Running down culture<\/strong><\/h3>\nAs with hospitals and infrastructure, there\u2019s a lot of recycling of previously announced plans here. And there are glaring omissions. There\u2019s no money for the proposed expansion of the Australian Museum in College Street or for development of the State Library of NSW in Macquarie Street.<\/p>\n
Most seriously, there\u2019s nothing for the move of the Powerhouse Museum to Parramatta, first announced two years ago in a kneejerk response to the Western Sydney lobby\u2019s well-founded complaint that the region was starved of cultural infrastructure. At that time the Baird government appeared to believe that sale of the Ultimo site would fund the move, but last year the ongoing NSW Upper House inquiry into museums and galleries heard irrefutable evidence from some of the state\u2019s top museum professionals that the real cost would be many times that, possibly up to $2 billion.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/cultureheist.com.au\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/7315130-3x2-940x627.jpg\")
Artist’s impression of the planned new Powerhouse museum at Parramatta – will it ever happen?<\/p><\/div>\n
The budget papers contain an entire section devoted to Western Sydney \u2013 but there\u2019s not a single reference to the Powerhouse project or to any cultural infrastructure whatsoever for the area. The West has been left in limbo \u2013 with a future\u00a0announcement no doubt to come, predictably, before the next state election.<\/p>\n
In recent years NSW governments, both Labor and Coalition, have developed a lethal modus operandi <\/em>in dealing with the public cultural institutions for which they are responsible. Here\u2019s a quick guide to how it works:<\/p>\nFirst<\/em>, go with the Treasury view that the arts should increasingly be made to pay for themselves. Since 2009 that means imposing the notoriously misnamed \u201cefficiency dividend\u201d, with specific instructions to reduce staff and increase the focus on commercial operations. Rely on the compliance of museum and gallery boards whose members are appointed by government<\/p>\nSecond<\/em>, when any given lobby group becomes a problem, come up with a big announcement so grandiose that, with a bit of luck, you\u2019ll never have to carry it out. When problems inevitably emerge, throw up your hands, put the whole thing on hold and hope that it will be left to the next government to handle.<\/p>\nSydney Modern dilemma<\/h3>\n
Will the Art Gallery\u2019s Sydney Modern extension go the same way? Many observers appear to think so.<\/p>\n
Following the $244m announcement on June 13, The Sydney Morning Herald <\/em>responded next day with wall-to-wall coverage, an enthusiastic editorial and a column by arts editor Nick Galvin admonishing us that \u201cit would be churlish\u201d not to welcome the project.<\/p>\nWell, the SMH <\/em>must have a lot of churlish readers. In the following days letters to the editor and comments on the website were overwhelmingly critical. “Never mind the buildings,\u201d read one comment, \u201cwill the art improve?” The decision to give so much money to the AGNSW was \u201ca firm slap in the face to all of regional NSW,\u201d according to another.<\/p>\nThe letters expressed a concern that one powerful lobby group has won out over the rest of the state. In effect, there is no arts policy in Perrottet\u2019s budget. Rather, it smacks of the old-fashioned NSW art of the deal.<\/p>\n
Next time, we\u2019ll look at where we go from here.<\/p>\n
Join the discussion – have your say in the Comments section below.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet declared in his first state budget (June 20) that NSW was \u201cthe envy of the Western world\u201d. Really? Not in the arts! What Perrottet delivered was not a budget of facts and figures but spin. The 34-year-old son of a senior […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cultureheist.com.au\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12442"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cultureheist.com.au\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cultureheist.com.au\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultureheist.com.au\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultureheist.com.au\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12442"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultureheist.com.au\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12454,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultureheist.com.au\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12442\/revisions\/12454"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultureheist.com.au\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cultureheist.com.au\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultureheist.com.au\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultureheist.com.au\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Artist’s impression of the planned new Powerhouse museum at Parramatta – will it ever happen?<\/p><\/div>\n
The budget papers contain an entire section devoted to Western Sydney \u2013 but there\u2019s not a single reference to the Powerhouse project or to any cultural infrastructure whatsoever for the area. The West has been left in limbo \u2013 with a future\u00a0announcement no doubt to come, predictably, before the next state election.<\/p>\n
In recent years NSW governments, both Labor and Coalition, have developed a lethal modus operandi <\/em>in dealing with the public cultural institutions for which they are responsible. Here\u2019s a quick guide to how it works:<\/p>\n First<\/em>, go with the Treasury view that the arts should increasingly be made to pay for themselves. Since 2009 that means imposing the notoriously misnamed \u201cefficiency dividend\u201d, with specific instructions to reduce staff and increase the focus on commercial operations. Rely on the compliance of museum and gallery boards whose members are appointed by government<\/p>\n Second<\/em>, when any given lobby group becomes a problem, come up with a big announcement so grandiose that, with a bit of luck, you\u2019ll never have to carry it out. When problems inevitably emerge, throw up your hands, put the whole thing on hold and hope that it will be left to the next government to handle.<\/p>\n Will the Art Gallery\u2019s Sydney Modern extension go the same way? Many observers appear to think so.<\/p>\n Following the $244m announcement on June 13, The Sydney Morning Herald <\/em>responded next day with wall-to-wall coverage, an enthusiastic editorial and a column by arts editor Nick Galvin admonishing us that \u201cit would be churlish\u201d not to welcome the project.<\/p>\n Well, the SMH <\/em>must have a lot of churlish readers. In the following days letters to the editor and comments on the website were overwhelmingly critical. “Never mind the buildings,\u201d read one comment, \u201cwill the art improve?” The decision to give so much money to the AGNSW was \u201ca firm slap in the face to all of regional NSW,\u201d according to another.<\/p>\n The letters expressed a concern that one powerful lobby group has won out over the rest of the state. In effect, there is no arts policy in Perrottet\u2019s budget. Rather, it smacks of the old-fashioned NSW art of the deal.<\/p>\n Next time, we\u2019ll look at where we go from here.<\/p>\n Join the discussion – have your say in the Comments section below.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet declared in his first state budget (June 20) that NSW was \u201cthe envy of the Western world\u201d. Really? Not in the arts! What Perrottet delivered was not a budget of facts and figures but spin. The 34-year-old son of a senior […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cultureheist.com.au\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12442"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cultureheist.com.au\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cultureheist.com.au\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultureheist.com.au\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultureheist.com.au\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12442"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultureheist.com.au\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12454,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultureheist.com.au\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12442\/revisions\/12454"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultureheist.com.au\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cultureheist.com.au\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultureheist.com.au\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultureheist.com.au\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Sydney Modern dilemma<\/h3>\n