How MONA is fighting back after Covid-19

Tasmania's iconic MONA has been shut since March but its award-winning bar and restaurant, Faro, will turn on its lights and reopen its doors in mid-August, serving up a series of lunch and dinner experiments, along with live music, performance and art.

From Saturday, August 15, the Faro Experiments will invite diners to become participants in experiencing the unexpected. 

The mystery menu - from drinks to dessert - will change each week, with the theme only revealed to guests once they are seated.

Diners will be able to explore areas of the museum’s light-filled Pharos wing, featuring artworks that include a corridor of colour (Beside Myself, James Turrell), a man-made oil slick (20:50, Richard Wilson) and a silvery Grotto (Randy Polumbo). 

Dinner guests will also experience, up close, MONA’s outdoor light installations - Amarna by James Turrell and Ryoji Ikeda’s spectra, which has been illuminating Hobart’s skies every Saturday night since Easter.

Mark Wilsdon, co-CEO of MONA, says: "From the greeting on arrival, to the food and drinks, and music and art, this is an opportunity for us to experiment on our guests at Faro, and for our local visitors to experience the restaurant anew. 

"Diners will have some of Mona to themselves and, while the rest of the museum remains closed, we’re excited to begin welcoming people back.’

Faro is offering weekend à la carte lunches, and a five-course set menu on Saturday nights. A further luxe Saturday dinner option includes a six-course meal from MONA executive chef Vince Trim, sommelier service from David Walsh’s wine bunker and priority access to Turrell’s artworks.

The Faro Experiments will run for six weeks. Bookings are limited and can be made online.

Ticket-holders will be required to adhere to hygiene and distancing measures and are asked not to attend if they are unwell. Access to the site will only be permitted to those with a reservation.