ANU’s Kambri Cultural Centre will be closed for approximately eight and a half months, from early June 2024 to early February 2025.
This closure is due to extensive renovations repairing damage sustained to the roof and walls. The closure will affect ANU-affiliated groups and clubs that frequently use the Cultural Centre for creative means.
The closure and renovation of the Cultural Centre is a part of the campus-wide planned remediation project to deal with residual damages caused by the January 2020 hailstorms. Said hailstorms involved hail as big as golf balls, high winds, and flooding, which caused the whole of ANU to briefly close because of the damage to multiple buildings and services.
One of the clubs most significantly affected by the closure of the Kambri Cultural Centre is the ANU Film Group. The group normally screens over 200 films annually for its members in the Cultural Centre’s cinema room but will be forced to take a screening break while the building is under construction.
The group is unable to relocate as the cinema is the only room on campus suitable for film screenings. As stated on their website, members of the ANU Film Group will have their memberships extended following the completion of the renovations or can receive a pro-rata refund.
The Cultural Centre has also housed a variety of theatre productions in its Drama Theatre space. Most recently, the National University Theatre Society (NUTS) has hosted the productions of ‘Third Story’ and ‘The Effect’ in the space. Because of the closure period, NUTS will move its next production off campus to the Ralph Wilson Theatre in Braddon.
There is concern that the building will not reopen to creative ventures after ANU’s Art and Music Library was closed in December 2023. The building was closed after hail remediation work, with services being permanently moved to Chifley Library.
At the time of the announcement of its closure, an open letter appealing to ANU to keep the library open garnered more than 700 signatures. The letter outlined the importance of the collection of resources within the library and condemned the decision to turn the library into a general study space upon its reopening. Despite this, the closure went ahead, leaving students of the School of Art and Design bitterly disappointed in ANU’s lack of support towards the arts.
Similarly, Kambri’s aMBUSH Gallery has remained closed since July 2022, another creative space rendered inaccessible to students. It seems that the closure of the Kambri Cultural Centre may be a part of a larger issue – that ANU has a lack of spaces for creative mediums. ANU students seeking visual arts, music, theatre, and film may have to turn to off-campus spaces in future.
Kambri Venues did not respond to requests for comment in time for publication.
As with any construction project, the February 2025 completion date may be extended because of issues encountered along the way. But as of now, students can expect to be able to use the Kambri Cultural Centre as usual by O-week next year.
Written by: Evie McEachern
Graphics by: Annisa Zatalini
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