By Will Cox
The Ian Potter Foundation has announced it is donating $15 million to the refurbishment of Melbourne’s State Theatre.
The donation – the largest single philanthropic donation to an Australian performing arts centre in history – will contribute to the State Theatre’s first significant upgrade since it opened in 1984, including better accessibility, as well as improved lighting and acoustics. The venue will be renamed to the Ian Potter State Theatre in recognition of this gift.
The team packs down the State Theatre after the Australian Ballet’s production of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – the final show in the theatre before it closes for refurbishment. Credit: Eddie Jim
“The State Theatre has never had this kind of attention,” says Arts Centre Melbourne CEO Karen Quinlan. “And it desperately needs it. It’s got to be brought into the 21st century. It deserves a flawless experience, one that helps celebrate the joy of the work of everyone that performs on that stage.”
Director of Arts Centre Melbourne’s reimagining project Chris King says the donation, which has been in the works for several years, will help bring the building up to contemporary accessibility standards.
“It’s a much-loved venue,” says King. “It’s got fantastic bones, and brilliant heritage interiors by John Truscott, but it needs some love. It’s 40 years old and it’s a bit tired.”
The 2079-seat theatre, home to the Australian Ballet and Opera Australia, will reopen in 2027 with wheelchair positions in the stalls (currently only the circle and boxes are accessible), as well as more aisles and new seats. Until then, the Australian Ballet and Opera Australia will relocate to the Regent Theatre on Collins Street.
A rendering of the State Theatre’s renovated auditorium.Credit: NH Architecture
This $15 million donation is a small part of the $1.7 billion renewal of the Melbourne Arts Precinct. The full cost of the State Theatre renovation was unavailable at the time of publication.
Quinlan is quick to assure that the building’s distinctive interior, including the 75,000 brass cups that make up the “shower” hanging from the ceiling, and Graham Bennett’s hand-painted stage curtain, will remain unchanged.
“The design is of its time, but I love it,” says Quinlan. “The theatre itself is just beautiful, and retaining it in its original character is really important. The work done in the improvements is really respecting that.”
Other work as part of the refurbishment will include transforming the State Theatre’s rehearsal room into an intimate 150-seat venue known as the Show Room, which will open later this year. The rest of the building, including the Playhouse and the Fairfax Studio theatres, will operate as normal during the renovation.
Vicki Fairfax pictured in Hamer Hall.Credit: Mark Kenfield, Arts Centre Melbourne Broadcast & Digital
Vicki Fairfax is the author of A Place Across the River, a book about the history of the Arts Precinct. She is also the widow of the late George Fairfax, who served as a technical advisor on the building’s design and was later Arts Centre Melbourne’s first general manager.
Fairfax says that her husband’s original artistic policy for the Arts Centre, dated 1982, concludes that “it must be a centre for all people”. She says the increased accessibility is in line with that aim.
“[The original building committee] felt it was their mission that this place is for everybody,” says Fairfax. “The naming of the theatre is very much part of that as well … There’s something sacrosanct about the State Theatre.”
Sir Ian Potter in 1962.Credit: Athol Shmith
The renaming of the venue to the Ian Potter State Theatre may prove controversial, or even confusing. There are multiple other venues within the precinct and beyond named for the philanthropist from the Ian Potter Southbank Centre around the corner to the NGV’s Ian Potter Centre in Federation Square and the Ian Peter Museum of Art in Parkville.
Ian Potter was a banker, company director and philanthropist who served on the Arts Centre’s original Building Committee, formed in 1957. The Ian Potter Foundation has a long relationship with the Arts Centre, including millions in donations going back to the centre’s early planning stages.
The Foundation is also a major supporter of the arts in Melbourne more broadly, funding various arts facilities and organisations as well as individual projects through the Ian Potter Cultural Trust.
In 2018 the Ian Potter Cultural Trust was mired in controversy when it withdrew its support from an artwork it had funded. The satirical film Terror Nullius by Australian duo Soda_Jerk, was described as “a very controversial work of art” by the trust and, according to the artists, as “un-Australian”.
Quinlan says the renaming of the venue will have no bearing on its independence.
Chairman of the Ian Potter Foundation Charles Goode says its large donation was designed to help bring other potential donors to the table. “We’re trying to lead and encourage others,” he says. “The government was putting in a lot of money but it required a private sector contribution.
“The Arts Centre is really the mothership of cultural life in Victoria,” says Goode. “A great nation deserves great art, and you can’t have great art without up-to-date facilities.”
King says the part of philanthropy in funding the Arts Centre is “enormous”.
“These relationships have been decades in the making, and they’re always important for cultural institutions,” adds Quinlan. “They allow us to do more than we’d otherwise be able to do.”
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