Queensland Art Gallery Presscuttings Book 9 : Construction of the cultural centre, 1977-1981

theatre clavid rowbothom :Culture: To the tune lo£ $100 million . •'' • • . WE ALL NOW KNOW (don't we?) that the State Go,•ernment plans to build a Queens– land Cultural Centre on the south bank of the Brisbane Rh·er. But do we know how much it is likely to cost? The centre, to Include n lyric theatre, concert hall, and new State ore gallery, library, and museum, should be a fine pince for show-going, entertainment n 11 d I c n r n In g services, browsing, promcnndes, It will cost a mint. Write orr $100 million or more ror the bulldlng (by IU84), and $5 mllllon or more a year !01· running costs. Such estimates have not been publl– cly hazarded by the Go1•ernment. But why not'/ Sooner or later, we ha1·e to know. It may be easier to accept tr we real– ise that "cult,ure" costs less than Oor– ernment and the Public Sei-vlce. both or which we patiently subsidise through ta.xes. THE OFFICIAL centre build-· Ing estimate started out as $45 million In the election year of 1974. Now It has officially been put at $62 million, But this Is pussy-footing. Inflation has ballooned the whole show. As ror annual running co&ts, Govern– ment budgets revealed that, already, the State Library <In Brisbane) costs $3 mllllon; the Museum, $1 million; the Art Gallery, SS00,000. We bear these expenditures without complaint. The Concert Hall and Lyric Theatre, accordlnr to the Government·• con– sultant.1 whOse reports ftre under wraps, mny cost an extra U mllllon a year to run. There are plenty of precedents for euch a figure, The Sydney Opera House recently totted up (or down> a dertclt of $5 mll– lion. The Adelaide Fesllral Centre's ad– m l n I s t r at I v e expenses atone are $260,000 a year. London's new National Theatre recently went $800,000 Into the red In aeven months. New York's monumental Llncoln Centre or the Performing Arta ta creat• Ing equally monumental debts, THE MESSAGE Is clear. So many halls, theatres, centres, and complexes, look to 1overn– ment for assistance that people more often than not have to subsidise the very seats. they pay to sit In, The lJyrlc Theatre and Concert Hall. the "Per-forming Arts Complex" of the projected centre, wtll not be any dlfterent, I In ract, the Lyric Theatre, designed to hold radjustablyl bet....•een 1000 and 2000. and to be the venue tor opera, ballet, musical theatre, drama, and va– riety, will rto begin with) be empty or pertormances ror nenrly one-fifth or the ye•r - and not ahvays tilled with peonle when performances do go on. The Concert Hall, de•tl!Tled to hold 2000 and to be the venue tor orchstras, choirs, Jazz, rock, pop, and clnemR, wlll be empty or performances tor nearly half the year - and also not always filled with people when performances go on. One r-,nsultant.,• Interim report apeaks of nn "estimated ftnnual ehort• fall or some $730,000 tor the operation of the Performln1< Arts Complex." Even If the report Is (or waal only Interim. Its figures and •peculatloru stlll point Lo hard facts we wlll have to face. Let us tact them now. Let us get used to them. Cynics, especially In these hard times, may argue there ls no doubt about lhe value of "culture." It ooits so much!. Perhaps the handsome presence or the Queen.land Cult.ural Centre, when It Is finished. at whatever cost, wlll be the !lnal argument.