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The curtain is about to rise on one of Sydney's boldest arts projects, to date - the renovated and re-invented Eveleigh rail yards reports Mark Chipperfield with Photograph by Sahlan Hayes in the SMH’s the(Sydney)magazine of December 06.

After two decades of neglect, the sprawling Eveleigh rail yards. on the border of Newtown and Redfern, are about to begin a new career as the city's newest, boldest and quirkiest arts complex. The vast, abandoned Victorian workshops, once the lynchpin of Australia's rail network, have been transformed into a centre for contemporary dance, music and theatre. The CarriageWorks Contemporary Performance Space, which opens on January 5, houses three state-of-the-art theatres, rehearsal spaces, offices, workshops and a cafe. The impressive foyer doubles as a performance space.

The $45 million state government-funded project is part of a wider redevelopment plan for the Eveleigh rail yards, which closed in 1988. Planners hope to attract residential, business and retail tenants.

CarriageWorks will get its baptism of fire during the 2007 Sydney Festival when it hosts three major productions, including Zero Degrees, a dance work featuring the music of British DJ Nitin Sawhney. Despite the international flavour of this initial program, those behind the new space say CarriageWorks is principally intended for artists living in Marrickville, Newtown and Redfern as well as edgier companies such as Performance Space, which will take up residency early in 2007

Director Sue Hunt says the space is keen to attract troupes that are pushing the boundaries of dance, video art and mixed media. "You won't see anything here that requires a proscenium arch," she says.

Project architects Tonkin Zulaikha Greer (TZG) consulted with performers and dancers in order to create the three theatres. The result is a multi-use space that can be reconfigured to suit various performance styles, from intimate drama to flamboyant circus acts.

Memories of the old rail yards will be preserved in a series of aluminium panels on display in the main foyer. The main entrance to CarriageWorks - constructed of giant metal trusses from the original roof - is another reminder of its origins. "Not only does this provide a dramatic entrance structure," says TZG director Tim Greer. "it symbolically links the building's past and the site's new incarnation"

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald the(Sydney)magazine Issue #44 December 06 pp29

[This document is produced by OCR of the print article and may contain recognition errors]