Page 2871 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 17 September 2014
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The arts can be a difficult thing to define, but if I can defer to Pablo Picasso for a moment who once said, “The purpose of art is to wash the dust of daily life off your soul.” I think it is a wonderful description of what art means. It will mean something different to each person because I think that is what art by its very nature is.
The somewhat infamous one and only Skywhale certainly blew the dust off many a soul during its flights over Canberra. For some people it was not a happy blowing off of the dust. Others found it quite enthralling. I think that one example perhaps best encapsulates what the arts means to our community. It is a different thing for each person. We certainly see that in the diversity of artistic activity here in the ACT. I have often said to people that one of the great joys of becoming an MLA is that you get invited to many things in the community that you perhaps would never otherwise get to go to. In the arts space I have probably gone—
Mr Smyth interjecting—
MR RATTENBURY: The soccer last night I would have gone to anyway probably, but certainly in the arts space you do end up going to some things that you might not have thought to go to or perhaps would not have been aware of. As MLAs, we get an opportunity to see some of the tremendous things that are happening in our city. Probably they are not all to our personal taste but, nonetheless, the arts are very much a glue in this city, just as sport is. These community activities really do bring us together in tremendous ways.
Ms Berry’s motion does a fine job of quantifying Canberra’s participation in the arts and cultural events. Anyone who has been to the Multicultural Festival in Civic would accept that 100 per cent of young people have attended a cultural event in the last 12 months. In fact, I suspect almost every single territorian was at the last festival, based on the crowds in Civic. I know the Canberra Liberals took a great interest in the Fringe Festival at that very same event, again demonstrating the different perspectives that people have on art.
Over many years in Canberra I have seen plays and heard bands and enjoyed poets and gazed at masterpieces throughout the city. There are some very unique local productions as well. For anyone who has not yet been to see the variety show In Canberra Tonight, there are only two shows left before Chris and Meg hang up their spurs to pursue other projects. I would very much recommend you get along to check out something that is so quintessentially Canberran. The last couple of shows are said to be staged at some of the national institutions around the parliamentary triangle and seem to be perfect examples of how Canberra art culture can blend a marble foyer with a brass knuckle brass band.
Like many Australians, I queued up to visit the Masterpieces from Paris exhibition at the National Gallery some years ago. It was a fantastic exhibition. I fully support ACT government involvement in top shelf projects such as that. I was particularly pleased to hear Minister Barr’s recent announcement that the major exhibition this summer will be a James Turrell retrospective again at the National Gallery. For those members who have visited the existing Turrell Skyspace at the NGA, they will no doubt share my anticipation of the coming show.
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