March 21, 2012
The South Burnett Regional Council has turned down a request from Nanango community arts group NANART to use a portion of the Nanango Cultural Centre as a permanent art gallery.
The decision follows a meeting on March 8 attended by representatives from the SBRC, NANART, the Nanango Art Society, Neighbourhood Watch, NaTDA, the Nanango Quilters, Nanango Computer Club, Nanango Indoor Bowls Club and Nanango Senior Citizens to discuss how such a gallery might impact other regular Cultural Centre users.
NANART has been using the Cultural Centre to stage its annual Arts Festival since 2000.
Cr Barry Green told Wednesday’s council meeting he thought it was ironic Council was rejecting the group’s request because the portion of the Cultural Centre they wanted to use was originally intended to be an art gallery anyway.
“I think it’s a shame,” Cr Green told the meeting. “But when the building was completed it turned out to be so badly built the art gallery never came about.
“It was a completely unsuitable location.”
Mayor Wayne Kratzmann told the meeting the Council doesn’t have enough money to fund all cultural groups and urged NANART and the Nanango Art Society to see if they could work together.
He said Nanango needed one great art group, not two competing groups.
Cr Cheryl Dalton noted that both groups had worked hard to promote the arts over many years and should be congratulated for their efforts. But she thought it wouldn’t be a good idea to give community groups control over portions of Council’s public buildings anyway.
“If we say yes to this today, how long do you think it will be before some other group asks for a corner of the Town Hall foyer?”
Instead, the Council will encourage NANART to discuss sharing resources with the Nanango Art Society at their nearby Winds Of Change Gallery.
