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Sound Chapel wins Heritage award
from TCW 170523
Cobar’s Sound Chapel was announced among the winners of this year’s Heritage Trust Awards.
It is the second Heritage Trust Award win for Cobar in as many years, with The Great Cobar Museum restoration taking out the Built Heritage and Judges’ Choice Awards last year.
At this year’s awards, presented on Friday at Doltone House in Sydney, the Cobar Sound Chapel was announced as the winner of the 2023 National Trust Heritage Awards Adaptive Re-Use Category.
The permanent sound art installation was completed in early 2022 and is a creation by composer and sound artist Georges Lentz in collaboration with architect Glenn Murcutt.
The Cobar Sound Chapel is an intimate sound space, a marriage of music, architecture, art, poetry, light and nature.
The atmosphere of the Sound Chapel changes from serene during the day, to much more intense at night.
The adaptation of the Sound Chapel from a 1901 water tank into an immersive sound installation and arts venue, along with a sixmetre high sculpture by Aboriginal artist Judy Watson and the restoration of Sydney’s Bondi Pavilion, were among the 17 winners this year recognised across nine categories.
The Sound Chapel impressed this year’s judging panel headed up by Chair Matthew Devine along with Barrina South, Caitlin Allen, Charles Pickett, David Burdon, Kathryn Pitkin AM and Lisa Harrold.
The judges commented: “Strong regional heritage projects coming from Cobar which is fantastic” and “Absolutely amazing. An interesting and cutting-edge regional project loved by all judges. A fascinating reimagining of a dis-used 1901 water tank brought to life by a magical collaboration that was inspired by the Outback landscape which resulted in an incredibly unique permanent sound installation and musical venue.”
The National Trust Heritage Awards is an annual celebration of outstanding practice in the field of heritage, awarding excellence in conservation, protection, and interpretation of Aboriginal, built, natural and cultural heritage over the past year.
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