KULCHA’S back — kind of.

A new volunteer organisation is rising from the ashes of the Freo-based multicultural arts venue and has just kicked off a series of winter concerts.

Veteran Kulcha board member Mark Cain is driving the new organisation and says for the short term it’ll be homeless and grab opportunities to stage events at community venues around Perth. The first shows are at MosArts in Mosman Park.

“It’s somewhat of a statement that we are going to be more flexible and responsive,” Mr Cain told the Herald.

“The idea came out of the dissolution meeting of Kulcha, where a number of members said ‘we can’t let this go’.

“I pretty much got cajoled into it but my long-term involvement in Kulcha led me to it, I guess.”

Mr Cain says there was talk at a series of well-attended workshops of having a music-based equivalent of the Old Customs House or PS Art Studios, with musos sharing  rehearsal and workshop space.

• Guy Ghouse and Gina Williams are playing the new ‘Kulcha’ this weekend.

He says it will free them from the costs of running an expensive performance venue, which probably contributed to Kulcha’s crippling debt, but scheduling noisy musos is a different kettle of fish to the gentle slap of paintbrushes.

“That might be something for the future, but in the short term the aim is to keep it simple and get some runs on the board.”

There’s also still some wrangling over the name, given Kulcha and its intellectual rights are now in the grip of administrators.

The first Worldly Winter Warmer attracted a good crowd, and tonight’s performance (Saturday July 5) will feature Nyoongar performer Gina Williams and guitarist Guy Ghouse.

The pair recorded the first album to be sung exclusively in Nyoongar which was launched earlier this year.

MosArts is on Lochee Street, Mosman Park. The shows will continue every Saturday until early August. Tix $20 at the door or through Eventbrite.

by STEVE GRANT