When it was built in the 1880s, the Eveleigh Railway Workshops was a hive of human activity. In 2007, when the site was renovated and rebadged as Carriageworks, it was envisaged that the sprawling site – repurposed as a hub for contemporary arts and performance – would be no less active in Sydney’s post-industrial economy.

For a while, it seemed that promise would be realised. It was a major venue for the Sydney Festival events, Australian Fashion Week, Sydney Writers’ Festival and the Biennale of Sydney. It hosted large and medium scale concerts and productions from local and international artists.

But by the late 2010s, however, the venue seemed to be slipping off the cultural map. In May 2020, Carriageworks entered into voluntary administration citing “irreparable” loss of income due to the COVID shutdowns.

Four years later, the venue, though still far from dormant and being used for commercial purposes and a weekly farmers’ market, has yet to regain its vibrancy.

With the appointment last year of Fergus Linehan as Executive Director in 2023, came the hope...