A decade ago, most people probably wouldn’t have associated the northern suburb of Joondalup with a thriving arts and culture scene.

But that’s now changed, thanks to events like the Joondalup Festival, which is running until April 5.

This year’s festival centrepiece is a large, transparent cube which hosts free performances blending traditional theatre with street performance.

The cube was brought to Joondalup by Melbourne-based performance group Born in a Taxi and its artistic co-director, Carolyn Hanna, says the main goal is to provide inclusive, interactive and accessible art to suburban audiences.

“It brings people together because people come and share one experience, even though they might have different responses to it,” she says.

Ms Hanna says the COVID-19 pandemic’s lasting impact on the theatre industry has pushed artists and organisations to explore new territory.

“I think theatre is going through a tough moment post-COVID [and] traditional theatre in venues is finding it hard to find audiences, but I think audiences are responding to much more interactive forms of theatre”, she says.

“Free events are exactly what Joondalup Festival is about [because] it offers progressive and fascinating work that can be found outside of a capital city.”

Born in a Taxi co-director and performer Penny Baron says the group is hoping to take their cube creation to other suburbs around Australia.

“We are experimenters in terms of trying to bring people to a place which is not known for performance or necessarily where people would frequent for any particular reason,” she says.

“The arts is a form of self-expression, and we believe in art for all; something that we create can engage a small child or a 93-year-old of any culture.”

Victoria Park Centre for the Arts creative director Jeremy Blank says getting more state and federal funding is vital to keeping the industry alive.

“All areas of creative opportunities, not just for young people but for older people as well, are being increasingly squeezed out at a time when skills are being removed from virtually every area of education and community,” he says.