Just a regular day in #Flinders St #Townsville xD #horse & #cart
Here’s my special report on the Arts Hub rally today in Townsville.
Today Townsville’s arts community demonstrated a unified voice and direction in a public rally for an arts hub in the old TAFE building in the city. The TAFE building, currently owned by the Queensland Government is unoccupied and at risk of falling into disrepair. At the same time, many small arts organisations are looking for spaces to have their studios, galleries, markets and more. Many of the TAFE Building rooms are purpose built for arts and crafts, and the land has a significant courtyard for outdoor events and entertainment.
The community recognises the City Council’s long term plan for a cultural precinct, knowing this will take a long time to plan and bring the dream to life. The Arts community are proposing that the empty TAFE building be used as an interim arts hub right now, promising to look after it, not letting it fall into ruin.
Today’s Rally brought creatives from many disciplines, Visual Art, Craft, Design, Music, New Media, Performance, Textile, Sculpture and more. The demographics were also widely spread with young, middle-aged, and older people all represented. The Rally was organised in approximately 36 hours with over 50 people in attendance, many with large signs and banners, proving their dedication and support for this movement. Councillors and media were all present too, sharing and amplifying the message.
Arts Hub Rally in Townsville at the old TAFE building.
So Studio2 has recently had to leave their current premises on Flinders St, Townsville. This is a sad occasion for me personally, and for the arts community in general. Studio2 have an amazing story of their rise to glory. They started out as a small artist collective who would transform a disused city space into an exhibition space for themselves and other emerging artists.
- 18 Solo exhibitions for emerging artists …
- 4 Charity fundraising Exhibitions
- 15 Group Exhibitions
- 5 Student Exhibitions
That’s what they’ve done for the community (and a whole lot more, they run workshops for children, have retail space, and taken art outside of their studio to schools, museums, and the public arena).
For me personally… I was in one of their first student shows “Raw & Ready” when I was studying Bachelor of New Media Arts at JCU. Near the end of my degree, I had to do work experience placement. I chose Studio2 and learned a lot about how they operated and what the day to day runnings of the gallery were like. At the end of my placement, I was offered a permanent place at the gallery as a resident artist!
Do all arts graduates get jobs after university? Well I did. Here’s my experience.
Via James Cook University’s School of Creative Arts eMag.
Improving wellbeing
Hello I’m Alan Junior and I have a radical idea. Currently it costs more to be healthy. Junk food is cheap and easy, TV is free, lazy entertainment. Healthy food might not differ that much in price, but it takes much more to prepare, and buying healthy food already prepared is the expensive part. Gym memberships cost an arm and a leg, and you’re usually locked in. To get out, you actually have to pay MORE: a cancellation fee. Even to transfer a membership involves a fee.
A world where healthiness is discouraged and unhealthiness is encouraged is madness and leads to general unhappiness. This should end.
My proposal…
TAX THE UNHEALTHY.
Place taxes on unhealthy food and the kinds of media that promote laziness or a sedentary lifestyle.
SUBSIDISE THE HEALTHY.
Fresh, healthy food should be subsidised. It should be readily available and easy to prepare. Activities that involve activeness: Sport, Gym, etc, should be subsidised. Gym membership should be relatively low cost. So low you may never need to cancel or transfer.
I believe in a world where there is less suffering, more health, more happiness. That’s where I want to live.
