Queensland Art Gallery Presscuttings Book 1 : Presscuttings, 1959-1962

"COURIER MAIL" Brisbane, Qld. EVERYTHING ************* ********* N UNDER ueensland's CONTROL FOR HOW WILL THEY PRONOUNCE IT ? How do you pronounce it - eel, EENary, or eentenAlty? The State Centenary Executive Committee will try to give Judgment, "In the Interest of uniformity" at Its next meeting. Members' present leaning Is towards cenTEENary. By Arthur Richards:;, THE way things are shaping, it looks as if Queensland will hove a bouncy, enjoyable birthday party next year-Centenary Celebrations year. The State has now reached the stage, metaphorically speaking, of rolling back the living -room carpet, dusting the hall, going over the guest -list, and arranging the entertainment. The only complication in this birthday get-together is its size. The "Ilving-room" is something over 600,000 square miles in area - from Cape York to Coolangatta and out Camooweal. The guest -list will total something over 1,000,000 people - Including one Royal visitor, Princess Alex- andra. Everybody can conic) along; babes -in -arms, bearded ancients, butchers, bakers, candlestick - makers - and their wives. So the entertain- ment must be varied to suit all tastes. The sheer size of the ;arty Is the reason for the rich growth of organising com- mittees and councils. No single group could arrange it all Good plans But to those citizens land there must be many) who might have feared that the whole thing was being tangled in red -tape, I can offer reas- surance: Everything is going well. Plans are taking shape-and they look like good plans . . . There is no quick and easy way to organise a cele- bration of such size. The present effort was be- gun in March of last year, when the then Premier (Mr. V. 0. Gair) called a big meet- ing of prominent citizens in tile old Legislative Council Chamber. From this meeting came the Centenary Council of 2i members. Including Arch- bishop Dottie and Archbishop Halse. and representatives of the Government, Industry, commerce, trade unions, armed services and women's organisations. This Council, in turn, proved to be too big to act a. a quick-moving inanagcrla group. So a small Executive Com- mittee has been formed to run the Celebrations. This Com- mittee is it-the boss. It consists of the Premier (Mr. NIcklIni, the Minister for Lord Mayor (Alderman Groom), Alderman Crawford, the Leader of the Queensland Labour Party (Mr. Gain), Messrs. W. E. Knox and J. W. Houston IM's.L.A.,, Dr. John Power, Mr. C. A. Edwards. and Councillor H. G. Behan [rep- resenting the Local Authori- ties Association). The Executive Officer is the Under -Secretary of the Premier's Department iMr. C J. McPherson,. Under the Executive Com- mittee, fourteen sub -com- mittees are now completing their plans. These sub- committees are: - Accom- modation, Aquatics, His- torical, Finance, Illumina- tions and Decorations, Music and Art, Publications, Pag- eants, Publicity, Schools Displays, Services Displays, Sporting, Women's, and Youth's. These sub -committees nave each drawn up their own pro- grammes, and will submit them to -the Executive Com- mittee next week for final decision. Nobody knows for certain how many people are working on these sub -committees; the various chairmen "co-opt" as- sistance as and when they need it. Half of Brisbane seems to have been roped in to do a little work, at one time or another. What has all this inborn produced? Something for everybody. The programme now taking shape does not attempt to maintain ti continuous flow of festivities front January 1 to December 31; it lass been de- cided that the public would be bored by the mention of the word "Centenary" long before the 12 continuous months were up Climaxes Instead, it is proposed to arrange the programme so that it builds up to two natural climaxes-one in June (when the Letters Patent creating Queensland were signed by Queen SW- torla) and the other in De- cember (when Governor Bowen arrived, and the Slate began to function). Brisbane (and other towns and cities throughout the State, it is hoped) will be 11 - "MAIL" Adelaide, S.A. ow. NEW ART SHOW CONTEST By Esmond George Mr. Ronald C. Bell has sent invitations to tun exhibition of his oils and watercolors to be opened by Mr. G. T. Clarke, MP, In the Society of Arts gal- lery on Tuesday at 3.30. tell has recently been painting in the Flinders Ranges. His pictures will remain of the gallery until Octo- ber 25. Queensland centenary 19511 celebrations will In- clude £500 open art com- petition embracing prizes of £300 for a portrait in oils of some distinguished resident of Queensland; and £200 for an Australian landscape in oils or water- colors. Portraits nay he of any size, but landscapes must be at least 500 square inches. Prize pictures will re- main the property of the artist and the Queensland National Gallery will have first option to purchase. Entries close on February 9. 1059. and no artist may submit mole than two pic- tures in each section. Condition); and entry forms are obtainable from the National Gallery of BA, and the Society of Arts. biggest IRTHDAY PARTY.. concerts by the Queensland Bymphony Orchestra. 'the armed forces are ea- cperating. The Navy Display ullt extend over three days In Brisbane ,and invitations have gone to the American and other friendly navies to send squadrons here,. There will be a Centenary Tattoo by the Army, a Queen's Birthday Review., and an.Airl'w,gSkeek In which- AiiiIiiifiresfIghter and bomber aircraft will fly in mass formation overhead. There will be special art and photographic exhibitions at DvNation& Lie niviiand else- where, publication of histori- cal end other works on Queensland and Centenary competitions for the best Queensland posters. music, plays, and novels. s of of * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * stateTenand overseasthousands inter - visitors are expected (one group of 3000 country women is coming to Brisbane for a conference, for example). luminated and decorated dur- ing these peak months. Busi- ness firms have been asked to paint and clean their build ings. l'ilefe will be parades ana pageants --- re-enactment of the landing of Governor Bowen and of the opening of Parliament, in period cos- tume. City streets will see cavalcades of transport, women's parades. floats, and massed bands. A Fiesta arranged by the women of Queensland Is pro- posed for New Farm Park and a "Gundoo" F'estival (Gundoo Is an aboriginal word for yetith) staged by the young people of Queensland. The Gundoo Festival will include a Jazz Festival, open-air symphonic con- certs, a Ball drama, arts and crafts display and even some open air dancing. The youngsters will let their hair down. The musleal-mlndect should find much to please them. There will be the big Easter Eisteddfod in Brisbane, band festival, a Centenary Choral programme (Including The. Messiah performed by 2000 voices), and a special series of 2 1. Princess Visitor No. I, of course, will be Princess Alexandra, This is almost certain now. Her time of arrival has not been fixed, but it probably will he August or later. The Princess will no, be re- quired to make formal Pro- gresses and attend tiring re- ceptions, as this is a Royal Visit and not a Royal Tour. She will spend much of her time in the country, staying at station homesteads. And she will spend a week at the Barrier Reef, or on one of the holiday islands In or near Whitsunday Passage. The full Centenary pro- gramme of events will prob- ably not be completed, and dates allocated, until some- time In November. But enough preliminary work has already been done to make one thing clear to al. Queensla nciers: - It looks like being a mighty party, next year "AGE" Melbourne, Vic. Career DAME MARY DALY not only opened Max Middleton's exhibition of paintings in the Tas- manian Tourist Bureau gallery yesterday, she also passed on to us a thumb -nail biography of the artist. Max Middleton, whom Dame Mary Daly has known from boyhood, studied at the National Gallery before joining the late Septimus Power as an instructor in his art school. At the age of 23 he held his first one-man exhibition and has been exhibiting al- most annually since as a member of the Independent Painters' Group and of the South Australian Artists' Safety. He went overseas in 1950, studied in London and Flor- ence, and painted in nine European countries. One of his paintings won a major prize In the Dunlop competition, and another hangs in Brisbane art gal- lery. "We are beginning to realise we must encourage artists with the calibre of Max Middleton, for a nation without a cultural back- ground is like a person with- out a soul," Dame Mary Daly said yesterday.