Page 4234 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 21 September 2011
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encourage diversity and individual expression while at the same time bringing us together as a community. They allow us to celebrate our common experiences.
I am a strong supporter of art in Canberra through my former role as a board member of the Capital Arts Patrons Organisation, which raised nearly $2 million over the last 28 years to support Canberra artists. This effort is the direct result of generous donations by Canberra businesses and artists.
The ACT government also believes that the arts should be available to every member of our society and is working to significantly raise the profile of the arts made for and by the community. Theatre, dance, literature, music, the visual arts, film, digital arts and community arts are all strongly represented here in the ACT and make an enormous contribution to the landscape and fabric of our community. The ACT government recognises the importance of arts activities for all Canberrans, regardless of age, income or location.
On 27 August this year I was very pleased to open the exhibit Casting the Net at Strathnairn gallery in my electorate and congratulate the 20 artists involved. The 2011-12 budget included an investment of half a million dollars to refurbish Strathnairn, including new studio spaces, a caretaker’s cottage to improve security at the site and landscaping. This initiative supports Canberra’s practising visual artists and further development of a facility that is an impressive focus for arts activity in the Belconnen area.
Canberra schoolchildren, too, are accessing the benefits of the arts. Five Canberra schools, including the Southern Cross early childhood centre in my electorate, have a valuable opportunity to develop their learning capacity through working with a local artist as part of the artists in schools program. This innovative program is an initiative of the Australia Council for the Arts and is administered by artsACT and the ACT Education and Training Directorate. The program provides local artists with an opportunity to work for an extended period with Canberra school students, engaging them in creative inquiry and exploration, the kind of thinking needed in the 21st century.
For older students, the arts continue to be an important learning tool and are particularly important in engaging students who have difficulties in a traditional school environment. The messengers program promotes and builds young people’s resilience through arts-based projects. Students in my electorate of Ginninderra, at schools such as Belconnen high and Lake Ginninderra college, are able to take advantage of this excellent program, which now has been running for some 10 years. The messengers program improves the health and wellbeing of young people while protecting and supporting those in need. It fosters creativity and innovation and helps young people increase their skills and confidence. The messengers program has achieved very positive results and is a valuable investment in our young people.
Many members will have noticed the large numbers of young people in Civic Square last week. They were just some of the participants in Canberra’s biggest youth dance festival. This annual festival, organised by Ausdance ACT, is a showcase for the combined efforts of more than 30 government and non-government schools across the
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