Description of the attraction
Fremantle House of Arts is a multi-disciplinary institution hosting exhibitions, art courses and music lectures in a historic building in the heart of Fremantle.
An imposing 2.5 hectare Colonial Gothic building overlooks the bay - once the largest public building built by inmates in the state (after Fremantle Prison). It was built between 1861 and 1868, and at one time was used as a psychiatric hospital, and later as a hospital for the insane who committed a crime.
The mental hospital operated until the early 1900s, when, after two suspicious deaths and ensuing public outrage, the government audited and ordered the building to be demolished as "not serving the purpose for which it is being used." The patients of the hospital were transferred to other hospitals in 1901-1905, but the building itself has survived.
For some time thereafter, the building housed homeless women, and later an obstetric school operated there. During the Second World War, it was the headquarters of the American armed forces. After the war, the building briefly became the building of the Fremantle Technical School, and in 1957 the Department of Education again decided to demolish the building in order to reclaim land for the construction of the school. The decision sparked a wave of public outcry, led by the mayor of Fremantle, Sir Frederick Samson. After years of desperate search for funding, a restoration project began in 1970. Since 1972, it has housed the Maritime Museum, later moved to the Victoria Embankment, and the House of Arts, which is still operating today.
Today, the House of Arts hosts many events that attract more than three thousand people annually. Particularly popular are summer open-air concerts featuring world-class stars such as Morcheeba and Groove Armada.
