Page 1817 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 18 October 1989
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Childers Street Theatre
MS FOLLETT: Mr Speaker, I have a reply here to a question Dr Kinloch asked me on 17 October. Dr Kinloch asked for background on the decision of the ACT Administration to take back management of the Childers Street Theatre from the ANU Arts Centre and to call a public meeting to discuss future management of the venue.
Mr Speaker, my answer is: the Childers Street Theatre is owned by the ACT Government and has been managed by the ANU Arts Centre on an ad hoc, no-rent basis for a number of years. The ACT Arts Bureau has for some time received complaints from the arts community regarding the management and condition of the venue.
On 26 May this year the ACT Cultural Industries Council wrote to me expressing its concern that the theatre ought to be refurbished and made available to a more sympathetic management. I responded to that letter, explaining that the theatre was being withdrawn from the control of the ANU, that there would be consultation over its management and that an amount of $100,000 had been allocated in the 1989 budget towards the theatre's most pressing refurbishment needs.
The Government has been negotiating with the ANU over its use of the Childers, Hutton and Kingsley Streets sites and regularising the ANU lease boundary. The ANU agreed to relinquish the theatre to the ACT Administration, and the Administration took possession on 30 September. The meeting being called by the ACT Arts Bureau, with the assistance of the ACT Cultural Industries Council, on 19 October is part of the consultative process.
The arts community is being consulted on the best means of managing the venue, and I am aware that a number of groups are interested. A key item to be discussed at the public meeting is the obligation of the new managers to honour all existing bookings and to work cooperatively with other venue managers in Canberra.
I understand that the future use of venues such as that in Childers Street will be examined as part of the work of the Assembly's Select Committee on Cultural Activities and Facilities. It is important that we have available a range of cultural facilities for the performing arts and that these are part of a network. In the past, the Childers Street Theatre was not managed to fulfil its potential in this network.
Mowing Equipment
MRS GRASSBY: Mr Speaker, yesterday Mr Stefaniak asked the following question:
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