Reception for Queensland Arts Community

We should pause now to reflect on the events in Paris, horrendous and stupefying, for all of us who triumph freedom and decency. Let us reflect…

Our Premier is not here: she is elsewhere marking this extraordinary event. We are joined by Minister Enoch and Assistant Minister Hinchliffe, and indeed all of you, ladies and gentlemen, our most distinguished guests.  And tonight we are fortunate to have with us the Creative Advisor of the Anzac Centenary Arts and Culture Fund, Sir Jonathan Mills AO, who I know is looking forward to meeting and speaking with many of you about the fund.

It was the Premier, I may disclose, who first raised with me the possibility of our hosting such a reception for the Arts community, and we were delighted to oblige. It was on our radar, but a priority for the Premier, which we were enthusiastic to support.

I add now my respectful acknowledgement of the traditional indigenous custodians of these lands. This elegant drawing room now exhibits a couple of excellent examples of Aboriginal contribution to the visual arts.  I proudly confirm, by the way, that they have been produced by Queensland Aboriginal artists.

It is always a great pleasure - and privilege - for Kaye and me to share this marvellous historic home, the Government House of us all, with our fellow Queenslanders.

Tonight, we are particularly pleased that so many of you have been able to join us, because this is the first occasion we have had, to bring together such a broad cross-section of our State’s Arts community.  We do so to express thanks for the enormous collective contribution you make to Queensland life - culturally, socially, and indeed economically.

More than fifty Arts organisations have accepted our invitation to be here tonight - large and small companies; Indigenous and multi-cultural organisations; festivals and venues; companies supporting people with disabilities; collecting institutions – the Museums and Galleries; organisations catering for regional Queenslanders; and art forms from opera, dance and music to circus, film, theatre, sculpture, the visual arts, poetry, and writing and publishing.

It’s an immense range and while many of you already know each other well and are long-term collaborators, there will be some you have not met, and so I encourage you to take this rare opportunity to expand your networks and - especially - to speak to our MPs and the representatives from Arts Queensland.

The Arts have been part of life for Kaye and me for as long as either of us can remember. My largest foray into the performing arts as a child was to endure piano lessons and attain a Licentiate in Speech and Drama. That I went on to a career in the Law sufficiently evidences the depth of my talent as a musician, though you may possibly be thinking there is a level of performance in anyone’s practising as a barrister. Acknowledging its limits, that early experience did however make me a life-long supporter and admirer of all the Arts, and it gave me a very real understanding of the dedication and perseverance it takes to succeed as an artist, in any field.  And that appreciation was indelibly imprinted with the advent of my wife, whose love of the arts has been lifelong, deep and exponentially more perceptive than mine.

You, our guests tonight, may not realise it, but in following your careers in the Arts, in daring to pursue bold dreams, you are incidentally helping me to reach one of my own very important goals as Governor - to support vital, cohesive, sustainable communities; to enrich a more caring and inclusive Queensland.

Kaye and I see the massive contribution to that goal of the Arts, repeatedly, as we tour the State and we have already gone from north to south, west to east.  I can assure you that what you contribute greatly enriches people’s lives.  It makes them invigorated, happier, more fulfilled.  Their level of enjoyment of life is enhanced.  It is real, and so important in our otherwise rather fragile if not broken world.

I thank you all for that marvellous contribution and wish you well in all your future individual and collective endeavours.