The June Hedditch Apartments

The June Hedditch Apartments commemorate June Hedditch's 40 years of commitment to Portland's arts and cultural development. They are located at The Arts Company, half a block from the beach and close to the port, offering self-catering comfort in Portland's heritage and arts precinct.

The Arts Company comprises volunteer-run galleries and workshops in fibre, screen printing, etching, woodturning, photography, painting and drawing, leadlighting and quilting. Exhibitions for visiting artists can be arranged.

The accommodation offers two bedrooms each with its own sitting room. Artists share kitchen and bathroom; (see rates page for charges).  A small charge is made for studio or arts facility use.

The June Hedditch Apartments were funded by Arts Victoria ($21,000) and the Glenelg Shire Council ($10,000), with support from the local arts community, after a series of successful Portland Emerging Artist Residencies (PEAR Projects) demonstrated that visiting artists welcomed access to the workshops.

June Hedditch

The apartments were named for June Hedditch, who died in 1998. A social livewire and clever hostess, June used all of her contacts and skills in gathering support for her wide cultural interests for forty years. She supported Portland C.E.M.A. and its Arts Festivals, raised funds for the C.E.M.A. Arts Centre, was a founding member of the Victorian Arts Council (now Regional Arts Victoria) and the Portland Arts Council from 1969, and worked on many Council cultural and environmental committees - the Arts and Heritage Advisory Boards and the 1889 Battery, the Maritime and Fawthrop Lagoon Advisory Committees. Botany and gardening were abiding interests; she read widely and was a published poet.

The Arts Company acknowledges June's support for cultural development in Portland through naming the June Hedditch Apartments after her, and looks forward to the stimulus that many visiting artists, writers, performers and tutors will continue to bring to The Arts Company, local artists and performing groups, and the region.