Newtown School of Arts: Timeline
11 August 1858 - Newtown School of Arts is established
A public meeting was called on the night of 11 August 1858. It was held in the school room of the Wesleyan Church on the corner of Edgeware Road and King Street, Newtown. 120 people attended, including some of the ‘most respectable and influential members of the community’. A motion was passed to establish the Newtown School of Arts. Such an institution was needed ‘owing to the extraordinary and rapid increase of population in Newtown and the great want of education both here and throughout the colony’. It was the first School of Arts established in the suburbs of Sydney and was second only to the Sydney Mechanics School of Arts established 1833.
11 August 1858 - Thomas Holt, Founding President
Thomas Holt was a founding member of the Newtown School of Arts and a driving force behind its establishment. Born and educated in Yorkshire, England, he had been exposed to the School of Arts movement and was a great supporter of its ideals and principles. At the public meeting on 11 August 1858, Thomas Holt was called to take the Chair. He spoke of the history of the School of Arts movement. He told of the benefits to the working class who could not afford to buy books and how such an institution would help everyone. Holt vowed to commence the erection of a building suitable for the purpose and pledged to personally pay one tenth of its cost. Thomas Holt was immediately elected by resolution as the President of the proposed Newtown School of Arts.
22 September 1859 - Publication of the 1st Annual Report
The first annual report was published in the Sydney Morning Herald on 22 September 1859. There were 100 members meeting regularly in the school room of the Wesleyan Church. A library consisting of over 1,200 donated volumes had been established with opening hours Tues, Weds and Sun 7pm-10pm and Mondays 1pm-4pm (mainly for lady members). The Reading Room was also open daily 8am-10am and 7pm-10pm: newspapers and other magazines were provided. Chess and drafts were available in the reading room as well as coffee for members at ‘reasonable prices’.
18 March 1863 - Newtown School of Arts opens its new building
The Governor, Sir John Young, opened the new Newtown School of Arts building on the corner of Australia and Bedford Streets, designed by Frederick William Holland and built by William Henry Mitchell. The opening was attended by parliamentarians, members of the School of Arts, local church leaders and the general public. The evening ended with the Reverend Kent announcing that subscriptions of almost 112 pounds had been collected that evening and he predicted that the building would ‘soon be cleared of debt.’ He was unfortunately wrong and the end came only five years later.
5 May 1868 - Newtown Council purchases the building
Following years of falling membership, rising debts and economic recession, the Newtown School of Arts building was sold to Newtown Council. There were only 12 paid up members and the School of Arts had no means of raising any revenue. The Newtown School of Arts committee handed over the balance of funds on the condition that it be spent on library books. The building became the Newtown Town Hall.
Newtown Council ultimately benefited from the first Newtown School of Arts in that it gained a library and was able to declare that it established the first free public library in NSW. Newtown Council continued to add to the library and use it for public lectures; in a very real sense, the Council continued the work of the original Newtown School of Arts whose main focus had been to erect a building and establish a library.
24 August 1899 - Inaugural meeting of the Newtown Work Men’s Institute
30 years passed between the end of the Newtown School of Arts and the establishment of Newtown Work Men’s Institute.
The Jubilee Souvenir of Newtown (1912) refers to the inaugural meeting of Newtown Work Men’s Institute on 24 August 1899 at which 88 Members enrolled. Temporary premises were opened at St Georges Hall on 18 September 1899 (through to February 1900) and though they were deemed unsuitable for long-term usage, the billiard tables proved to be a very fruitful source of revenue and enjoyment. By the end of 1989, membership had increased to 283.
1900-1911: Newtown School of Arts at 5 Eliza Street is born
In the early months of 1900, the Committee of the Newtown Work Men's Institute leased the premises at 5 Eliza Street for a period of five years from John Plant Wright. In 1905, the lease was extended for a further five years.
In January 1910, the Members of the Newtown Working Men's Institute largely voted in favour of a motion to change the name of the Institute to Newtown School of Arts. ‘Members… have felt for some time that the objects of the institution have been somewhat misunderstood, many persons imaging that the purpose is purely political… As a matter of fact, politics and religious subjects are prohibited from being associatead with the institute’s proceedings. Its objects being for the social, intellectual and moral improvement of its members.’
In 1911, Newtown School of Arts purchased the site at 5 Eliza Street.
The opening of the new and renovated Newtown School of Arts occurred during one of the most terrible years of war. Newtown School of Arts was regularly used to farewell and welcome home departing and returning soldiers.
8 April 1916 - The foundation stone was laid by the Honourable W A Holman, Premier of NSW:
“It becomes us, who are living in peace, whilst our brothers are fighting to see that the lamp of civilisation is kept alight in spite of war clouds.” - W A Holman, Premier of NSW
2 September 1916 - The Newtown School of Arts Honor Roll was unveiled by the Honourable W A Holman, Premier of NSW
“Schools of Arts provided splendid meeting places. They are needed more than ever during this crisis of conflict. The intellect of the race was suffering a tremendous shock when scientists, writers and artists were carrying rifles and engaged in cutting throats.” - W A Holman, Premier of NSW
At that time, there were 20 names on the the board. By 1918, there were over 40 names on the honor board with many Members recorded as Wounded, Missing or Killed in action.
January 1919 - The Spanish Flu pandemic
Pneumonic Influenza came home with the troops following the end of World War I. The first cases hit Sydney in January 1919 and by the first week of February, every suburb in Sydney was recording cases. There was no cure, only prevention.
Quarantine laws came into effect and all theatres, churches, schools and public halls were closed. The Newtown School of Arts could not let their premises or hold any gatherings. It provided an inhalation chamber where people could go to breathe medications such as euculyptus. It also acted as a depot for nurses who went out to nurse the sick in their homes. The nurses were provided with food, masks and blankets.
1930 - Newtown School of Arts suffers in Depression years.
Newtown School of Arts suffered from a lack of revenue during the depression years; their license applications for the letting of the hall routinely noted that they needed money to continue operations. However, the School of Arts importantly provided members, many of whom were unemployed, with social interaction. Members who could pay voluntarily subsidised those who were unable to meet their subscriptions. The School of Arts library was well used during these years. Along with access to books, the institution provided copies of the daily newspapers so members could check the positions vacant columns.
1939-1945 - The war years
The hall was used for patriotic fundraising activities and for political purposes (e.g. preselection ballots, voting, meetings) during World War II.
1943
The Royal Australian Army leased the premises for postal purposes, provision of an emergency telephone exchange and as a canteen for soldiers on leave.
1950s
The Communist party sold their tribunes in Newtown and promoted their cause. Their meetings lectures and concerts were held in the Newtown School of Arts. The New Housewives Association was a front for the Communist party; from 1947 to 1950 the New Housewives Association organised annual Christmas fairs at the Newtown School of Arts.
2020 - Present Day
Since 2005 the NSoA has embarked on a deliberate but considered revitalisation that has upgraded the building and its creative use and outputs, while preserving and building on the original ethos and governance aims. NSoA acted as a pilot for the remaining 120 odd Schools of Arts across NSW, to evolve out of the original and now defunct Schools of Arts Enabling Act. Today the NSoA is reincorporated as a private, cultural non-profit trust under the Private Trustees Act. The Trust is a registered charity and holds tax deductable status to encourage tax free donations. Some of the NSoA’s partners have included cultural entrepreneur Kerri Glasscock, Theatre Producer Rodney Rigby, The Sydney Fringe, New Theatricals, Mitchell Woodcock and New Ground Collective along with eminent architect Andrew Andersons and arts leader Leo Scholfield AM.
