Community Chest 2020

Australia 2020 is becoming more and more like Monopoly each and every day with get out of jail and community chest cards being sent out to clean up for absences, forgetfulness and mistakes.

Andrew Denton has withdrawn. But Cate Blanchett will soldier on.

And thankfully, the people at 2020 were listening to the murmuring and snorts from the Web 2.0 community deploring the lack of fresh young things at 2020 and sent one of our honorary ambassadors down to Canberra this weekend - Mr Marcus (what's your middle name Marcus?) Westbury.

Westbury is more famous as the presenter of the brilliant Not Quite Art series on ABC-TV. But he is also the creator of the This Is Not Art Festival that came out the steelwork city of Newcastle.

He is, like Alison Croggon, inviting opinions, thoughts etc etc to take with him to 2020. You can find his brand spanking new blog HERE.

To get a taste of where Mr Westbury comes from, here is a little extract from a piece he penned for the Sydney Morning Herald:

An overwhelming amount of arts funding in Australia goes to organisations that either exclusively or primarily play covers. Think symphony orchestras, opera companies and state theatre companies that produce comparatively little in the way of original, innovative or even Australian work. Like classic hits radio, they are busting out the chart-toppers of the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.

Confused? If you're not sure what I'm talking about, grab yourself a copy of the Australia Council's annual report. The nation's cover bands, mostly the state-based symphony orchestras, collectively receive just under $50 million each year from the council.

Culture isn't something that happened in Europe centuries ago that needs preservation. It's actually all that messy, beautiful, inspiring and wonderful stuff that is happening around us right now. Arts funding should reward innovation not preservation and vibrancy over bureaucracy.

Most importantly, no one art form or institution - however regarded - should have its funding quarantined and its position privileged so that it is never tested against all the other possibilities to which its resources may better be put.

I can't wait to see him face-up to the establishment that will be in attendance at the summit.

Fears that he may become a cover-band groupie have been dispelled by his latest blog entry:

The focus on professionalism in arts funding has led to a focus on a handful of large scale major companies and a consequence is that the entire system is caught in a bad feedback loop that isn’t about innovation at all. The issues and ambitions of our professional companies and major cultural institutions are mistaken for those of the creative community as a whole.

You have quite a fight on your hands Marcus - all of those major companies are going to be there in spades and they all have Get Out Of Jail cards in their pockets.