JOINING THE CULTURE CLUB
THE Glitter Strip has long been known as the home of the outlandish, the gaudy, the bold and, yes. at times the downright crass.
From the proliferation of plastic surgery, golden bikini-wearing Surfers Paradise Meter Maids, resident infamous playboy Travers ‘Candyman’ Beynon, Pink Poodle motel, our love affair with the Ferrari as a status symbol, obsession with tattoos and our mega mansions, ours is a city brimming with excess.
Yes, other parts of the country can only look upon this place and its inhabitants and very colourful elements with a mix of bemusement and no doubt a little envy.
The Gold Coast is a very live and let live kind of city, the playground of Australia and at one time, for a long time, officially known as famous for fun.
The city’s glitzy stereotypes which led to a reality show popular in New Zealand such as The GC – featuring relocated Kiwis having the time of their lives on the Glitter Strip – are part of the DNA of the place but that doesn’t mean we can’t grow and evolve.
Like all adolescents, maturity arrives eventually and the Gold Coast is well and truly entering that phase.
Yesterday, Mayor Tom Tate heralded the addition of a $60.5 million art gallery to our city as the beginning of a new cultural era for the Gold Coast. The new monolith, to be built at Bundall’s Home of the Arts (HOTA) will be seen as a symbol of the city’s cultural coming of age.
That may be the case, but the arrival of art appreciation in our city should not lead to us turning up our nose at our outrageous and gaudy beginnings.
To know where you are going, you need to know where it is you have come from and how you arrived there.
The Commonwealth Games a year ago was a seminal moment for the city on two major counts: one was the huge infrastructure investment which came with it but the second was a growth in confidence that indeed this place can pull off something substantial and international events-wise – and look amazing while it does it.
Yesterday, marked another moment in the transition of the Gold Coast towards a more mature well-rounded place, with the first sod officially turned on what will eventually be home to the largest regional art gallery in Australia.
Cr Tate, on hand to do the honours at the major project at the Home of the Arts, said the development would help turn the tide of opinion against the widely-held view the city with the bright lights and world-class stretch of beaches is a cultural wasteland.
“It is symbolic of the Gold Coast’s coming of age as the city’s cultural and social economies mature,” he said in plunging a shovel into the dirt.
“We are committed to investing in our cultural future and keeping the city way ahead with signature projects that enrich our cultural and social fabric.”
In education, the city is developing a first-class network of universities including the private and thriving Bond University.
The key to the evolution, which will further enhance the attractiveness of this incredibly liveable city for young and old, is remembering some of the more eyebrow raising traits that put us on the map.
It’s all part of our personality.