Going to the movies makes you cultured. Official!

Is this the most deluded media release Jon Stanhope has ever floated out?

I’ll yeild to no one in my support and appreciation of Canberra’s cultural scene. But the headline “Canberra remains Australia’s cultural capital” had water coming out my nose.

And what is the basis for this extraordinary statement?

Perspectives on Culture, a national survey of attendance at cultural facilities, found more people in the ACT attended cinemas, art galleries and museums during 2010 than in any other jurisdiction.

According to the research three out of four Canberrans (76 per cent) attended the cinema compared to two out of three (67 per cent) nationally, while almost half of all Canberrans (46 per cent) attended an art gallery or museum compared to a quarter (26 per cent) of the population nationally.

Canberrans also led the country in library attendance at 38 per cent compared to 34 per cent nationally, and archive attendance at 16 per cent compared to 4 per cent nationally.

Mr Stanhope said the results reflected the quality of the ACT’s cultural venues.

I would say that it reflects Canberra’s higher than average incomes and the leisure time afforded to public servants compared to other workplaces.

But more importantly it doesn’t matter how many of your people go to see movies. It matters how many of your people make movies other people want to see.