NSW Government takes a wrecking ball to heritage
By JUDITH WHITE The heritage core of the Powerhouse Museum in Ultimo, Sydney, is no longer open to the public. On 30 June the NSW Government will close it for good and begin tearing the institution apart. The threatened area of the award-winning building includes [...]
Museum showdown on Macquarie Street
Museum showdown on Macquarie Street By JUDITH WHITE Today, Monday 18 May, is International Museum Day – so it’s ironic that some museum supporters and professionals in NSW will spend the day in yet another effort to protect cultural institutions from the predations of the [...]
Trainwreck at Carriageworks
Carriageworks and the Powerhouse: failures of government policy The collapse of Sydney arts and entertainment centre Carriageworks has sent tremors through the besieged arts sector; but it also shows up the deep flaws in the NSW Government’s cultural policy, and is fuelling demands to halt [...]
Downfall of a NSW Minister and the future for the arts
Harwin's fall NSW Arts Minister Don Harwin’s resignation on 10 April has sparked renewed calls for Premier Gladys Berejiklian government to abandon his cherished $1.5 billion, developer-driven plan to demolish the Powerhouse Museum at Ultimo and relocate to a flood-prone site (pictured above) at Parramatta. [...]
Arts budgets in the age of catastrophe: the case of NSW
By JUDITH WHITE In the panic over the coronavirus, arts organisation are pleading for support as performances and festivals are cancelled, museums and galleries close and whole areas of the country are threatened with lockdown. The sector’s union, the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) [...]
Culture and the climate catastrophe
This summer’s Australian bushfires, says Sir David Attenborough, signal a crisis point for Earth. They also signal a crisis point in the ideological struggle within Australia over the future of the country and the world we live in. Scrambling to repair his prime ministership from [...]