The culture of Melbourne, the capital of the Australian state of Victoria, encompasses the city's artistic, culinary, literary, musical, political and social elements. Since its founding as a British settlement in 1835, Melbourne has been culturally influenced by European culture, particularly that of the British Isles. During the 1850s Victorian gold rush and in the decades that immediately followed, immigrants from many other parts of the world, notably China and the Americas, helped shape Melbourne's culture. Over time, Melbourne has become the birthplace of a number of unique cultural traits and institutions, and today it is one of the world's most multicultural and multiracial cities.
Traditionally acclaimed as Australia's "cultural capital", Melbourne topped the Economist Intelligence Unit's annual ranking of the world's most liveable cities throughout much of the 2010s, based in part on its cultural attributes.
Overview Melbourne hosts and supports many cultural institutions, such as museums, galleries, events, festivals, public/street art, popular music, live music, film, independent music and literary talks, independent film and fashion. The city celebrates a wide variety of major annual cultural events, including local, national and international events. A number of cultural hubs also exist in the city, including the Victorian Arts Precinct, with its distinctive spire, and Federation Square, one of the city's main cultural hubs and tourist centres that celebrated its ten-year anniversary in 2012. Federation Square's distinctive architecture, large digital screen and public space attracts congregations, rallies and public audiences for sporting events.
Arts Architecture
Melbourne's buildings and structures feature a wide variety of architectural designs, and the city is home to the Royal Exhibition Building, the first Australian building to be listed on the World Heritage Register.
Australia's second oldest architectural firm, and one of the world's oldest, Bates Smart, is based in Melbourne.
Some of Australia's most prolific architects have originated from Melbourne, including Joseph Reed, William Wardell, John James Clark, Charles D'Ebro, Charles Webb, William Pitt, Nahum Barnet, Harry Norris, Sir Roy Grounds and Robin Boyd. In recent years, Melbourne has produced internationally recognised architectural firms, including Denton Corker Marshall, Fender Katsalidis, Daryl Jackson and Peddle Thorp, as well as local award-winning trendsetters, Edmund & Corrigan, Ashton Raggatt McDougall and Wood Marsh.
Literature
Melbourne's literary history is rich and diverse. The State Library of Victoria was the first major cultural institution to be established in Melbourne since its founding in 1854, and is one of Australia's oldest cultural institutions. The library holds more than two million books and 16,000 serials, and is a part of an extensive network of public and university libraries across the city. A wide range of independent bookstores also exist in the city, as well as a variety of larger bookstore chains, and in 1960, the first children's bookstore in Australia, The Little Bookroom, was opened. The Foreign Language Bookshop is the oldest and largest language bookshop in Australasia, established in 1938 in Bourke Street as a free lending library.Miceli, Jacob (February 2008), "A Language of Love", Bookseller and Publisher Magazine, 28, ISSN 0004-8763 The primary aim of the business was to reduce migrant isolation, particularly for European migrants disembarking from ships into Australia.
In the decades following the gold rush, Melbourne was Australia's undisputed literary capital, famously referred to by Henry Kendall as "that wild bleak Bohemia south of the Murray".Ackland, Michael (1993). Henry Kendall: Poetry, Prose and Selected Correspondence. University of Queensland Press, , p. 140. During this time, Melbourne-based writers and poets Adam Lindsay Gordon, Marcus Clarke, and Rolf Boldrewood produced classic visions of colonial life and created a nascent national literature.
Melbourne's literary publishing sector is the largest in Australia, including the largest number of independent publishers, and presents two of Australia's most significant literary awards: the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards and the Melbourne Prize for Literature. Melbourne is the setting of many significant novels including Fergus Hume's The Mystery of a Hansom Cab (1886), George Johnston's My Brother Jack (1964), Helen Garner's Monkey Grip (1977) and Christos Tsiolkas’ The Slap (2008). The Mystery of a Hanson Cab was the best-selling detective novel of the 19th century. Garner's seminal 1977 novel Monkey Grip achieved notability for capturing Melbourne's burgeoning counter-culture and Bohemia scene, as well as the lives of communal single-mothers, junkies and artists living in sharehouses in the inner city neighbourhoods of Fitzroy and Carlton. It is now considered one of Australia's earliest and most important contemporary novels, with the BBC selecting it as one of "100 stories that shaped the world" – the only Australian novel on the list. Other contemporary writers from Melbourne include Kerry Greenwood, Germaine Greer, Stephanie Alexander, Tony Birch and Barry Dickins.
The Melbourne Writers Festival was founded in 1986 and is an annual, two-week literary festival that hosts keynotes, panels and workshops by a wide range of local and international guests. Since beginning as a one-day zine fair in 2004, the Emerging Writers' Festival has expanded to ten days of events, workshops, and panel discussions that are focused on the development of writers. Annually across Melbourne there are many local writers’ festivals including the Bayside Literary Festival, Williamstown Literary Festival and Glen Eira Storytelling Festival. In addition to book readings by local authors, many of these events provide opportunities for local writers to develop their skills via workshops and short-story competitions.
In August 2008, Melbourne was the second city in the world to be recognised as a City of Literature by UNESCO—the Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas is a literary and publishing centre founded as part of Melbourne's successful bid. As well as programming literary events, debates and awards, the Wheeler Centre hosts literary organisations such as the Melbourne Writers’ Festival, Emerging Writers’ Festival, SPUNC, Australian Poetry, Express Media, Writers Victoria and the Melbourne City of Literature Office.
Opera and theatre
The Australian Ballet Company is based in Melbourne and the National Theatre in St Kilda is the oldest ballet school in Australia. Ballet is a regular feature at the Victorian Arts Centre and National Theatre venues. Melbourne is the second home of Opera Australia after it merged with Victoria State Opera in 1996. The Victorian Opera held its inaugural season in 2006 and operates in various Melbourne venues.
The Royal Melbourne Philharmonic was formed in 1853, making it Australia's oldest musical organisation and the only orchestra in Australia to be bestowed "royal" status. The Victoria Orchestra, based in Melbourne, was Australia's first professional orchestra and performed during the period from 1888 to 1891. The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, first assembled in 1906, is now the city's premier orchestra and tours internationally.
There are more theatres and performance venues in Melbourne than any other city in Australia. In Southbank, Victoria, the Arts Centre Melbourne is a hub of performing arts venues and is the cornerstone of the Melbourne Arts Precinct which also includes the Melbourne Recital Centre and Southbank Theatre, home of the Melbourne Theatre Company. In the city's East End Theatre District, notable theatres include the Princess Theatre, Regent Theatre, Forum Theatre, Comedy Theatre; the Athenaeum, and Her Majesty's Theatre. The Palais Theatre is a significant music venue in nearby St Kilda.
Several professional theatre companies operate in Melbourne, of which the Melbourne Theatre Company, the oldest professional theatre company in Australia, has the most institutional support of any in Australia. There is also a range of smaller professional theatre companies in Melbourne, including the Malthouse, La Mama in Carlton, Cariad Productions, the Red Stitch Actors Theatre, Theatreworks in StKilda and PONYCAM. An array of amateur companies also exist, such as OXAGEN Productions, the Malvern Theatre Company, CLOC, Catchment Players of Darebin, MLOC Productions, Theatrical Incorporated, Altona City Theatre, Windmill Theatre Company and Dandenong Theatre Company.
Comedy
Melbourne is known throughout both Australia and the world as a centre of comedy, with the Melbourne International Comedy Festival listed as one of the three largest stand-up comedy festivals in the world. The city has also produced many of Australia's top-rating comedy television and radio shows, and many of the country's leading comedians either come from the city or have relocated to Melbourne.
Melbourne-born satirist Barry Humphries created his main character, Dame Edna Everage, as a comic version of a suburban homemaker. Through Everage, Humphries has written and performed cutting odes to Melbourne mores and the middle class suburbs of Moonee Ponds and Highett, among others. The character was retired in mid-2012 during the Eat Pray Laugh farewell tour.
Dance events Melbourne also hosted the 2008 World Latin American Dance Championships. The competition was held in the Vodafone Arena and immediately following the Australian Dancesport Championships. The Australian Dancesport championships will commence on 10 December 2008 and the World Latin Championships will be held on 14 December 2008.
Visual arts
The Melbourne arts scene is vibrant and the city hosts the annual Melbourne International Arts Festival as a celebration of its artistic tradition.
In the 1880s, a group of Melbourne artists formed the first distinctive Australian school of painting.Smith, Bernard. Australian Painting, 1788-2000. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 2001. , p. 82 Named the Heidelberg School, and latterly described as Australian Impressionism, the movement's four principle artists were Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton, Charles Conder and Frederick McCubbin. Together they painted en plein air at artists' camps set up around Melbourne's rural suburbs, including Box Hill and Heidelberg, allowing them to capture the unique light, colour and atmosphere of the Australian bush. Many of the group's most famous works from this period are large-scale sunlit landscapes and pastoral figure subjects, however they also explored Melbourne's urban scenery, local history (including pioneer and bushranger themes), beaches (often along Port Phillip Bay at Mentone, Sandringham and Beaumaris), and did portraits of wealthy Melburnians from their inner-city studios. In 1889 they staged the 9 by 5 Impression Exhibition opposite the Melbourne Town Hall. It is regarded as a landmark event in Australian art history.9 by 5 Impression Exhibition, National Gallery of Victoria. Retrieved on 12 June 2012.
Modernist John Brack captured the idiosyncrasies of daily life in Melbourne. His most iconic painting, Collins Street., 5 pm (1955), shows grim-faced pedestrians moving in unison down Collins Street. It was voted by patrons in 2011 as the National Gallery of Victoria's most popular work.Webb, Carolyn (19 April 2011). "Brack's painting stands out from the crowd", The Age. Retrieved 19 February 2013.