Page 1719 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 30 April 1991
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Arts
MR HUMPHRIES (Minister for Health, Education and the Arts) (9.53): Mr Speaker, those were touching words from Mrs Grassby. She reminds me of that character from the Wizard of Oz with her large heart, but no brain.
Mr Speaker, I want to talk about not hearts, but arts, tonight. I want to make reference to two arts activities which occurred in recent weeks and which I think should not pass without being observed and noted by this Assembly. One was one of the junkets that we discussed earlier this evening, which I made to Sydney to open an exhibition of work by Canberra artists at the University of Sydney. That was a very important exhibition. It was important because it was the first of its kind ever to be undertaken by artists auditioned by Studio One, here in the ACT.
Studio One, as members will know, is at Kingston. It is a very important space for both professional and amateur artists in the ACT. Some 77 artists' works were exhibited at that show which I was pleased to open in Sydney, and, of those 77 artists, 45 came from Canberra itself. Many of those people, in fact, are heavily involved in the arts scene here in the ACT. Some are heads of workshops at various places in the ACT, particularly the School of Art, and the work exhibited at that show was of a very high level and, I think, reflects very well on the arts in the ACT.
It is regrettable, Mr Speaker, that very often tourist publicity which is generated about the ACT tends to promote the built environment of the ACT or, in the arts sense, the national assets, such as the National Gallery. It fails to alert people to the fact that the ACT has an enormously rich artistic activity and background. There is a quite extraordinary level of artistic endeavour and achievement going on in the ACT, and it is a pity that people could not be reminded of that in tourist promotions, because anybody with any interest in the arts would find a great plethora of interesting places to visit in the ACT in that respect.
The other artistic event of interest I wanted to mention was the turning of the first sod for one of ANCA's two studios being created in the ACT. ANCA stands for Australian National Capital Artists. Members will be aware of the problem expressed previously in this place, that there are no or few artists' spaces in the ACT. It was a matter of some concern which has been dealt with now by the allocation of $1.9m from a Commonwealth grant made a couple of years ago towards the establishment of such purpose-built spaces for artists.
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