Performing arts worthy of some council love too
I ALMOST choked on my cornflakes when I read Cr Ann-maree
Greaney’s letter expressing her disappointment that Australian Concerto and Vocal Competition had been cancelled to enable the V8 Supercars to inflict another week of disruption on Townsville residents.
Clearly Cr Greaney is in damage control. That a major national music event that had been planned, and rehearsed for, over many months was ditched for a second dose of car racing says it all about Townsville City Council.
The performing arts community in this city has never been more vibrant. One only has to attend a Townsville Choral Society or North Queensland Opera and Theatre musical at the Civic Theatre to see world class productions that would not be out of place in London’s West End or on Broadway in New York.
But our council has been, and continues to be, so focused on the North Queensland Cowboys, V8 Supercars and subsidising big events for southern promoters it has spared little thought for the local performing arts community.
The Riverway Arts Centre is a perfect example. Still not repaired more than two years after that flood caused by the release of water through the dam gates.
Then there’s the multipurpose performing arts centre that was proposed by the community for land adjacent to the Civic Theatre back in 2015.
Ironically that was the same year Johnathan Thurston called for a new footy stadium for the Cowboys after they won the NRL Grand Final.
Six years on the Cowboys have a $300 million new stadium and a
$40 million Centre of Excellence, which by the way just happens to double as the team’s administration offices – all built with taxpayers and ratepayers money.
I understand that the Centre of Excellence was built on land adjacent to the stadium which, ironically again, was originally set aside for a new Entertainment and Convention Centre.
What happened to that, Cr Greaney?
On Friday night I attended a North Queensland Opera and Theatre show at the company’s tiny Gill Street headquarters. The show was up to NQOT’S usual high standard but I remarked to a friend at interval that the theatre and basic facilities reminded me of the original Stage Door Theatre in Flinders Street East, which provided rare live entertainment in this city during the 1960s-70s, thanks to local icons
Lyle Hillway and Mal Hodges.
So Cr Greaney, just how far have we come in more than 50 years?
Since then the standard of performing arts in Townsville has gone from amateur level to world class.
But our performing arts facilities, apart from the Civic Theatre, are stalled in a time warp waiting for a council that looks after the whole community, not just football teams and revheads.
Typically, instead of the council doing something to reverse this imbalance, Cr Greaney calls on the federal government to fund a new performing arts facility.
Here’s a thought Cr Greaney and Mayor Jenny Hill: instead of spending millions on tiny parks on Castle Hill, big concerts, motor races and fight nights, do something to help foster local performing arts for a change.
Surely it’s their turn.