The Eureka Hall is turning 120 this year and the community kicked off the celebrations with the inaugural Eureka Art Show on Friday evening with walls and plinths full of wonderful work, and the hall filled to capacity with celebrators.
Like all small halls, the Eureka Hall is another jewel dotted across the Northern Rivers. Also like all small halls there is always a challenge to maintaining the premises.
On the committee is Michelle Braiuka who says there are many hands helping to keep the venue afloat.
‘We’re celebrating 120 years – it’s a wonderful celebration of community, and tonight, community connection through art.
‘This marks the start of a year of celebrations. The art show is not a competition – artists needed to enter an expression of interest and we accepted 18 artists. Ten per cent of all the art sales over the weekend are donated back to the hall.’
Relying on volunteers
Ms Braiuka said, like any region it’s always a struggle to have people available to volunteer.
‘But, we have a beautiful community of people that are always willing to help out.’
Ms Braiuka said the hall is used for all sorts of events including weddings, meetings, and yoga on a regular basis. It’s available for rent all year round.
Ms Braiuka, who curated the art show, said she doesn’t have an art background, but she does have an art appreciation.
‘I also recognise that we have so many amazing artists within this region that don’t have a platform to actually show us their art. One of the artists, it’s her first ever exhibition, she’d never had a platform. So that was actually the inspiration for why we started the show.’
Local halls part of local communities
Member for Lismore, Janelle Saffin, who opened the art show, expressed how important small halls are.
‘Small halls are community. It’s where community gathers. It’s where they not only tell stories, they make stories, and they’re repositories for stories. So if a hall connects everybody, it connects community and it shows care.’
Ms Saffin said there are so many things that happen in the halls.
‘There’s been this wonderful revival over the last few years, I think across the Lismore electorate where there’s about 28 halls. With all of the extreme weather we’ve had they’ve become even more important as gathering places, and people are using them for disaster preparedness.’
Ms Saffin said the best way to support small halls is to support the committee.
‘When they put out a call, respond to it, do what you can. You may not want to be on the committee, but when they ask for things to happen, help out. And I’m told that it happens really well here at Eureka.
‘You know, small halls are your halls – look after them. There’s a lot of skill here. If you go to our little communities, in our villages, there’s an enormous amount of skill and knowledge there.’
First time exhibitor, artist Kate Geary, said the show was a great opportunity.
‘It’s wonderful for me and other new and emerging artists to share their work alongside people with a more established practice – and to be able to do so, in this beautiful space, in the heart the community, is really special.’
To find out more about the Eureka Hall hire and celebrations, visit their social media page.
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