, Launches etc. and Non-Public / Private Events and Activities, including Corporate Events, Private Functions, Rehearsals and Creative Developments, Meeting, Workshops and Seminars.

Applications are for REMAINING DATES ONLY.
The majority of the 2025 Calendar was filled in the two Annual Assessments Round in 2024. As a result most months in 2025 are heavily booked and only limited dates remain.
The remaining dates are listed in the Application Form.

Available dates include :
– some Wednesdays : available for Non-Public Events / Meetings / Rehearsals / and some Public Events by Special Request;
– some Fridays & Saturdays (and the occasional Thursday) : available for Public Events (including Live Music Events).

For more information on the hire of the Founders Room, including Venue Hire Rates for 2025, please refer to the Conditions of Hire (PDF) prior to submitting your application.

Applications can be submitted at any time
Applications will be assessed as received and applicants will be contacted with an outcome within 10 x Working Days.

APPLY

Availability for 2026 & Beyond

Applications for the remaining dates in the 2025 Calendar are open now (see above for details).

The majority of the 2025 Calendar was filled in the two Annual Assessments Round in 2024. As a result most months in 2025 are heavily booked and only limited dates remain.
The remaining dates are listed in the Application Form.

Salamanca Arts Centre assesses applications for the Founders Room twice annually, with submission dates of 30 April and 30 September each year, and with Special Assessment Rounds as required.

**Applications for the 2026 Calendar will be included in the September Assessment Round**

If you would like to be notified when applications open for 2026 dates or when dates become available due to a cancellation, please sign up to our alert list.

ALERT LIST

A performer on stage wearing white clothing and a white fluffy hat looks out to the audience with a forlorn look. The lighting on them is red and purple.

This event is part of Winter Light 2022 and is presented by Salamanca Arts Centre

It’s always darkest before the dawn, you don’t miss the heat until it’s gone, the queers have hibernated from the coldest day, now they emerge to get on stage and be really, REALLY gay.

QT offers up their gender nonconforming slice of cake, to The Winter Light Festival we celebrate, show casing new acts, new talents, and old favorites running the old gamuts. Get ready for a night that will make you laugh cry and scream, Put on your warm coat and dancing shoes and get ready to yell “slay qween!”

It’s one night only so book in advance, leaving tickets until the night is a dangerous chance.

Friday 12 August 2022
Doors at 7:30pm
Show 8pm-11pm

tickets

Whilst the wearing of masks is not mandatory it is recommended in certain situations by Tasmanian Public Health. Masks will be available upon entering the venue for those patrons who would like one.

If you’re unwell, it is recommended that you stay at home, and we look forward to welcoming you at Salamanca Arts Centre another time.

Artists

Photo: Trash King Photography

Hera Fox

Hera is a playwright, and circus & cabaret creator based in nipaluna (Hobart). Having grown up in the Huon Valley starting in community musicals, they have had a varied career in burlesque and drag to circus and acrobatics. Now they have found their voice as a transgender woman returning to song and cabaret creating work for and by transgender people. Her plays have endeavored to assist in changing the culture of the live performing arts, to be more inclusive, and to not take itself too seriously. She has a tendency to write about love, lust, and loss, with a style reflecting reactions of your various ex partners.

They are the founder and artistic director of QT Cabaret, a space for transgender and gender queer performers to trial new cabaret and circus work, which won Artfully Queers unifying voice award 2019. Hera is also the winner of 2020’s Out For Australia Community Champion award.

a blue and yellow kaleidoscopic image of a protea flower

Thursday 25 August 2022
7pm – 9pm
Doors 7pm
The Founders Room
Salamanca Arts Centre
Enter via Wooby’s Lane, or for lift access enter through The Courtyard

Get to The Founders Room for another round of homegrown edge-of-your-seat, rib-tickley makesy-upsy from PROTEA Impro and Salamanca Arts Centre.

Featuring the improvised talents of: Rosemary Cann, Rowan Harris, Jane Stoddart, Ollie Gorringe, Jeff Michel and Emma Skalicky!

Improvised music from Andrew Morrisby with host Matt Wilson.
See you there!

Concession $15/General Admission $20

tickets

Whilst the wearing of masks is not mandatory it is recommended in certain situations by Tasmanian Public Health. Masks will be available upon entering the venue for those patrons who would like one.

If you’re unwell, it is recommended that you stay at home, and we look forward to welcoming you at Salamanca Arts Centre another time.

Salamanca Art Centre’s 2022 programs are supported by the Commonwealth Government’s Office of the Arts via the RISE Fund.

A dark image of someone's right hand on a piano. Instead of sheet music, there are tarot cards.

This event is part of Winter Light 2022 and is presented by Salamanca Arts Centre

Arcana brings together some of Tasmania’s finest performers to render a musical interpretation of your past, present and future. Using the ancient art of the tarot as a springboard, go in the draw to ask your question and hear your reading as a multi-layered, semi improvised sonic experience.

Will your fortune build to a mighty crescendo, provoke an existential scream, or scuttle around the edges of audibility?

An original work conceptualised and developed by emerging Tasmanian artists led by Alethea Coombe, Arcana is a multi-artform collaboration bringing musical, movement, and occult arts into play.

13 – 14 August 2022
8pm – 9.00pm
Sunday 14 August 2022
4.30pm – 5.30pm

tickets

Whilst the wearing of masks is not mandatory it is recommended in certain situations by Tasmanian Public Health. Masks will be available upon entering the venue for those patrons who would like one.

If you’re unwell, it is recommended that you stay at home, and we look forward to welcoming you at Salamanca Arts Centre another time.

Artists

Alethea Coombe

A diverse musician, Alethea plays casually with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, the Van Diemen’s Band, has programmed multiple concerts at the Moonah Arts Centre (Hobart), and has featured as soloist with the Melbourne Metropolitan Sinfonietta premiering Michael Mathieson-Sandars’ violin concerto, Jongleur Histories, which was written for her. She collaborates with a number of sound artists and visual artists, exploring technology and improvisation. Their collaborative work has been featured at a number of Hobarts galleries and museums. She has been the recipient of a number of federal and state grants for development and residencies in Australia and abroad. Alethea has performed with internationally acclaimed ensembles ELISION, eighth blackbird and Ensemble Interface, and has performed at soundSCAPE (Italy), Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival (Finland), the International Summer Course for New Music at Darmstadt (Germany) the Australian Festival of Chamber Music (Townsville), The

Unconformity (Queenstown), Dark Mofo (Hobart) and MONA FOMA (Hobart and Launceston).

Jem Nicholas
Jem Nicholas is a facilitator, actress and mover who has recently relocated to Hobart from Melbourne. She has a Bachelor of Performing Arts at Monash University, and has appeared several productions, including as Sylvia in Australian premier of ‘You are the Blood,’ by Ashley Rose Welman. Directed by Peter Blackburn, Carrie in ‘Rules for Living,’ Red Stitch Actors Theatre, directed by Kim Farrant, and Florence in ‘Dr Blake Murder Mysteries, Season 5,’ ABC, directed by Diana Read. She received critical acclaim for her work ‘Child’s Play,’ a one-woman show written and performed by Jem, directed by Jessica Stanley. She has done further training with Peter Kalos – The Melbourne Actors Lab, Patsy Rodenburg – Voice Master Class, Carl Ford and Susan Batson at the Susan Batson Studio – New York, and is currently training in the Alexander Technique with Penny McDonald.

Tom Robb
Tom Robb is a Hobart-based freelance drummer, electronic musician and educator currently engaged in many musical projects, ranging from free improvisation, jazz, noise music, and music therapy. As a performer, Robb has been fortunate enough to work with some of the most accomplished musicians and ensembles in Australia, including Greg Kingston, John Hoffman, Tim Green, Rugcutters Quartet, Eugene Ball, Zac Hurren, and Scott Tinkler. Robb’s recorded work has been released on Chemical Imbalance (SYD), Supersonic (BRIS) and Green Chimneys Records (BRIS), as well as being involved in numerous independent releases.

Lachlan Johnson | Cello

Lachie is a Hobart-based cellist and teacher, performing regularly in a wide variety of local ensembles, including stints as principal cellist with the Hobart Chamber Orchestra, the Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music Symphony Orchestra, and the Tasmanian Discovery Orchestra. He undertook a Bachelor of Music studying under Markus Stocker at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, and continued studies with Sue-Ellen Paulsen at UTas, where he received the university medal in 2016.

Michael Fortescue | Double Bass
Michael’s early musical training was in Canberra, playing with Canberra Youth Orchestra, Canberra Symphony Orchestra, and Australian Youth Orchestra. After a year with Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, he moved to Tasmania to study with Jan Sedivka at UTAS. He commenced work with TSO in 1976. He undertook studies in 1988-89 with Francois Rabbath at Conservatoire Lili et Nadia Boulanger Paris IX. He left TSO in 2013. He is former board member of TSO, deputy chair Music Fund of Australia Council, chair of Music Panel of TAAB, president of Hobart branch of Musicians Union and lecturer in double bass and improvised music at UTAS. Currently chair of Kickstart Arts and freelance specialist in whiskers and kicks.

Michael Mathieson-Sandars | Creative Consultant
Michael Mathieson-Sandars is a Hobart-based Australian composer. He is a co-founding member of new music ensemble Kupka’s Piano, alongside whom he has collaborated with Ensemble Interface (Germany), Makeshift Dance Collective (Brisbane) and received funding through Arts Queensland and the Australia Council for the Arts. He completed his Honours in Music at the University of Tasmania Conservatorium in 2016, and his Bachelor of Music at the Queensland Conservatorium in 2013, studying with Gerado Dirie, Maria Grenfell and Don Kay. Michael has attended a number of international music festivals and conferences, including soundSCAPE (Italy – 2013) highSCORE (Italy – 2013) CoMA (UK – 2013) International Summer Course for New Music at Darmstadt (Germany 2014, 2016). For these courses he was awarded PPCA Performers Trust Award for overseas study (2016), Ian Potter Cultural Trust for overseas study (2014) and had lessons with Rebecca Saunders (Germany) Brian Fernyhough (US) Liza Lim (Aus/UK) Michael Finnissy (UK). Michael and Alethea have collaborated on new musical works since 2011; recent major works include “For Reza Berati” for violin, flute and dancer, as well as Jongleur Histories – a violin concerto commissioned by the Melbourne Metropolitan Sinfonietta.

Curated by BADDI ADI.

EGRESS // ELECTRONIC EMERSION – monthly electronic dance nights. An antidote of experimental electronic dance music and spatial installation, once a month throughout 2022.

AQRN

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ART GAY

All guests are reminded of the following entry requirements and to practice COVID Safe Behaviours including:

Full Vaccination required to attend this event
Check-In via the Check In Tas app
Sanitising hands upon entry
Maintain Physical Distancing (1.5m)
If you are feeling unwell, please do not attend (we will see you another time!)
If guests are not enjoying a beverage, guests must wear a face mask at all times.

Supported by Live Music Australia – an Australian Government initiative

For its debut performance, the Alf Jackson Quintet will be performing a spectrum of music from composer and multi-instrumentalist, Ornette Coleman and his collaborators for Jazzamanca.

Coleman’s music is unparalleled. The vectors of Ornette’s lexicon, suspends preconceptions of music and is heard in his “fierce love with an outlaw music that he could hear but didn’t quite yet know how and with whom to play.”
It is heard in his exploration of the plastic saxophone, in the sound of Denardo Coleman (Ornette’s son) on the 1969 album, and in the anecdotes of Coleman bewildering punters and musicians alike during the height of the Bebop era.

The Alf Jackson Quintet takes Ornette’s approach as a provocation towards old and new dreams and attempts to attune to the many registers of Ornette’s playing, compositions and historical resonance.

Jon Smeathers – alto saxophone
Julius Schwing – guitars
Hamish Houston – double bass
Dom Nguyen – double bass
Alf Jackson – drums

Alf Jackson

Is a musician from Hobart, who began his studies in percussion at the age of ten. At the age of 12 Alf gained third place in Drumtek Australia’s Best Up & Coming Junior Drummer Competition. Since then Alf’s drumming has resulted in collaborations with Julius Schwing, Branford Marsalis, Tom Vincent, Brian Ritchie, Peter Knight (Australian Art Orchestra), Paul Capsis, Ava Mendoza, Sam Anning and Julien Wilson – to name but a few. These engagements have varied from album recordings to national & international tours and to television & radio appearances. In 2010 Alf was awarded first place in Young Jazz Players Competition at the Clarence Jazz Festival. Other festivals performances include MONA FOMA, Dark MOFO, Devonport Jazz Festival, Ten Days on the Island, Festival of Voices, Mornington Peninsular Music Festival and Falls Festival. In 2020 Alf was accepted into BANFF contemporary music intensive with a full scholarship which was cancelled due to Covid-19.

All guests are reminded of the following entry requirements and to practice COVID Safe Behaviours including:

Salamanca Arts Centre’s Live Music Program is supported by the Commonwealth Government’s Office of the Arts via the RISE Fund.