Page 3521 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 22 October 2014
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majority of people, let’s face it, have not read all of Shakespeare’s works, but many would know the various titles and associate them with Shakespeare. It is often the title that the majority of the public will hear; that is all they will hear, and they will make their judgement, whether it is right or wrong. We say, “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” but that is what happens.
That is why there will be posters potentially around town saying “kill climate deniers”, brought to you by the ACT government, blessed by the ACT government and given the imprimatur of ACT government funding, which, let’s face it, people leverage off. It is some sort of authorisation. Whether it was intended to be that way or not, it is used in that manner: “We received a grant to put this on” indicates that it is important; it is a tick of approval. I would question the judgement in allowing that to happen.
The minister cannot escape by saying that somebody else did it. I would assume, minister, that you have some control over your department. I would assume that you approved the policies and the criteria. I would assume that you are in charge of your department. Then again, maybe I assume wrong. I think that the level of debate that we had today, when she forgot her own challenge, shows that this is a minister who is not up to the portfolio. This is a very important portfolio.
Let me go to the book Culture City. It talks about culture in the arts and how we build it into our city. Matthias Sauerbruch says:
The city is many things: it is a place of communication and power, of economics and of politics; it is a traffic node, a living space, a work place and a pleasure ground. The city is the locus of the community, if at first only one of purpose. In both form and content, the city is the most public manifestation of those aspects known as culture—
read “arts”—
it embodies our cultural memory—
read “arts memory”—
at the same time it is the place of culture’s continuous renewal—
read “arts continuous renewal”.
When the minister agreed with her colleagues to can city to the lake and the city plan, and when Mr Corbell’s plan, “A capital future”, was not acted upon after it was delivered in 2005, I wonder how they helped with the creation of an arts city, putting work into place to inspire people, to challenge, to send a message.
Let me go to a book by Elizabeth Mossop and Paul Walton, City Spaces: Art & Design. The book refers to a quote from Barbara Kruger:
… if architecture is a slab of meat, then so-called public art is a piece of garnish laying next to it … While this is often the case, to describe most art in public spaces as decorative is to oversimplify the issue.
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