In a move that will both please and annoy Canberras Arts Communinty, poet Dr Paul Hetherington has been appointed as the Chair of the ACT Cultural Council according to this media release from the Minister for the Arts, John Stanhopathon.
It will annoy individuals in the arts community because they didn’t get chosen, but it will please them greatly that now the ACT Poetry Award will not be decided on by the Comrade, who stood up at the last presentation joking that he knows nothing about poetry and then deciding on the winner. You never want to be in a room full of artists/poets and say those immortal words “I don’t know much about art/poetry, but I know what I like” and then award a prize to what you like.