Secret Sydney and the corporatisation of the arts
NSW Government ignores Sydney Modern concerns By JUDITH WHITE Five years after the Art Gallery of NSW first proposed construction of the grandiose $344 million extension known as Sydney Modern, the NSW Government has approved the Development Application (DA) for the project. It has done [...]
Defend the Sydney Opera House
By JUDITH WHITE updated 8 October NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian faces a groundswell of protest against her unprecedented decision to turn the Sydney Opera House into a billboard for the gambling and racing industry. A demonstration against the decision has been called, to take place [...]
Secrets of cultural “planning” unmasked
By JUDITH WHITE What a dark story emerges when the lid is lifted on the NSW Government’s much-vaunted “cultural infrastructure” spending! Evidence at the hearing on 12 September of the Upper House Inquiry into Museums and Galleries, held at Parliament House in Sydney, revealed a [...]
Governments, bankers and burning museums
By JUDITH WHITE When Brazil’s Museu Nacional in Rio de Janeiro burned down on 2 September, staff described it as “a tragedy foretold”. For years, successive governments had cut recurrent funding for the museum, whose collection of 20 million priceless and irreplaceable objects was the [...]
Truth telling and cultural amnesia
By JUDITH WHITE Truth telling and cultural amnesia Truth telling was the theme of this year’s Garma festival, held in northeast Arnhemland on the first weekend of August. It’s also a crucial element in the Statement from the Heart made by the indigenous National Constitutional [...]
The Branding of Sydney Modern
By JUDITH WHITE The reappointment of Dr Michael Brand as director of the Art Gallery of NSW signals the Coalition Government’s determination to push ahead with building the $344 million Sydney Modern expansion on green space alongside the Harbour shoreline (digital impression above). News of [...]