Established in 1972, Brown’s Mart provides a home for the Northern Territory's performing arts scene, celebrating the talent, passion, and legacy of NT performing artists. Based in Darwin on Larrakia Country, it serves as both a versatile venue for hire and a dynamic organisation, curating an annual program of professional productions and community experiences.

Brown’s Mart is central to the Top End's live performance ecosystem, connecting artists living and working in the Territory with national opportunities, and is the leading developer, producer, and presenter of new performance works from Territory artists. Year-round, its performance spaces hold events from theatre productions and live music performances to much-loved annual festivals and community events.

Brown’s Mart’s range of programs and partnerships operate across four distinct program streams: Performance, New Work, Arts & Community, and Hires. Its 2024 Performance program will present unique experiences to its audience every two weeks, with a new model that aims to deliver smaller works, more often. Events cover the full span of performance: large scale song and movement productions, like the World Premiere of Song Spirals, co-presented with Darwin Festival in August, to a series of performed playreadings, one-time-only intimate concerts, local musicians performing live every Friday in the Brown’s Mart Courtyard, self-directed performance experiments, and sponsored opportunities for local collectives to perform in the Brown’s Mart Theatre. With more events to be announced throughout the year, the 2024 program promises “moments to connect, recharge and come together in intimate spaces and joyous celebrations.”

One of Brown’s Mart’s defining features is its commitment to fostering emerging talent and supporting the careers of local artists. Through a range of programs, residencies, workshops, and initiatives, Brown’s Mart provides invaluable opportunities for artists to hone their craft, collaborate with peers, and engage with the community. Its New Work program stream includes residency and mentorship programs, an experimental performance program, and flagship initiative BUILD UP, which offers funding, office and rehearsal space, mentoring and advocacy to support the development of performance work across a range of artforms, artists, and cultural practices. Several new works developed through the program have had their premieres programmed as part of Darwin Festival,  receiving wide audience viewership and acclaim.

Brown’s Mart is committed to providing a supportive home for artists and the broader community, promoting and advocating for Territory artists and working with them to offer greater access and deeper engagement wherever it can. Reflecting this, Brown’s Mart’s team includes three Artistic Associates, Cj Fraser-Bell, James Mangohig, and Nadine Birrimilunngga Lee, all multi-disciplinary artists living and working in the Top End. Nadine, along with Rachael Chisholm, Rob Collins, and Rosealee Pearson, is also a member of Brown’s Mart’s First Nations Advisory group. Established in 2022, the Group provides invaluable consultation and advice on supporting First Nations artists and projects, cultural safety and learning, and development opportunities.

Building on this initiative, Brown’s Mart launched the First Nations Engagement Program in 2023, responding directly to recommendations from the Advisory Group. Led by the First Nations Community Engagement Coordinator, this program aims to create a welcoming, inclusive, and culturally safe space, encouraging collaboration and participation from the First Nations community across the Northern Territory, with a particular focus on building engagement with First Nations audiences and nurturing future generations in the performing arts.

Its Arts & Community program stream is dedicated to sharing its resources, providing advice, auspicing grants, mentorship, and working closely with artists to identify professional development strategies and opportunities. The Darwin Fringe Festival, the largest platform for emerging artists in the Top End, provides opportunities for independent artists to emerge, experiment and showcase new and diverse works in Darwin, and has run from Brown’s Mart since the Fringe’s inception. In addition to this, Brown’s Mart provides venue, technician, and equipment hire both on and offsite through its Hires stream, supporting events both within and outside of the performing arts sector.

Brown’s Mart has been a TFFF partner organisation since 2018, seeing the development of the Brown’s Mart Education Program (2018-2020), and was recently supported through the Resilience stream, which provides multi-year general operational support funding.

Brown's Mart is supported through the Resilience stream.