Page 2382 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 12 August 2014
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about one of the things that really in the end defines the artistic community in your city. That is the ability to put on the big shows but at the same time accommodate the local. So I would like to commend Ms Elvin for her responses. I would certainly like to commend John Hindmarsh for his support of the corporation.
I thank the committee for recommendation 87. Remember, of course, members that this is a unanimous report without dissent. Recommendation 87 states:
The Committee recommends that the ACT Government ensure that the scoping study for a new theatre facility include the possibility of establishing a national performing arts centre in the ACT.
The government response is:
Agreed. CMTEDD, in conjunction with the Cultural Facilities Corporation, will explore consideration of a performing arts facility of national status within the existing funding envelope identified for the theatre study.
Perhaps that is a sign of the maturing of our arts community that we are now looking at the long term—not just at the local but also at what is of national significance—of what happens here in Canberra. It is with the support of things like the Cultural Facilities Corporation that Canberra really does lead the nation in contemporary dance. We have produced a large number of the great dancers, choreographers and members of the dance troupes that have graced Australian stages, and particularly also in contemporary glasswork.
It is always kind of hard to know where the Canberra Glassworks fits in. It is not particularly in CFC, but I had the pleasure during the lunch break of going to the glassworks for the announcement of the 2014 Ranamok glass prize. The winner was a Catherine Wrightman from New Zealand. She has done an amazing piece in glass called Carpet. Oddly enough, it looks like a bit of Persian or Turkish carpet, and it is the most extraordinary piece of work. She was very fulsome in her praise of people in the contemporary glass scene, the Canberra Glassworks and the work that it does.
I think that there is a signature that we need as a city leading into the future. When they laid the foundation stone, the Prime Minister said that Canberra should become a city of governance, of education and of the arts. I think we are certainly known as a city for governance. In a large way, thanks to the ANU, the UC and the other facilities here we do have a reputation as an academic centre.
But it is that measure of arts and culture, the measure of a society, the lasting reminders of what has gone in the past that is important. It is contemporary art today; a thousand years from now it will be ancient history. It is that record that one keeps that is very important. If, true to the vision of the National Capital Authority, we are to be the home of the Australian story and engender that story into the hearts of all Australians, certainly it will be through facilities like a new theatre that may one day be known as the national performing arts centre of Australia.
The Yanks have got the Kennedy Centre; perhaps we should have the Menzies centre. Prime Minister Menzies was a great patron of the arts. I think that would be a fitting
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