SMH goes for the cynical approach

The Sydney Morning Herald decided to portray last night's excellent discussion about the creative future of Sydney as a bit pie in the sky today.

"In 2030 postcards of Sydney will feature the streets of Marrickville, Darlinghurst and Cabramatta as well as the Opera House," Ben Cubby's page 7 story started.

"Poker machines will be turfed out of pubs, painters will sell their work tax free and stockbrokers will be sent by their bosses to study fine arts instead of business administration," Cubby wrote.

It's such a shame that just to grab a bit of headline they had to go for the over written first paragraphs. If you had been there, you would have realised that the event was so much more than the asides that the Herald has decided would make a better story opening. It all ends up making the arts community, AGAIN, look like idealistic fools.

The Daily Telegraph* ran a page 3 news item that centred around a major theme of the evening - that of gambling and poker machines.

"Sydney is doomed to be a cultural wasteland because poker machines and prohibitive licensing fees are killing our culture, Belvoir St theatre boss Neil Armfield said last night," Simon Ferguson, Arts Editor wrote.

"In a deliberate attack which drew gasps and applause from a packed Town Hall conference," Ferguson went on. "Mr Armfield said Melbourne had a bright artistic future while Sydney's was in doubt, thanks to the State Government's reliance on gambling and licensing revenue."

Ferguson went on to quote Armfield - "'The government feeds on our city's addiction to gambling like a dealer feeds on a junkie's addiction to smack,' he said, slating home the blame for this to "the pubs, clubs and their unholy alliance with the NSW ALP'."

Now, THAT was one of many serious ends of the evening. Ends which proposed serious recommendations to the community and to the Lord Mayor to sort out our creative future. It was not, as the Herald reported an event where 'solutions and detail were perhaps a little thin on the ground'.

Here are just some of the recommendations made last night;

• an audit of all abandoned buildings in the city centre with a view to designating some of them for the use of arts communities,
  
• a stop to further arts infrastructure funding which should now be directed towards the development of artists themselves,
  
• advise to introduce some protections for artist communities that already exist in the city centre,
  
• an investment in the training of arts educators with a view to stand as the best arts training ground for our neighbours,
  
• a review of liquor and gambling laws to allow musicians back into pubs,
  
• proposals to use more public spaces cleverly so that art and the urban landscape can co-exist more,
  
• proposal to allow buskers back onto the streets of Sydney,
• the advocacy by government to business to promote the funding of events that aren't necessarily multi-million dollar events,
• advise to arts communities to communicate better with politicians,
• and (ironically) a plea to the media to start profiling the arts more positively.
  

Solutions thin on the ground indeed!

There was also a call last night for an advocate for the arts and artists to be a bit more public, with most pointing to the Lord Mayor. I think, however, Neil, that you have just promoted yourself.


*I write reviews for The Daily Telegraph, so could be accused of bias... but then again, I have been rabbiting on about the quality of arts journalism in the Herald for a while now.


Image: The now defunct artist community at Lanfranchi's.