Fortyfivedownstairs
Art in Melbourne

Fortyfivedownstairs is one of Melbourne’s most renowned and multifaceted clever hubs. As an unfunded and notforprofit organization we support independent, experimental and thought provoking art forms, striving to make money for artists not from them. From an aesthetic point of view, the exhibiting space at fortyfivedownstairs has a rightness to it. The spaces, and here I speak of both galleries, labor for all kinds of exhibitions. The galleries are located on the beginning smooth down the two spaces are wonderfully plain with their white walls, wooden floors and soft light. They bear a flawless blank canvas for the artworks displayed within. The theater is on the next floor down an intimate, versatile and grungy space which transforms with every production and reveal held within its unpainted brick walls. I go to fortyfivedownstairs with a sense of anticipation, certain that what I will be offered is unique and the superior of its type. When I leave, piece of me is always different. Foster innovation, new ideas and hybrid art forms. Donate an opportunity to reveal work in development. Produce opportunities for artists not represented by commercial galleries to exhibit in an inner city gallery. Yield personalized service to artists, performers, patrons and visitors to the space. In the premature 1990s, with Span Galleries on the ground floor, the under ground warehouse space was beginning set up as a commercial gallery. Mary Lou Jelbart and Julian Burnside took over the space, founding fortyfivedownstairs in 2002 with a vision for it to become a unique curated space for both live performance and visual art. For the first five years, exhibitions and theater productions alternated in the below ground space. Following a triumphant beginning half decade, in 2007 fortyfivedownstairs expanded and took over the negligent basement of number 45 to create a dedicated performance space on the floor below. Upstairs, the space became two dedicated galleries, in which a curated programmed of exhibitions has hung almost constantly since. In 2004, Melbourne’s leading theater critics nominated four productions as their top choices for the year. Described as a compelling ninety minutes of theater. Fortyfivedownstairs has a small team of paid staff : a vibrant and different group of passionate people, all of whom have backgrounds in the visual and performing arts. We also have a splendid and very healthy appreciated team of volunteers, who you can see listed on our supporters page.