Page 2873 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 17 September 2014
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
Arts Centre, where artists that I know had exhibitions and all their friends and family turned out at a local venue to support them, through to things like the Strathnairn art gallery, Megalo studios, M16 in Griffith—all of those places—and many others. I almost hesitate to start naming any because I am bound to leave some tremendous ones out. I will stop there in the danger of going any further with a list and forgetting things. But simply in just trying to cover the short list, one can think of all those tremendous venues and the tremendous things we have seen at them.
I thank those artists, their supporters and the people behind the scenes for the things they do and the joy that they have brought to our city. I look forward to continuing to celebrate the arts in its many forms with them over coming years.
MS BERRY (Ginninderra) (6.03): I thank everyone in the Assembly today for their contributions to this motion. Mr Smyth commented on the Belconnen Arts Centre. One of the great things about the Belconnen Arts Centre is that it is not sitting around and waiting for something to happen from the ACT government. It is actually working really hard to go out into the community and bring the community in to be part of the art space. The same is the case with Strathnairn arts gallery, which Mr Rattenbury mentioned, and the work that they are doing to bring people in.
One of the stories that I heard recently from Strathnairn came from some of the work has been done by the Riverview Group for their development out in west Belconnen. They have surveyed people about Strathnairn, asking people what think about Strathnairn and art generally. The people in west Belconnen thought it was a little bit not them, a little bit posh. And so Strathnairn have gone, “Okay, we’re going to open up our art space and try and get the community in so that they understand that art is not just for one group of people, that it’s actually part of our community.” So they have been building their cafe, which is now open from Thursday to Saturday. That brings people to the cafe and also gives them an opportunity to experience the fantastic art that is happening out at the Strathnairn gallery.
I am particularly fond of the legal graffiti art sites around the ACT. I think they are fantastic initiatives by the ACT government. I am also particularly interested in the ACT arts in schools program in 2014, which also brings in a fantastic local artist, George Rose, who has been doing some work out at the Bimberi Youth Justice Centre. George’s goal for the teens was to experience the creation of a street art piece for perception through the implementation, whilst also showing the value of art and the possibilities that it can offer.
I really love that kids who might be using graffiti art as a way to express themselves can learn greater ways to implement that in their lives and tell their stories, but also be given spaces across the ACT where they can do that legally and tell their stories for everyone to enjoy. Not everybody enjoys graffiti art, but it is something that I am quite passionate about. I would like to see legal graffiti art spaces expanded across the ACT community.
Mr Rattenbury also mentioned In Canberra Tonight. I did leave the comfort of west Belconnen one evening in winter to experience the In Canberra Tonight event. It definitely was a “not in Kansas anymore” moment, but it was entertaining nonetheless.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video