Impassioned Speech at Exhibition Opening

February 19 / By Christine / In Culture, Visual Art / Reply

Last night I attended an exhibition opening at Charles Hewitt gallery in Sydney.  Organised by FoNAS (The Friends of the National Art School), this group exhibition showcases the work of many artists who have benefited from a residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris.

The exhibition was opened by Christopher Allen, art critic and former lecturer at the National Art School.  Part way through his speech, he was interrupted and jeered at in a manner that seemed utterly incongruous with the slender champagne flutes sparkling in people’s hands.

The reason for this lay in the content of his speech itself, in which he acknowledged that there were people in the room who “hated each others guts”, and that this fact should be brought out into the open before he proceeded.  He then spoke about the changes that have been made recently to the National Art School – in particular, the recent sacking of the majority of the heads of department and the push towards a new curriculum that signals a radical departure from the school’s long heritage of studio-based teaching.

Government funding (and the lack of it) is really at the heart of these massive changes to one of Australia’s oldest, most respected art schools.  Beyond the microcosm of this one speech, in a small gallery just off Oxford Street, lies the National Art School itself: the students, the teachers, those who support the school; and beyond that are the government departments and bureaucrats who implement policies and balance budgets.  Beyond that again lies the wider community, many of whom have never heard of the National Art School, and will never venture inside any of the small galleries just off Oxford Street.

The question for me is, was this impassioned speech important in this broader context?  Did it mean anything?  I believe it did – even if only by virtue of its honesty.  It was not a “nice” speech.  It was a speech that revealed a deep respect for, and a willingness to fight to save a tradition that is being threatened.  That same honesty, passion and energy is absolutely necessary if we are to fight – in each of our small microcosms – for a world that is not governed solely by balancing the budget.

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