The historic township of Auburn (pop. 318) in the Clare Valley, 105km north of Adelaide has been a place many performance artists pass through as they traverse the continent, not one where they stop. The area’s residents have instead had to travel several hours either to the Barossa Vallery or Port Pirie or down to Adelaide to see live music, dance, theatre or other cultural shows. That is, until now.
This year a new organisation was launched to fulfil that local need, HATS, which stands for Heritage, Art and Traditions. It’s a not-for-profit community arts organisation dedicated to presenting music, dance, theatre and spoken word performance from a diversity of cultural traditions. Thanks to a partnership with the National Trust of South Australia, HATS is based in Auburn’s historic Courthouse and has established the Courthouse Cultural Centre, with works being presented in the central courtroom taking advantage of its acoustics.
