Editorial by guest editor Joanna Mendelssohn. What after all is different about Sydney? I have tried to give some idea of the debates which are not always expressed in writing - the incestuous nature of the mighty arts organisations; the way that words influence or corrupt understandings of art; and the limits on public debate because of fear of the consequences.
In recent years there has been a major debate in Sydney on the nature of art education. Both Jacques Delaruelle and Fay Brauer have been active participants. Plants grow in silence but we (in the art world) vegetate noisily. see also article by Fay Brauer (no 665).
Since their inception, galleries and museums around the world have entertained the principles of marketing, but perhaps never so consciously as now. Of all Australian arts institutions, the Art Gallery of New South Wales has been most aware of the need to market its image.
Nowhere is the art of Sydney's youth more obvious than in the public sphere. Discussion with Linda Forrester a researcher of the creative culture of graffiti, street machining and skate boarding.
Exhibition review Aroha Terrace, Forestville
June 1994
In the last issue of Artlink 9Vol 14 No 2 - the art of survival) we looked at an innovative art program being run in Adelaide. The 1994 bilboard project at Aroha Terrace Forestville continued until the end of the year, with different artists represented each month.
Joan Kerr rewrites Australian art history to gain a better understanding of the present. Her ambitious projects question who wrote what, how and about whom. Discussion of 'Heritage: The National Women's Art Book'. Photograph of Joan Kerr in the article.
Sydney thinks of itself as the centre of the country, the only part that matters, but in the lucrative art market, Sydney is subsidiary to the old moneyed city of the south -- Melbourne.