Susannah Place Street Party

Join us for a vibrant street party to celebrate the completion of a once-in-a-generation conservation project at Susannah Place, located in the heart of The Rocks.

Home to more than 100 families over almost 150 years, this 181-year-old terrace of four houses recognises a slice of Sydney’s working-class heritage that survived the slum clearances and redevelopments of the past century.

The street party brings together a diverse program of free, family-friendly activities and entertainment that honours community and the stories of the people who once called this place home.

Explore the houses, participate in artist-led workshops, enjoy music performances, listen to fascinating talks, try your hand at old-fashioned games or pick up a nostalgic treat at the re-created 1915 corner shop.

Event details:

• This is a free, all ages event.
• It will proceed in wet weather, except in extreme circumstances.
• Talks, workshops and demonstrations have limited capacities.
• Entertainment, food and beverage available all day.
• For further information about the property please click here.

Program

People

Alice McAuliffe

Alice McAuliffe is an artist, creative producer and arts health manager specialising in community engagement. In her work, she enhances everyday spaces to encourage audiences to engage playfully and thoughtfully with their environment. Her series of public art installations and community workshops titled Concrete Carpet draw on historic European design, stencilled onto pavements to create luscious decorative interventions in everyday spaces.

@alimac_arts

Nicole Barakat

Nicole Barakat is a Kfarsghabi, Lebanese artist living on the lands and waters of the Gadigal. She works with deep listening and intuitive processes with intentions to transform the conditions of everyday life. Her artwork engages unconventional approaches to art-making, creating intricate works that embody the love and patience characteristic of traditional textile practices. Nicole’s practice is rooted in re-membering and re-gathering her ancestral knowing, including coffee divination and more recently working with plants and flower essences for community care.

Nicole undertook an artist residency in Bethlehem, Palestine, in 2010 and was recently in residence, through Creative Australia, at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, France, in 2023. Nicole completed a Bachelor of Applied Arts (Craft Arts) in Textiles in 2002 with first-class honours at the University of NSW School of Art & Design.

Leah Giblin

Leah Giblin is a textile artist, textile consultant and costume designer working on Gadigal Country. She completed a costume degree at the National Institute of Dramatic Arts in 2009 following a degree in Environmental Studies. With a focus on sustainability and reducing textile waste, she has taught workshops on mending, natural dyeing, and upcycling at her studio in Rockdale as well as for the Australian Museum, the Sydney Opera House’s All About Women series and Cornersmith’s Cooking School. Her sustainable clothing label, Day Keeper, is designed and made in Sydney.

Leah has worked in the film and television industry on films such as The Great Gatsby, The Wolverine, Mad Max and The Chronicles of Narnia. She has collaborated on textile and costume projects with visual artists Lucy Simpson, Anindilyakwa Art Centre, Rochelle Haley, Mikala Dwyer, Koji Ryui, Lauren Brincat, Natalya Hughes, Agatha Gothe-Snape, Justene Williams, Techa Noble, Diana Baker-Smith and Kate Blackmore. She has also worked with collaborators to create large-scale textile artworks for Carriageworks, Performance Space and Sydney Opera House. In 2023, Leah co-designed the set and costumes for Sydney Dance Company’s work The Shell, A Ghost, The Host & The Lyrebird, and she was textile consultant for the 2024 exhibition Alchemy at Powerhouse.

James Doig

James Doig obtained a Bachelor in Music Performance at the Australian School of Music where he studied piano and conducting. He later studied harpsichord with Huguette Brassine and voice with Jan Del Pratt as part of a Bachelor in Vocal Performance at the Queensland Conservatorium. James then completed a Master of Music in Performance at the Sydney Conservatorium, specialising in early keyboard with Neal Peres Da Costa.

James performs regularly as an instrumentalist and singer with professional and semi-professional ensembles. He sings oratorio, opera and lieder, and also works as a cantor, singing chant and sacred polyphony. As a chorister, James has sung with the Song Company, St Mary’s Cathedral Choir, Omega Ensemble, Queensland Symphony Orchestra and the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

Gramophone Man

For 25 years, Gramophone Man has been resurrecting all those great sounds your great-grandparents used to love on original shellac 78rpm records.

Using genuine His Master’s Voice wind-up Gramophone Players on a purpose-built ‘Steam Powered’ Contraption, Gramophone Man plays all the songs from the 20s, 30s and 40s that you don’t know you love, and some that you wish you’d never heard. It’s swing, jazz, blues, and novelty yodelling tunes galore!

This is the original ‘two turntables & a microphone’. It is so old school, they haven’t built the school yet!

Combine the impeccable tunes with Gramophone Man’s dapper attire, his overexcited, infeasible dancing, shonky mime, and suave but utterly surreal between-song patter, and you have a unique and often hilarious show that will delight all ages.

Cameron Jones

Cameron Jones, a multifaceted artist, wields his French Selmer-style gypsy jazz guitar to weave vibrant tales of authentic manouche jazz. A guitarist, composer, festival director, and educator, Jones blends percussive rhythms with expressive melodies, embodying the essence of the genre.

His European pilgrimages, retracing the footsteps of Romani guitarist and composer Django Reinhardt, enriched him with invaluable mentorship from Reinhardt’s kin, nurturing a rare authenticity to his musicality. Each performance is a unique narrative, infused with original stories and delivered with spontaneous energy, captivating audiences with the true spirit of gypsy jazz. Jones’s music, rooted in tradition yet ever evolving, resonates with anticipation, making every moment dangerously thrilling.

Elisha Long

Elisha Long is a conservation architect with 35 years’ experience in the conservation of historic buildings and sites.

Elisha undertook postgraduate study in the UK as a Lethaby Scholar with the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, one of the oldest training programs for architectural conservation in the world. She later worked on key conservation projects in England, including on St Paul’s Cathedral, London, and other Grade 1 listed buildings. In Sydney, she has worked for both of the government agencies involved with the Susannah Place conservation project, when they were called the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority and Sydney Living Museums (now part of Museums of History NSW). She now works in private practice with a focus on the detailed conservation of historic buildings.