Thursday 29 July 2010

Do you want a cultural centre? Tell Council what you think....

Hot on the heels of Council's "vision" sessions, the first of weekly sessions with the community to explain the proposed cultural precinct project, will kick off tomorrow.

The series of forums will be held over lunch-time, to allow as many people to join in as possible, and will be hosted by Cairns Regional Council's cultural precinct project manager, Linda Cardew.

"The sessions are designed to inform the community about all aspects of project," Linda Cardew says. "The informally styled sessions are designed to deliver information and answer one on one questions."

The meetings will be held every week, with the first session tomorrow focusing on the proposed site and its relation to the heart of the business district.

The meeting venues will change every week, moving around town and around the region so that everyone gets a chance to attend.

"Each week will cover one or two aspects of the project and give people plenty of opportunity to ask questions or voice concerns," Julie McGlone, Council's marketing and communications manager says. "We are very serious about listening to the community throughout the entire roll out of this project and we want to ensure the information that the public is up to date and factual."

"We're hoping these sessions will go a long way to ensuring face-to-face interaction with the community, and will be a useful tool in our engagement campaign," Julie McGlone says.
  • 1pm (for one hour)
    Friday 30th July
    Foyer of Cairns Civic Theatre

8 comments:

Vlasta Eriksson said...

Sounds great but 1 pm on Fri for an hour I hope they'll get the people there I know I wont be there should have a live webcast of it so more people can get involved

Unknown said...

I would rather have a job then a valcano! What a total waste of money when there is so much unemployment, roads are in tatters, council services are disgusting.. Yet they want a valcano...

Vals limited time in office could be better spent limiting unemployment to below the national trend, rather then add to it.

All these experts say our unemployment level is dropping hello.... I wonder if it related to the number of people of leaving town to head south for jobs... They try an con us all the time!!!

But for me NO for a valcano


Samantha
Clifton Beach

Worramun said...

Gee whilickers Samantha, putting Val instead of Vol is so witty! I've never heard that one before. Did it take you long to think it up? Did it also occur to you that the 'Valcano' (it's cracking me up again) actually would employ a lot of the people who apparently are leaving Cairns in droves (even though the evil con people tell us they aren't really leaving).
Have you given ANY thought about the financial flow on with ongoing employment, tourism, reinvigoration of business in the town centre etc. from the project. Or doesn't Macca mention/support that?
Quite honestly I don't think Cairns deserves anything like it either when we have so many people as short sighted as you.

Lillian at Yorkeys said...

I am in agreeance with Warramun.
Samatha -
Even if you have no interest in the performing arts or a museum, consider this:

1. The convention trade is currently one of Cairns biggest earners. $80m a year & more. This involves hotel accom & activities, restaurants, bars, transport, tourism (visits to reef/Tablelands/Port/Innisfail (etc.) during conventions/after etc). Other spinoffs are allied - laundries, food purveyors and producers, retail shops, & so on. Convention attendees often bring their spouse or family members, increasing the amount of visitors to FNQ.

2. The size of conventions is currently limited because of the size of the Convention Centre & all other venues in Cairns.

3. If we build the Performing Arts Centre, then we get space for another 2,000 people for LARGER conventions.

4. Conventions attract both domestic and international visitors. International visitors often say on after conventions because they want to see some of Australia. This increases tourism spending in FNQ & other parts of Australia.

5. Conventions strengthen the learning base of surrounding areas - ie. JCU and other institutes/learning & research facilities in FNQ, & elsewhere in Australia.

6. Building the PAC will employ lots & lots of tradies over a year or so. Others will be employed in ongoing jobs as cleaners, maintenence people, gardeners etc.

7. Running conventions & live performances will employ lots of Cairns citizens on an ongoing basis - ie. ticketing staff, cleaners, caterers, Centre organisers & allied staff.

8. If we attract larger concerts, we get many more performers coming to Cairns. Therefore more people come to Cairns to see performers.

9. The Cairns & FNQ community as a whole get the benefit of exposure to more performers, styles, ideas & creativitity in differing artistic disciplines etc. 10,000 kids competed in the recent yearly Eisteddford. Imagine what would happen is those kids had easier access to amazing performers, a complete orchestra in an acoustically-sound space?

10. The Civic Theatre, currently our only theatre, was built in the 1970s & has way outlived the space it has for performances, admin staff, change & rehearsal rooms. It is time we had a new you-beaut theatre space, with rehearsal & change rooms.

And lastly,
11. The volcano shape is at present only a schematic design - the final design could be quite different. The cone shape of the volcano shape is intended to bring reference to Walsh's Pyramid and Bellenden Ker. The high ceiling would enable easy drop-staging, which is a technical theatre design consideration.

Queenie said...

Yes Vlasta - I can't get to any of these sessions at Friday lunchtime. I work in a shop & we're way too busy then.
It would be good if they could run a couple of sessions - maybe one of a weeknight, & one on Saturday arvo. Then lots more people can be involved. Or yes, streamed on to the Web.

Alison Alloway said...

Lillian, you omitted to inform Samantha of the benefits of having a large, first class museum. Perhaps our museum can join the World Exchange Program and bring Egyptian antiquities to Cairns, ditto the collection from Pompeii.
Museums create academic interest and stimulate the need for university courses, ie curatorial studies and paleontology. The discovery of more dinosaurs in the Winton area recently is an indication that paleontology will develop even further. I suspect Australia will become a leading centre for paleontology..and why not have our local museum and university involved?

Lillian at Yorkeys said...

Thank you Allison for adding that - the Museum would of course be a fabulous addition to the whole scheme. Additionally, the mooted aspect of a large focus on indigenous history & anthroplogy would be of great benefit and interest, to locals & visitors.
Let's hope that the crew that run our current Cairns Museum will come on board & join in to the whole scheme.
I was also speaking to a woman who is now a retired ballet-dancer & has danced world-wide, who pointed out that ballet companies were often attached to performing arts centres, especially in Europe. Imagine us having our own ballet company here in Cairns, & possibly involving Bangarra in its development. Imagine the boost that would give our local ATSI population.

Alison Alloway said...

Lillian, I agree. I just noticed today in "The Cairns Post's" online section that Warren Entsch has announced he will call for a 20,000 seat football stadium and "sports precinct" for Cairns, if elected. I posted a comment back saying that Dairy Farmers Stadium in Townsville has seated up to 26,500 and that our local Cazaly's can seat up to 12,000. Therefore, wouldn't it be more cost effective and sensible to simply upgrade Cazaly's?

Perhaps you know now why Cairns lost out on the chance to have a new state-of-the-art hospital and Townsville got it instead! We are going through exactly the same machinations!!!