July 20, 2015
If more Australians had the same level of passion and commitment to their communities that artists do, many of Australia’s problems could be solved overnight.
This was one of several messages South Burnett Mayor Wayne Kratzmann gave guests at the Butt Art Gallery’s third Wine & Cheese Night in Blackbutt on Monday.
The event was held at the Butt Art Gallery in Coulson Street.
For a gold coin donation, guests got to enjoy Moffatdale Ridge wines, cheeses, live entertainment from Nitehawk, a belly dancing display, a ticket in the night’s lucky door prize and socialising with the artists as they browsed the Gallery’s extensive displays.
Mayor Kratzmann had been invited along to the function as a special guest speaker.
He commended Butt Arts Gallery Inc, the non-profit group that now runs the 13-year-old gallery, for the “tremendous job” they were doing promoting South Burnett artists in Blackbutt.
He said the South Burnett Regional Council valued community groups for the extensive contributions they made to the region’s social fabric.
So now the Gallery had incorporated itself, he thought Council would be able to provide it with some assistance in a similar way to the assistance it already provided to similar community groups which ran the Wondai Regional Art Gallery and – very soon – the Kingaroy Art Gallery.
The Mayor noted many guests had travelled from Murgon, Wondai, Kingaroy and Nanango to attend the evening.
He took this as a positive sign the South Burnett was steadily becoming a unified region.
Turning to local issues, the Mayor said that he was hopeful a positive announcement about getting a supermarket for Blackbutt could be made soon.
He also noted the night roadworks that were proceeding a few hundreds yards along Coulson Street.
These marked the first stage of Blackbutt CBD’s flood remediation works, he said, and very soon Council workers would begin laying $850,000 worth of pipes to fix one of the town’s most long-standing problems.
Finally, he urged everyone to join the region’s fight to save the South Burnett Private Hospital by signing a letter of support and getting it back to a Council office by 5:00pm on Wednesday, or by filling in an online petition on the Council’s website in the next 48 hours.
Afterwards, Butt Arts Gallery Inc’s president Graeme Bates thanked the Mayor for his encouraging words.
He said the Gallery proposed to hold similar social nights roughly three times a year from now on.
- Related article: Gallery Seeks Volunteers
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Thanks Dafyd for a great article on the special fund raiser event at ‘Butt Arts Gallery last Monday night. It exceeded our expectations and, honestly, where else could you find great wines (Moffatdale Ridge), great entertainment (Judy our local celeb Belly Dancer), great music (Noel and Val McGrath) and celebs from near and far including our Mayor Krattzie who is a keen supporter of the Galleries – both in Blackbutt and Kingaroy and Wondai? Plus we got another 31 signatures on the night to for the Mayor’s petition to save the Kingaroy Private Hospital. Did I mention the 17 artists and their amazing ART! The real STAR of the SHOW! Thanks Dafyd for your support also!
Graeme Bates – President, ‘Butt Arts Gallery Inc.