Artfiles And Studio Exhibition Launch

10.15amThursday 13 March 2008 Parramatta Artists Studios.

Thank you Uncle Greg for that welcome.

I acknowledge the Barramattagul clan of the Darug people as traditional custodians of this land and of the oldest surviving culture in the world.

On behalf of this city, I welcome you all to Parramatta.

It’s a pleasure to see the Minister of Western Sydney, the Hon Barbara Perry here in our city … and particularly here at these artists studios ... which are such a unique collaboration between our two governments. They bring into the heart of our city the energy of 15 very varied working artists – filmmakers, sculptors, circus performers and a variety of visual artists.

The studios are a landmark early achievement in Council’s ten year arts plan, in our industry strategy to build a creative city.  

At Parramatta we are proud to assert that this city values artists, values the role of their work in the community and, indeed, values giving all people good creative opportunities.

The arts in all their forms are not pursuits just for an elite who live in the eastern suburbs of Sydney. Every one of us – and our children – should be encouraged to pick up a pencil, a PC or anything … and to draw, to write, to perform, to dance, to sing, to make films …. to have some creative expression about who we are, who our community is, our experiences and our dreams.

These studios are an important beacon to that vision of cultural opportunity and expression for everyone, no matter where they live.

Today we launch the 2008 edition of ArtFiles – which is another beacon of these cultural opportunities now growing in our region.

ArtFiles is now a huge index of artists, organisations and arts activity across Western Sydney. It is proof positive that there is an appetite for the arts, there is a diversity and depth of arts industry, there is a cultural mass of arts expertise and – finally and belatedly – there is now some cultural infrastructure in Western Sydney.

Every year the entries in ArtFiles have grown. Every year there are another 15% more – more artists, groups, arts and cultural organisations.  Parramatta City Council – with Holroyd Council – is proud to have been a founding partner in this venture with ICE back in 1999.

Today ArtFiles is nine years old and has a mass of supporters, including 12 Councils across Western Sydney. I commend Lena Nahlous and the Board and the Staff of ICE on their capacity to make – and keep – quite so any friends!!

Today Parramatta City Council expands its own contribution as a partner by staging here at the Studios an exhibition allied to the purpose of ArtFiles. We’re showcasing the work of seven varied artists selected – of course! – from across all of Western Sydney.  Indeed, we asked them in their work to reflect on their own personal experience of this region. It’s called Always Driving Into the Sun!

Let me honour those artists and thank them for their contribution .... David Capra, Heath Franco (who is a resident artist here at the Studios), Fida Haq,

Sari Kivinen, Naomi Oliver, Joanne Saad and Gary Trinh.

Thanks also to our Studio Co-ordinator, Michael Dagostino for his work pulling together the show – which is now our fifth one in what is just the first year of the Studios.

Finally, a word on cultural infrastructure.  

There are only so many more times when I and Council – and indeed, this State Labor Government – can trumpet these Studios as a landmark in the building of cultural industries and opportunities out West.

Everyone has big plans for Parramatta. It is already the central business and entertainment hub of Western Sydney, the central hub of a region with the third largest economy in Australia, and with a population larger than that of all South Australia.

And ... according to the Government’s own Metro Strategy and Council’s own Parramatta Twenty25 strategy ... Parramatta is earmarked for yet more jobs, more development, more people.

It’s strange then that this city – the sixth largest in the country and one pivotal to this vast region – is still without a public gallery.  We have the Riverside Theatres – and we’re proudly celebrating its 20^th anniversary this very weekend – but no regional gallery.

What we have is a detailed proposal to build one as a central facility within the huge Civic Place development – and a request for a State Government contribution of $5 million.  That request went direct to Morris Iemma 18 months ago – and Council is still waiting for some support, some word.

Last week though, amongst all the media fun around the Archibald Prize, there was a comment by the Premier that the Government was giving $27.5 million for a new wing at the Art Gallery of NSW ... and another $10 million to the Museum of Contemporary Art.  

That’s great news for the further consolidation of respected arts institutions in the CBD of wider Sydney.  But it does not answer the need to build cultural infrastructure and services here where most people life.  

It does not answer the needs of Western Sydney.

And it doesn’t answer our proposal.

The challenge for Parramatta – and I hope I have the support of all of you here today – is to get that proposal, and that gallery, out of the Premier’s bottom drawer.

When I look around here today, at the talent, energy and industry on display here, I think we might be able to do it. Perhaps Barbara Perry will lend a hand!

Art Files has certainly shown what is possible in Western Sydney!

Good luck to the more than 1,700 artists and organisations that feature within it.

Have a great day.