Launch of Christchurch Arts Festival

Tuesday 29 April 2003

Good evening, isn’t it amazing how quickly two years can go by? It seems to be very little time since we had the fourth biennial Arts Festival and here we are again.

On behalf of the Christchurch City Council and the people of Christchurch may I say how thrilled we are to have the Arts Festival back.

The last one had that sense that goes with lots of our cultural events these days, that we are taking on our own robust cultural shape and identity.

It’s an exciting process that of course this year is given extra potency by knowing our own new Arts Gallery is very near to opening day.

That’s an event that I think history’s rear view mirror will show as the time when Christchurch moved into full maturity as a city and crucible for the arts. It’s almost as if the last pieces of our emergent identity are now coming together.

This year we are going to see some of the best arts offerings Christchurch has on offer. Performances from the Christchurch City Choir, the Court Theatre, Canterbury Opera.

Offerings from the new talent from the Christchurch Jazz School, the Clinic, School of Fine Arts at the University, the School of Art and Design at what us old buggers like to call Tech, and the Design and Arts College of New Zealand.

It is also worth thinking that when you knit together the cultural threads of the new Art Gallery, the refurbishing of Canterbury Museum and the Theatre Royal you realise we are developing a cultural precinct second to none in New Zealand.

The cultural community has turned out to play the key role we hoped for in bringing the centre of Christchurch back to life. Events like the Arts Festival are drivers in taking the whole city into a new era of cultural maturity and into the global cultural community.

The arts have an economic, social and indeed environmental importance that I do not think we have yet begun to fully appreciate.

In fact, I was thinking today that the Arts Festival might run the risk of having to be re-named to fit the new heavyweight status of the arts in Christchurch.

The rural/racing/manufacturing side of the city comes under the spotlight when we have Showtime Canterbury. Maybe the arts community needs to look long and hard at the idea of building off this festival base to present Showcase Canterbury.

This year’s Arts Festival is going to give us a great insight into how much we already put in the shop window.