At age 21, Italian Cultural Centre opens for business
Success, so they say, is born of many fathers, but failure is an orphan. The tale of the Italian Forum Cultural Centre in Norton Street, Leichhardt, which enjoyed its official opening ceremony last Saturday, is a classic case in point. As Dr Francesco Giacobbe, President of the Italian Forum since 1999, observed: “About ten years ago, when the Cultural Centre was, to say the least, a potential disaster, many people – including some Foundation members – were very keen to contact me and let me know that they had nothing to do with this donation [to the community]. Over the last few years, instead, things have changed. All of a sudden, the idea to suggest to Neville Wran that this land was to be donated to the Italian community became the ownership of lots of people. All of a sudden they remembered they all had a very active role…”
If politicians’ antennae are indeed finely honed when it comes to identifying projects which may become a liability later on, the signs are good for the Cultural Centre – because politicians of every stripe were in attendance at the launch. From Anthony Albanese and Verity Firth, to Jamie Parker, to Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells – all praised the communal aspects of the venture.
Yet the irony is that for much of its pre-existence, the Cultural Centre looked like being an unloved white elephant. It was initially Neville Wran who put the wheels in motion for the project to occur back in 1988, but in the early 1990s, the Forum ran into financial difficulties, accruing mounting debts totalling several million dollars.
These debts were cleared by handing the land to a developer. But by 1999, the problems had returned. According to Dr Giacobbe, “I found myself in a situation which was possibly worse than the early ’90. There was only $5,000 in the bank, $80,000 in debts, and a letter of demand from a firm of solicitors. We had what, according to the developers, was a cultural centre, which is the space you see now, but with bare walls and bare floor.”
One legal challenge later, the Forum had its financial compensation – and now, after a further series of struggles, it has its Cultural Centre. Balmain MP Verity Firth offered her perspective as Minister of Education: “Almost universally, what teachers say to me and what parents say to me is, ‘You engage children through the arts’,” she said. “I think the Italian culture probably recognises this better than most other culture on the planet.”
The fruits of those endeavours await.
