Tristes Tropiques

# 594

Wanna buy an art gallery?

Until this week it seemed indisputable that the greatest ongoing disaster in the Australian museum world was the two billion dollar charade called Powerhouse. It seems that Darwin, however, is making a late play for the title. The difference is that a NSW Labor government is joyfully continuing the destructive schemes of their Coalition predecessors, while in the Northern Territory, the new Country Liberal Party administration is determined to obliterate the major cultural initiatives of a previous Labor government.

Typically, there is virtually nothing in the mainstream media about this catastrophe-in-the-making. After all, it’s only a museum, and it’s only in the distant north. All my information is drawn from smaller, specialist postings, such as Architecture, Au and Australasian Leisure Management.

Where the Powerhouse scheme is notable for its extravagant outlay of public money at the expense of every functioning cultural institution in NSW, the CLP government in Darwin has decided it can’t afford an alleged $100 million blow-out in costs with the new Northern Territory Art Gallery.

Their solution? Put the building out to tender, calling for expressions of interest (EOIs) from commercial operators. As Arts Minister, Jinson Charls puts it: “By seeking proposals from multiple potential operators, with a view to selecting a model of operation that best contributes to rebuilding the economy and restoring the Territory’s lifestyle, we can be open to alternative funding opportunities outside of the Northern Territory government.”

Let’s unpack this. A specially designed museum building, nearing completion, is to be handed over to commercial interests to do whatever they like, just so long as it’s off the government’s hands. It’s not at all clear whether the NT Art Gallery will be expected to remain in the building in some form, or be banished from its own architectural project which will be taken over by a shopping plaza.

As to how this exercise will contribute to “restoring the Territory’s lifestyle”, your guess is as good as mine. It seems that “lifestyle” is one of those concepts guaranteed to make us feel all warm and cosy. But how does this work? “I’ll feel so much happier and more relaxed when we dump that nasty art gallery...?” Did the mere idea of an art gallery inflict some kind of damage on the “lifestyle” of Territorians that needs to be repaired?

The Minister says he has advised the board of the existing Museum and Art Gallery (MAGNT) that “they too could lodge an EOI, adding ‘we look forward to working with them and with the other arts industry members.’”

The only glimmer of ‘arts’ interest from the Minister came when he said that “during a recent visit to Melbourne he had been impressed by The Lume, billed as the world's largest digital art gallery.” This, presumably, is his idea of an acceptable ‘arts’ use of the building.

The Lume, lest we forget, is – or rather was - a large, privately-operated immersive picture show, that allowed visitors to bathe in wall-sized images by Vincent Van Gogh, at roughly $49.90 a ticket. It has closed permanently from 1 June, so perhaps Mr. Charls imagines he might lure the spectacle to Darwin by offering up the museum building earmarked for the NT’s own art collection.

This infantile fascination with a big light show, from a supposed Minister for the Arts, is a very depressing thing. It seems Mr. Charls has zero understanding of the difference between a permanent cultural facility that puts heritage into context and builds for the future, and a sideshow attraction that sucks up money for a private operator until the pickings get slim, and they move on. In Darwin, the pickings would always be slim, simply because of the size of the population. I doubt that many Territorians would be happily shelling out $50 on multiple occasions for a dash of son et lumière.

All this is spookily reminiscent of the Boonji Spaceman debacle in Perth, which has seen a piece of tacky, mass-produced junk erected in a public place by a Council that is a law unto itself. In both cases, we see an arrogant, self-satisfied administration with embarrassingly lowbrow tastes, making a unilateral decision as to the kind of art the public wants - or deserves. The sheer ignorance is staggering. It would make us the laughing stock of the world if anyone were actually looking.

The plan to build a new art gallery for Darwin has been a long time in the making. Since 1981, the NT’s art collection has been housed in shared premises at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory at Bullocky Point. It’s always been an awkward mix, resulting in inadequate display opportunities for both art and museum holdings. Nevertheless, the MAGNT has managed to acquire one of the most important collections of Indigenous art in Australia (it puts the AGNSW in the shade) along with a surprisingly strong group of works by other artists. There are more than 30,000 items altogether.

The plans for a purpose-built gallery in the centre of the city were tabled in 2021, with completion anticipated for 2026. This time last year it was announced that a third of the building had been finished, including the difficult, time-consuming foundations. One must assume there has been substantial progress since then.

In Adam Worrall, the MAGNT has found a director who has applied himself to the task with great professionalism. Since taking up the post in 2022, he has won the confidence of staff and community. The current fracas about the building he has been shepherding to the finish line must be devastating.

To put matters into context, the new Northern Territory Art Gallery represents a crucial step in Darwin’s maturing cityhood. No longer an outpost and frontier town, it has become an important centre for commerce and culture, and a proper gallery is long overdue. The building was set to be the star attraction in a tourist industry that is bringing more and more visitors to the NT, most especially during the festival weeks at the beginning of August, when the MAGNT hosts the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards.

Unlike the AGNSW, which selected the trendy Japanese architects, SANAA to design a building that is patently unsuited to Sydney’s climate, the NT Art Gallery has been designed by Ashford Lamaya Architects, a local firm with a distinguished track record in the Territory, in association with Clare Design, the group behind Brisbane’s very successful Gallery of Modern Art and the award-winning Rockhampton Museum of Art. One firm understands the Territory, the other understands museums. If costs have blown out, that’s hardly unusual at present. Coming out of the pandemic, the costs of every major building project have steepled. It’s unrealistic to imagine that Darwin, relatively isolated from other centres, would be immune to such increases. Any sensible government would simply suck it up, realising that the eventual benefits will outweigh any extra, short-term expense.

The CLP government are so far from doing this it even seems to have taken down the official announcement of the project on its website, while considering what mischief it can wreak on the whole thing.

Minister Charls, like his NSW equivalent, John Graham, is acting, quite simply, as a vandal, intent on destroying the very foundations of a public culture which is the legacy, not just of today’s tax-paying citizens, but future generations. The very thought of transforming a purpose-built museum into a commercial “EOI” free-for-all, when the structure is so near completion, is not just madness, it's malicious, vindictive madness.

The NT art collection is one of greatest potential tourist attractions Darwin possesses, and it needs to be properly housed and displayed. What Darwin doesn’t need is another Westfield shopping plaza, an oversized light show, or maybe a new Bunnings, in a building specially designed as an art museum. There seems to be no thought given to the expense involved in transforming such a gallery into a commercial space. One should also consider that it will most likely need to be changed back when the failure of the new arrangements becomes obvious, or a Labor government is returned.

As is so often the case, an attempted money-saving measure will inevitably end up generating a huge amount of extra expense.

It’s worth noting this is the same government that has decided to halve the size of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Gallery (ATSIAGA), being built in Alice Springs. Although this project has always been more problematic, chiefly in terms of what will hang on its walls, there’s a pattern here whereby every major cultural initiative is portrayed as a wasteful indulgence of the previous administration. Indigenous art, which is one of main reasons people visit the Territory, is being treated as if it were of no special interest.

The CLP government of Lia Finocchiaro is right on par with the Trump adminstration in its attitude towards cultural facilities. That is: “Why bother?” Trump thinks the Kennedy Centre should devote itself to performances of Cats, the NT government thinks a light show would be a good replacement for an art museum. The NSW government has destroyed a museum and given us a function centre in a flood plain. The Perth Council has plonked a cartoonish spaceman in a public place. The world is getting more ridiculous and backward-looking by the day.

In the US, at the dawn of the new Dark Ages, science and the arts are being disrespected and trashed, while Trump wages war on Harvard University. In Australia we’re making one bad move after another, throwing money at suicidally bad projects and wrecking good ones on the whim of a bunch of nitwits who think everything should be put under the magical sign of “business”, as if this will ensure financial success. The damage being inflicted on an important civic initiative will be felt for years to come, creating a financial problem that will not be solved until the government finally bows to reality and admits that an art gallery is the only possible role for this building.

It's distressing to find that the country we live in seems to be growing stupider and coarser by the day, but the evidence is accumulating fast. What’s happening in Darwin is a crisis for all of Australia, and it needs to be vehemently resisted. We’ve got to stop thinking: “It’s only an arts story” and realise that it’s a culture story. In the long-term, culture is bigger, more important and influential than short-term commerce. When we kill off culture for the sake of a fast buck, we sow the seeds of a spiritual poverty that will infect every aspect of life. Why is this so hard to figure out? Before we allow anyone to run for office we should give them a basic cultural literacy test. (Q. “Who painted the Mona Lisa?”). That would probably eliminate the vast majority of serving politicians – to the greater benefit of the community.

This week’s art column looks at The Diaries of Fred Williams 1963-1970, arguably the most long-anticipated publication in Australian art. Yet now that the book has finally arrived, there’s been hardly a word in the newspapers or the electronic media. In a lengthy review I’ve tried to give the Diaries the attention they deserve.

The film is Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme, the story of a voracious business tycoon who seeks to win back the love of an estranged daughter, while pursuing an outlandish plan to take over an entire (imaginary) country. As with all of Anderson’s movies, it’s a procession of celebrity cameos, a surfeit of symmetry and pastels, and a bizarre plot that only gets more bizarre as the story rolls on. I thought this would be the weirdest, most unlikely thing I saw last week until I found out about the CLP’s plans for the Northern Territory Art Gallery.