TSRA announces temporary closure of Gab Titui Cultural Centre

Consistent with the Australian Government’s measures in response to the impact of COVID-19, the Torres Strait Regional Authority (TSRA) is taking the important step to close the Gab Titui Cultural Centre (GTCC) on Thursday Island to the general public.

As of Tuesday 24 March, the Centre is now closed, to comply with community health directives from the State and Australian Governments.

Torres Strait Regional Authority (TSRA) Chairperson, Mr Napau Pedro Stephen AM, said the Gab Titui Cultural Centre remained open to the public for as long as was possible under the rapidly changing circumstances.

“Out of responsibility to our community, we regret to announce that the Gab Titui Cultural Centre must close its doors, for the health and wellbeing of the community,” Mr Stephen said.

“Most of the Culture, Art and Heritage Programme’s activities have been impacted, especially where they include travel and the movement of people, engagement with communities through group workshops, and dance performance opportunities.”

“The Culture, Art and Heritage Programme team is working on alternative delivery of activities to service the communities, which will be shared with the public in due course.

“We recommend that artists and cultural practitioners with concerns and questions contact the Culture, Art and Heritage Programme to discuss any concerns.

The Centre’s scheduled events have now been postponed or cancelled until further notice, including a number of important exhibitions.

The Marep: Black Bamboo Contemporary Funding Design from Mer, which is currently based in Melbourne, was scheduled to open at GTCC from May 2020, and this has been postponed until further notice.

The biennial Gab Titui Indigenous Art Awards was scheduled to open in July 2020 and is now postponed until further notice.  We are still anticipating our flagship event to go ahead in the future so we will be extending our artwork entry deadline to the 30 June 2020.

The Gab Titui Cultural Centre retail shop will still be able to take orders from artists for art materials as well as investigate alternative online sales platforms.

The Evolution: Torres Strait Mask exhibition, had been scheduled to tour Fremantle in Western Australia in May, but must now remain Western Australia until further notice.

While Cairns Indigenous Art Fair is yet to issue an update on the possibility of the event proceeding the GTCC team will not be attending the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair (CIAF) in July or Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair in August.