Artrave

Myer Inquiry: first the good news
The Federal budget speech (normally not compulsive viewing for artists) was never so closely watched by so many artists as it was on 13 May this year. The question was: would the Myer Inquiry recommendations get up? (see Artrave V23#1 March) Rupert Myer had asked that $15m extra per annum be allocated from Federal and State govts jointly to the visual arts/craft sector, starved for a decade. Not surprisingly the Treasurer's response did not make the speech, but it did appear in the budget document, albeit in a distinctly trimmed down and stretched out version. $19.5m has been allocated, but over 4 years, some of which is contingent on matching funds from the States. In a budget which offered little to the society at large the visual arts have to take this offer as a sign that the government recognises starvation has serious consequences, which are often irreversible. At least some of the recommended changes to legislation involving Indigenous moral rights issues, resale royalties, and an income tax reform which will lift the $40,000 cap on artists' earnings in relation to art-related deductions are expected to get up; NAVA is keeping up the pressure on government to find acceptable solutions to these complex issues and it is important for all in the sector to stay informed and active while these issues are on the radar.

More from this Issue

Fuelling Innovation: Starting Young

Over the last two decades, Queensland has generated an arts and innovation culture for children and youth. Brisbanes distinguished reputation in the arts for young audiences rests on several solid foundations, most developed with support from major civic organisations, cultural institutions and successive governments. To understand how critic mass for childrens participation in the arts has been achieved, this article looks at a few of the formative events such as Play and Prime held at the Queensland Art Gallery and the popularity of artists such as Yayoi Kusama and Cai Guo Qiang amongst young audiences.

Barbara Piscitelli

Parallel Precincts

Once depressed inner-city suburbs that were havens for students, migrants, artists and fringe communities, the high profile precincts of South Brisbane/West End and Fortitude Valley/New Farm have developed into fast-growing centres of urban residential and cultural development. The Millennium Arts Program now underway will see the expenditure of over $100 million on the development of a new Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) through the Queensland Art Gallery's Two Sites-One Visionstrategy. Heather locates the diversity of Brisbane's arts and culture scene through such new and existing precincts, establishments which mark an exciting transformation in the future of the cities art scene.

Robert Heather

New Media Art in Brisbane

The investigation of New Media Art is especially relevant in a city that is hyped with the rhetoric about critical mass in the New Media and Creative Industries. Machan here attempts to redraw some lines of definition in what the term New Media Art actually means, as it is often seen as a doomed and short-lived handle. She does this through examining some of the key New Media artists (including Craig Walsh, Keith Armstrong, Tim Plaisted, Bonemap, Trish Adams, Di Ball, Grant Stevens, Jenny Fraser, Simone Hine, Alex Gillespie, Jay Younger, Adam Donovan, Andrew Kettle and Molly Hankwitz) and the difference between New Media and other visual arts as well as looking at government support and initiatives in the line of New Media Arts.

Kim Machan

Always Remember: there is no past

This article examines Brisbanes steeped conservative polical history and looks at the radical changes which occured as a result of the early 1990s shift to a Labour goverment. As an aftermath to the anti-climax that was the 1988 World Expo, the 90s was a decade which saw the Queensland Art Gallery embark on new avenues of experimentation and a new confidence was in the air. Furthermore Hoffie addresses the ongoing lack of substantial criticism in relation to arts and cultural development as many saw this as the single most pressing problem dogging the local scene.

Pat Hoffie

The Artists

Notable for their ability to conduct practices from Brisbane over recent years are Luke Roberts, Scott Redford, Eugene Carchesio, Leonard Brown, Sebastian de Mauro, Gordon Bennett, Joe Furlonger, and Jay Younger, who have all emerged since 1980 into the national (and several into the international) marketplace. These practice are here explored in all their diversity. Martin-Chew looks at the increase in available resources and some of the opportunities that Brisbane has to offer for young and emerging artists wanting to break into the local and international art scene. Other artists discussed include Jemima Wyman, Lisa Adams, Rod Bunter, Vernon Ah Kee, Sandra Selig, Andrea Higgins and Michael Zavros.

Louise Martin-Chew

Ten Days on the Island

Tasmania Artistic Adviser Robyn Archer 28 March - 6 April 2003

Stephanie Britton

Ruth Waller

Watters Gallery, Sydney 25 March - 26 April 2003

Joanna Mendelssohn

Mightier than the Sword: Arabic Script, Beauty and Meaning

Arabic Script, Beauty and Meaning Ian Potter Museum of Art University of Melbourne 22 March - 23 May 2003 A touring exhibition from the British Museum in association with the Aitajir World of Islam Trust Guest Curator, Venetia Porter

Juliette Peers

Great White Sharks

Holubizkys article deals with the ever present attitude that Brisbane is a city 20 years behind the times in the cultural sector and poses the question as to what this really means? Culture has become a business only within the relative scheme of things, and ahead may only be the false competitive edge and gamesmanship of regional-urban cultural ambition. Comparisons, therefore, should not be made lightly, nor benchmarks for the vitality of a cultural milieu. Discusses the works of Craig Walsh, Eugene Carchesio, Caitlin Reid and Vernon Ah Kee.

Robert Harrison

The New Brisbane

Brisbane's coming of age has been announced a number of times, most recently with millennial-expansiveness, in its claim to be the Creative City leading the Smart State. Over the past 15 years the city has spawned new enterprises, a new generation of artists, new cultural policies, new public buildings, and a new sense of grace. With an ugly past left largely unexplained, the focus is on the present and the ambitions for the city. While government and the mainstream media look to the future of the New Brisbane, it has been the role of writers, artists and a few historians to examine the past as part of the task of fully inhabiting the city. This article provides a discourse with Ross Fitzgerald about some of the above mentioned issues.

Stuart Glover and Stuart Cunningham

Synergies

A Fusion Event Drill Hall Gallery, Canberra 27 March - 27 April 2003

Lisa Byrne

NEW03

Emily Floyd, Andrew McQualter, Christine Morrow, David Rosetzky, Daniel von Sturmer, Louse Weaver Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne

Robyn McKenzie

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