Cathy McGowan (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Colleagues, today I am delighted to talk to you about my electorate of Indi. Think Indi, think arts, think about our cultural economy. One of the most amazing things about my electorate is the richness and the diversity of the arts that take place. Today I would like to pay a tribute to the many aspects of art in Indi. Particularly, I would like to acknowledge all those who, either in their paid work or voluntarily, contribute to our thriving cultural economy. At the recent Indi Summit, the arts and the future of our cultural economy in north-east Victoria got a serious looking at. We talked about opportunities for sharing information, expenses, resources and successes. We talked about opportunities for building the arts through formal and informal education. We talked about opportunities to work together, with each other and with new groups, to actually understand the connection between local government, business, politics, non-government organisations and the entrepreneurial aspect of arts.

In Indi we have just got such a complex range of individuals who do arts. For example, we have got painters. We have got musicians and singers. We have got sculptors. We have got landscape creators. We have got photographers. We have got actors. We have got filmmakers. We have got, of course, teachers—and how important they are. We have got artisans who work with wood and glass. We have got dancers. We have got spinners and weavers. There are many, many more. In almost every single community there are representatives of these professions. They come together in groups, mostly under arts councils. Fantastic work, the arts councils do in bringing these people together and helping the customer, if you want, understand what is going on. Many of the arts councils also have friends of arts.

Turning to the institutions, to local government, to art galleries and to performance spaces, we have got the PAC in Wangaratta. We have got the BPACC in Benalla. We have got the Cube in Wodonga. Every single town has got a pub, a school and a town hall. To all the arts administrators and the marketers, the venues and the organisers, the publishers and the magazines and, of course, the patrons and the supporters, you do a fantastic job.

My commitment is to continue to support and be a patron of the arts in north-east Victoria. I commit to turning up. I commit to coming to the meetings. I commit to spreading the word. I want to finish by saying that I actually commit to forming an arts advisory group in the next term of parliament. My final word is that the future for arts in north-east Victoria really is in our hands. I am so proud to be able to be here in parliament, to share with my colleagues and to say 'come and explore Indi arts'—#indiarts—and to the artists in the community: get in contact with my office we will let you to the database. Thank you.