Brisbane at risk of becoming a ‘bloated cultural backwater’

NEWS

Brisbane is at real risk of becoming a bloated cultural backwater unless it moves quickly to improve its arts infrastructure, it was claimed this week.
Brett Debritz, a Brisbane-based blogger and cultural commentator, says the city is missing out on big arts events because of a lack of venues that is getting worse as the population increases.
“We’ve known for at least 30 years that this city is growing rapidly, but successive councils and governments have been very slow to react, meaning we are constantly playing catch-up,? Mr Debritz said.
“While this applies to roads and tunnels and bridges, it also applies to our cultural facilities. In fact, it's worse, because we are actually losing arts venues.
“For everything we’ve gained, such as the Judith Wright Centre and the Powerhouse, we’ve lost something else, whereas other cities are not only building new venues, they are bringing old ones back to life.
“In the past decade we’ve lost the Suncorp Theatre, and yet producers are now crying out for exactly such a venue. Festival Hall is gone and the Regent is about to close, meaning there will be no venue for ‘red-carpet’ cinema events, let alone big theatrical works the original Regent auditorium was designed for.
“Of course, these losses are on top of the orgy of destruction in the 1970s and 80s that claimed the Wintergarden, Her Majesty’s, the Paris, the Metro, Cloudland and many others.”
Mr Debritz, who runs the savetheregent.com website, said news that the acclaimed production of Waiting for Godot starring Sir Ian McKellen would not come to Brisbane due to the lack of a venue was a disappointment but not a surprise.
“QPAC is a wonderful facility, but it’s not big enough or flexible enough to accommodate everything producers want to bring here. “In Melbourne, for example, they at least four big venues that can stage an open-ended run of a big musical. We don’t even have one, because the Lyric Theatre has commitments that limit any production to a maximum of a few months.
"That’s why a lot of big shows don’t ever come here, or come at the end of long runs after many Queensland arts lovers have already travelled south to see them. “Short-sightedness on the part of government s has put us in this situation, and short-sightedness will keep us behind.
"The State Government and council should have insisted on the restoration of the original Regent theatre, providing the city with another arts venue in much less time, and arguably for a lot less money, than it will take to build a new one.
“There are many examples from around the world where old theatres have been restored as part of the development of modern office towers. Why nobody in the council or the state government had the gumption to insist on this is completely beyond me.”
Mr Debritz said Brisbane was losing out on the potential of valuable arts-tourism dollars, and was in danger of gaining an unfounded reputation as not just a cultural desert put a place that actively destroys its arts heritage.
“We have wonderful performing arts companies here in Brisbane, but to grow the ‘cultural pie’ we need venues that can accommodate touring companies as well as the excellent local groups,” he said.
“Having access to the best the world of arts and entertainment to offer is as important to society as having roads, railways and sporting facilities.
“There are already people who call the city ‘Boganville’, and I would hate to see that become a reality.”




Good fight lost? ... Regent’s mezzanine bar could soon be demolished.