Why are C100 funds "purloined" for irrelevant projects? [Actually Katy Gallagher's baby]

c_c said :

Robyn Archer fluffed around, trying to avoid answering why people should come.

I think she wasn’t so much trying to avoid answering, as perhaps exhibiting that, besides the apparent fact that she’s inarticulate as well as illiterate (“diaspora”), she has stood by while the whole C100 thing has been taken on an irrelevant trajectory. Maybe she has been hoist to the petard of ACT Tourism bureaucrats, who appear to have been put in charge of the show rather than perhaps ACT Heritage, who would have a better sense of what a CANBERRA centenary celebration should be. Very interesting also that she did not have a word to say about Canberra’s political history. Frankly I think Robyn Archer has been out of her depth all along. She didn’t do her homework, and I think she is resonating with the developer-driven aspects of our government rather than getting down with the people of Canberra. A good C100 chief would have been leading the bureaucrats and demonstrating some vision and insight. I’m afraid she’s a dud – and hadn’t even prepared for the obvious next questions: “What will happen if C100 doesn’t attract the interstate visitors you are counting on?”

I-filed said :

C100 update:
Robyn Archer interviewed on 7.30 Canberra on Friday – asked to tell all about the best for the centenary, there was not ONE mention of Canberrans. Archer was only interested in talking about plans about how to tempt visitors from Melbourne and Sydney.

Sure, we should be welcoming visitors (and of course the REAL Canberra diaspora, Canberrans living elsewhere, not Robyn Archer’s definition of “anyone who has ever visited”) but it strikes me as inappropriate for a centenary celebration to be publicised with no mention of Canberrans themselves just having their own party about themselves. Just referring to the tourism dollar is very un-Canberran in spirit.

Robyn Archer is SO not a Canberran!

She should be sacked.

Much as Siobhan Heanue tried on 7.30, she could not get much out of Archer, who was going out of her way to make C100 sound like any other year. Robyn Archer fluffed around, trying to avoid answering why people should come, saying it takes a whole year to teach people about Canberra (just what potential interstate tourists want to hear).

Finally, a simple question, is there one thing that you can tell people that will really convince them to get in their cars and come to Canberra? Archer’s response was “if you like celebrations and parties,” come see Enlighten, a few exhibitions including “Capathetical” and the Black Opal Stakes on the Birthday weekend. They’ll probably be footy too, oh, and music around the lake which will be really “original” and “participatory.” We’ll build big words around the place and take pics before a symphony. “If that doesn’t interest you as a party thing,” come in October to “Spin” which is “anything on wheels.” Or if you like the National Institutions, come see the War Memorial and AIS open days – because they’re never open any other time I guess.

She claims her vision is that by the end of 2013, no Australian will view Canberra the same way. Not sure if anything she said would have people jumping in their cars from interstate.

Why are you surprised? First Fleeters were basically to to piss off during the 1988 Bicentenary…

C100 update:
Robyn Archer interviewed on 7.30 Canberra on Friday – asked to tell all about the best for the centenary, there was not ONE mention of Canberrans. Archer was only interested in talking about plans about how to tempt visitors from Melbourne and Sydney.

Sure, we should be welcoming visitors (and of course the REAL Canberra diaspora, Canberrans living elsewhere, not Robyn Archer’s definition of “anyone who has ever visited”) but it strikes me as inappropriate for a centenary celebration to be publicised with no mention of Canberrans themselves just having their own party about themselves. Just referring to the tourism dollar is very un-Canberran in spirit.

Robyn Archer is SO not a Canberran!

Bugger.

I’m working on a project to illustrate the founding mothers and fathers of Canberra in a fairly unique way.

Guess I’ll just stop work, as there is no way I could receive any recompence.

I notice nobody’s bothered to actually look at what was in the 2013-so-far program (it’s not spectacularly internet searchable, but it’s at http://www.canberra100.com.au/about/program-preview/) – Big hART do have a production in the 2013 season (“Yala Yala” – listed on page 13) – which is the third part of a trilogy of works that they’ve been doing – Ngapatji Ngaptji and Namatjira being the other two thirds. All works tying in with both NAIDOC week and the Centenary.

I suspect someone’s stuck a logo on where it’s not entirely supposed to be – the company is part of the 2013 funding, but this particular production isn’t.

poetix said :

… surely Aboriginal concerns are significant to any reflection on the meaning of Canberra as the centre of government?

Could well be – provided those concerns are articulated in terms of the meaning of Canberra as a centre of government – but ACT Government’s responses above are not saying that. They are saying that BigHart itself has a specific and particular relationship with Canberra that is relevant to the centenary. That appears not to be the case. This grant may have seemed a good idea at the time, but it looks to have not been thought through, and as i said earlier, is not articulated as a fit with the explicated Centenary aims – even though C100 paid huge fees to a branding consultant, apparently a waste of time.

Scandinavian bunny racing festival

Oh Oh!!

Are they funding this as well????

You’re just jealous because your name is Thumper and you weren’t invited to participate.

But to return to the issue raised by OP, surely Aboriginal concerns are significant to any reflection on the meaning of Canberra as the centre of government?

ACTPS_Comms said :

The program will include works from every state and territory of Australia, and this new work, which will be presented in 2013, comes from a remote area of regional WA, thus helping represent that state in Centenary programming as well.

.

ACT Government, where do you get that Ngapartji Ngapartji is being presented in 2013 as you claim? Not only does the brochure contain not one word acknowledging the Canberra Centenary and these supposed “national benefits” (and just what is the link between providing remote Indigenous employment and Canberra’s centenary?) , there is no reference to anything taking place in 2013.

I went a-lookin’ for those “enduring Canberra links” you refer to – as I said, sending a rep to one or two conferences at AIATSIS (which only happens to be in Canberra and is a federal agency) can hardly be described as a relationship with Canberra. What else has BigHart developed in relation specifically to Canberra? Do tell!

ACTPS_Comms said :

It’s important to highlight, the Centenary of Canberra is a nationally significant event. It’s a celebration of our thriving Canberra community, but also of Canberra’s role and importance as the national capital. The celebration is not, and should not, be limited by our borders.

…

Future works undertaken as part of the Centenary program will include a number of workshops to involve members of the local community.

The Company is working to “engage regionally and nationally” with the Centenary celebrations by bringing these projects from remote indigenous communities to Canberra. The project provides employment and other opportunities for regional artists and young people, many of whom are Indigenous, enabling future development which is also an important goal of the Centenary.

.

Drawing a very, very long and weaselly bow here, ACT Government. There is no direct relevance or resonance with Canberra’s centenary in anything to do with this project. General sustainability, general arts workshopping, some vague link with Canberra over the years (no more than a hundred other arts companies nationally) whatevah – this response simply doesn’t cut it in terms of the fact that C100 funding has run out – and this project – for which of course anyone could draw broad, tangential, generalist themes into the mix in the guise of centenary relevance – is out of context, out of the timing, outside the centenary aims, outside the centenary branding. If tasked with retrofitting pretty much any arts activity in the world into a response along these lines, I’m sure I would be able to put a Scandinavian bunny racing festival into a proposal that would “merit” C100 funding. In short: reeks of maladministration and incompetence, and a complete lack of insight. The same incompetence that calls anyone who has ever visited Canberra, part of a Canberra “diaspora”.