Arts centre upgrade a drama in own right

SHOWTIME has been pushed back for months as the State Government’s $5 million refurbishment of the Centre of Contemporary Arts limps towards opening night.

Tenants of the artistic institution have been treading water in interim homes for a year amid repeated delays to the completion date.

JUTE Theatre Company had intended to launch its biggest project of the year, a dramatic story of migration titled Alice and the Antipathies, to celebrate the long awaited realisation of its new-look home.

Instead, it was forced to launch the performance at the Cairns Performing Arts Centre on Saturday.

The centre’s evolution has been marked by uncertainty for those organisations that make it what it is.

End Credits Film Club was looking for a new home as far back as September 2017, having been warned renovations would begin in September of that year and last six months.

Construction was pushed back, with a mid-2019 completion scheduled upon its official launch. That schedule had been pushed back to October when the Cairns Post approached Arts Minister Leeanne Enoch in July.

Now the project sign-off has been held up again.

“Undertaking a refurbishment to an existing building has uncovered the need to take additional corrective and compliance work which has resulted in a delay,” an Arts Queensland spokeswoman said. “When the builders commenced demolition, latent conditions such as concealed asbestos and areas of noncompliant electrical were discovered.

“As the health and safety of staff, patrons and visitors is the highest priority, the project was delayed.

“It is expected that tenants will be moving back into the building in December 2019.”

The spokeswoman said Cairns Regional Council had helped both JUTE and KickArts with space in the interim.