The Arts in Australia

David Marr is probably best known as the recent presenter of the ABC's must-see program Media Watch. He is also the co-author, with Marian Wilkinson, of the award-winning book Dark Victory. Marr is now back at the Sydney Morning Herald.

Last night Marr presented the 2005 Philip Parsons Memorial Lecture - dealing with the Arts in Australia, and more particularly the funding of it.

With the Melbourne Arts Festival now underway [go see and hear especially the Spiegeltent] Marr's comments are timely. Check them out here.

What is interesting in this on-going debate about the funding of the Arts is that it is the taxpayers, in the first place, who provide the monies for their own enjoyment - and the politicians and public servants are no more than custodians of those monies. To see the strangulation of the Arts in all its manifestations is to the detriment of us all.

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Mahler's Prodigal Son

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