About

Celebrating 30 years of Box Hill Community Arts Centre


Our beautiful centre is celebrating 30 years of creativity, friendship, belonging, imagination, inspiration, artisanship, inclusiveness and community.


We’d love to take you on a journey that commemorates the centre and its artistic community from its humble beginnings located in the former Box Hill Electricity Depot prior to the opening of the current BHCAC building in 1990.

BHCAC 30 years

As you wander through BHCAC, there is something to see around every corner that will amaze and inspire. Architects worked closely with local artists and members of the community to produce a genuine and award winning community art centre. The artists’ work was integrated into the design of the building which can be seen in the ceramic leaf tiles embedded in path ways around the building, glazed ceramic capping around the roofline, tiled brick columns and hand painted tiled murals. These are tangible and lasting evidence of the contribution made by members of the community. BHCAC today, is a testament to the foresight of the original designers and the community coming together to create a space where the arts and individuality is welcomed and indeed celebrated.

Gregory Burgess: Architect

This memorable project involved an unusual degree of creative risk-taking. As architects, we relaxed our usual aesthetic control to coordinate the authentic, lively participation of many creative spirits. Through the workshops with community participants, the centre was conceived as a small village with its fringes open to the surrounding world through the community garden to the east and the public thoroughfare to the west. Local artisans and craftspeople were invited to contribute to make this a lively and expressive place full of meaning and transformation for its community. It continues to offer a sociable oasis of gathering and creativity.

This memorable project involved an unusual degree of creative risk-taking. As architects, we relaxed our usual aesthetic control to coordinate the authentic, lively participation of many creative spirits. Through the workshops with community participants, the centre was conceived as a small village with its fringes open to the surrounding world through the community garden to the east and the public thoroughfare to the west. Local artisans and craftspeople were invited to contribute to make this a lively an

Kevin Taylor: Landscape Architect

The late Kevin Taylor, landscape architect, who collaborated on this project together with his colleague and future wife, Kate Cullity, and Gregory Burgess Architects, wrote about the intention for the community workshops: “We’re making a place for awakening movement, recognition and learning… Our workshops should allow individuals to see that they share common strivings for artistic expression and that each of their art forms has a unique quality. The centre can be an abode or focus for what is common, and a place to explore and perfect the multitude of ways art can be expressed… It requires an opening of individuals, a sharing, a recognition of common elements, a perception of wholeness”.

BHCAC 30 years

Creative spirit within the centre

BHCAC is undoubtedly a beautifully crafted building but it is the wonderful people that walk through its doors that make it come alive. Whether it is the potters that transform clay into masterpieces, the members of the choir who echo their harmonies throughout the building, the children whose imagination and excitement is limitless, the exhibitors who stand with pride at their achievement or the talented tutors that inspire all with their dedication to empowering others through their passion for art…All play their part in making BHCAC the creative hub it is today.