As I predicted when the poll was called, precious little has been said about the arts in this Queensland election campaign. Shadow Arts Minister Stuart Copeland was a late entrant with his comments that the new $100 million Gallery of Modern Art would be a white elephant. Time will tell on that, I guess, but the decision to build the gallery fits in with what a senior arts bureaucrat told me many years ago: "Governments are good on arts infrastructure but not good on art." We certainly have lots of impressive arts structures that cost a lot of money, provided by many state governments stretching back to Joh Bjelke-Petersen's (which also allowed the deomolition of many old theatres and Cloudland ballroom). We also have plenty of arts bureaucrats, both working directly for the government and for its many funded agencies. But do we have a sensible arts policy that will carry us forward?
Here's a few things I'd like to see:
+ Greater cooperation between funded agencies. In theatre, too many people are trying to develop too many plays by too many wannabe playwrights. In publishing, there's a lot of authors out there who somebody is funding but nobody is reading. Quality is better than quantity.
+ A reassessment of our film industry policy. Right now, the government just throws a lot of money at producers who are only going to make films and television in Queensland until they get a better offer from elsewhere.
+ A funded repertory theatre company that gives actors and other theatre workers the chance to really ply their craft in a variety of works.
+ An arts funding policy that doesn't only seek out the new but recognises the great public appetite for classic works - including musical theatre and plays from the canon that are too often ignored by funded companies - and rewards those who mount them.