As miracles go this one was pretty good. A few weeks ago I received a 'Special Invitation' to attend Morning tea on the Queensland Terrace, at the State Library and I was actually in Brisbane and would be able to attend - now that is a miracle in my book! Wednesday 18 March, Arrivals from 10 am, announcement 10:30 am. What would the announcement be? I RSVPd right away and made sure I would be there on time for any light refreshments on offer (AKA Free Food) and also wondering if any friends of mine from art school at the QCA might be in attendance, as one had had a role at Artisan for quite a few years.
The
Queensland Terrace which I could not quite ascertain the location of within the State Library building, part of the interconnected South Bank Cultural Precinct - due to the usual problems nearly any government-funded-body websites have - they all solicit your interest in booking space for your event - understandably... prioritising
fundraising over the supply of useful information.
No, I want to find the room not how many square meters, I've got an event to attend already! Oh to hell with the internet. I would just ask a librarian when I got there, on the off chance I did not bump into someone I knew who was also on their way.
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| The State Library is to the right of the original QAG building |
I alighted my bus right-at the cultural precinct and was immediately distracted with the business of making a hand help multi-frame panorama of the old, the original, South Bank
Culture Bunker, the building and gallery I hold dear to my heart (and look at all those poles subdividing the image - irresistible!). The
new library on the other hand I have not had much interaction with - I think the last time I attended something there (if indeed there) was a talk on the wonderful Australian landscape painter
Fred Williams, which
did not take place in the main art gallery building. Looking at this panorama as I write, I am amazed at how low-rise Robin Gibson's beautiful brutalist building now appears, contrasted against the high rise apartment buildings of South Brisbane, rising up, filling a horizon that until fairly recently was more or less open and clear.
Southbank, warm, humid, lush and green. I headed onwards to my destination (to the right - of above), entering the Library Complex by walking in under the funky 2006 modernist hoverbox by Donovan Hill and Peddle Thorp Architects - the redesign that doubled the library's useable space - stopping outside the entrance(s) to the main library, endeavouring to orient myself I turned around to see a whole bunch of people and there was my friend, chatting away with a group of them. We saw each other right way.
'Hello, what a coincidence'.
'No coincidence' I said 'I've an invite for the Artisan event. Is this it down here?'
The event was not 'down here'. The Queensland Room Terrace was on the next level up, and up the stairs we went. Names ticked at the door we walked into a large modern yet elegant room, open to outside, simple yet beautiful timber panelling, cleverly incorporating display cases, the room opening out at the southern end onto a mostly covered platform with a view back to the river and across to the QAG, the greenspace, the trees, making the whole room very much like an old Queenslander's verandah, and you can't get more Queensland than that!
There were urns of coffee and tea and juice on one side and a variety of one-handed baby croissants and other tasty pastries on the other - and you know what? It's impossible to eat and meet at the same time! So after being introduced by my friend to some very nice people and discussing how fabulous the space was,
and it is - I excused myself away to taste what was on offer. After that I decided to see who else was here that was not so close to the official party. Striking up and enjoying an entertaining conversation with a local (Redcliff) artisanal woodworker. And then began the speeches.
There were several speakers including Vicki McDonald AM, State Librarian and CEO, State Library of Queensland and Carmel Haugh, CEO of Artisan, and others.
The BIG announcement was that the State Library and Artisan would be in partnership which included the new Artisan Store which was directly below us where I had seen my friend and a possie of people when I arrived. So, the Bowen Hills shop and gallery space is now closed and Artisan Shop HQ is now part of the Cultural Precinct on South Bank, which not only sounds like a big win for
Artisan Queensland Contemporary Craft and Design, it is already a big win for the artisans who supply the artisanal artworks that are sold in the store as there has been a huge increase in visits (and one hopes sales too - look I wasn't taking notes so these are the bits I can clearly recall). As PEAK Bodies go, it certainly sounds like very good things have been happening and not just recently, the hard work is paying off and - I'm not being cynical here - it does sound like a bit of an art workers paradise and the setting was having me feel quite quite nostalgic for being in Brisbane, maybe going South had been a mistake after all! The last speaker was a young woman (well everyone seems young these days) an artworker who was affirming the art life in Brisbane, and I might have been a bit wary of all this positiveness if she had not mentioned as she was wrapping up, that she had to promptly rush off to her day job. Yes, design, making craft, making art is hard. But when you love it, you just do what you have to do keep on doing it.
Digging around on the internet I see that Artisan has been holding exhibitions at allied art spaces, I would hope that the new 'partnership' will include exhibitions space right there in the Cultural Precinct where tourists, collectors and buyers of craft and design congregate.
