I was rather surprised. Well, there is one, but it’s small, and desperately needs support, and a higher quality of education & infrastructure. The jellybean building will help, but there’s a lot more needed, particularly funding opportunities.
The whole she-bang was focused on problems faced by (specifically) regional arts organisations.
Lundy was quite interested in the idea of a nexus between the arts & education as a possible solution to the lack of quality management & marketing (perhaps as funding available to educational institutions to sponsor, increase or create arts-spcific courses, or god-knows-what.) Personally, I think it’s quite a desperate situation here. As far as I know, there’s only one tafe course, and if you want uni-arts-ed, you have to go to Townsville, or further south. (This came up from a discussion based on the idea of a ‘brain-drain’ – all the creative-types head south for the more arts-friendly-climate.) The other problem raised, was the cost of existing local & Metro education – however, (even if labour win the federal office) Lundy has no real influence over the Education portfolio. She did note the comment though, and spoke of communication with the federal shadow minister for education & Latham. (As an aside, Latham is apparently very interested in improving the arts in this country, and in regional areas; possibly to the extent of making a visit all the way up here. Mind you, at the moment, he’d probably have to swim north from Townsville.)
shrug It’s just wait-and-see what Lundy & Labour come up with. Once she decides on policies, and even if Labour win federal office, it’ll be at least a year before her proposals are submitted, passed and implemented, if not longer. Then apply processing time & whatnot for new funding schemes or whatever.
Don’t hold your breath – but that’s the way of fabulous Australian politics.