Page 215 - Week 01 - Thursday, 14 February 2019
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During the visit I also had the opportunity to meet with the Wellington City arts and events team to discuss the Canberra-Wellington Indigenous artist exchange pilot program. We are working together with Wellington City Council to strengthen cultural connections, including developing programs that support opportunities for Indigenous people from both countries. The Indigenous artist exchange will support a Canberra-based Aboriginal artist, Dean Cross, to go to Wellington for six weeks during May and June this year, and for a Maori artist from the Wellington region to spend six weeks in Canberra during June and July this year.
The Wellington artist will be hosted by Gorman House, the cross-art form residency hub in our CBD, and the Canberra artist will be accommodated at the Bolton Street Sexton’s Cottage. I particular commend Minister Ramsay for his support and drive in ensuring this initiative has taken place. International residencies provide a unique opportunity for artists to immerse themselves in a new arts context, market, community and culture. The experience enables artists to articulate their practice within a global context and to build knowledge, networks and partnerships that support future international arts activities. Residencies are important periods for artistic development, a reflection of which may result in new and vibrant bodies of work.
I had the opportunity, and a somewhat rare opportunity, to launch a special beer whilst in Wellington. As part of Canberra Week in Wellington, Canberra’s BentSpoke Brewery and Wellington’s Fork & Brewer were able to collaborate on a bespoke sister city beer celebrating the cultural ties of our two cities. The beer was aptly named “An Ale of Two Cities”. Launched in Canberra in October last year, and then made available in Wellington, a batch of the Ale of Two Cities beer has now been brewed in Wellington.
Both our cities have vibrant, established and growing craft beer scenes. This serves as another ideal partnership to celebrate and strengthen our sister city relationship. We hope that this collaboration will evolve into a city-wide opportunity for established and emerging craft brewers in the Canberra region to engage, develop and exchange brews with their Wellington counterparts.
The short mission was highly successful and fulfilled its objectives to promote opportunities and highlight the successes of the sister city agreement. The ACT government will continue to work on the new relationships formed and the collaboration opportunities established during this mission and the previous missions.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge the considerable support provided to the ACT delegation by the Australian High Commissioner in New Zealand, the Hon Ewen McDonald, and his staff; then Acting High Commissioner for New Zealand, Llewellyn Roberts, and his staff; and also Wellington Mayor Justin Lester and his team for their hospitality and their continued commitment to and partnership in bringing our two sister cities even closer together. I present the following paper:
Wellington mission—November 2018—Ministerial statement, 14 February 2019.
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