Renovated Blue Room Theatre bar opens

The Blue Room Theatre has reopened its newly renovated bar which was paid for by a $137,000 fundraising campaign.

The theatre launched the campaign for its 30th birthday two years ago to support a renovation of its bar and received an overwhelming response, raising about $40,000 in the first two weeks.

Creative Partnerships Australia also matched $50,000 in donations as part of its Plus1 scheme.

The Blue Room Theatre executive director Katt Osborne said the renovation included a redesign of the space, equipment upgrades, increased functionality and incorporated recycled materials.

The new bar will now be open to the general public, and not just to artists and ticket holders.

“Our new and improved liquor licence is hopefully going to help us be a more official home for artists and arts lovers throughout the year,” Ms Osborne told Business News.

“We are hoping people will come and check it out as well as enjoy the space, buy a ticket to a show or come because they are seeing a show or an event.”

All the money spent over the bar would be reinvested into the theatre and its artists, Ms Osborne said.

“For us, having the bar more openly accessible and trying to generate some more revenue is all going to go back into the work that the artists are doing and they are able to produce new works in our theatres,” she said.

“That’s our hope, that the bar will be a meeting space for artists and arts lovers but also that any extra revenue that is generated is invested straight back into the artists themselves.”

She said the bar would be a great addition to the Perth Cultural Centre which is home to the new WA Museum Boola Bardip and the Art Gallery of WA’s soon-to-be-completed new rooftop space.

The bar will be open from 4pm on Tuesdays through to Saturdays.

The Blue Room Theatre is ranked as the 30th largest arts and cultural organisation on Business News's Data & Insights with revenue of $1.3 million in 2019.