Vew from the chair: Speeches of Richard WL Austin

5 Speech to launch Thoms and Petals: One Hundred Yean of the Royal Queensland Art Society by Glenn Cooke and Keith Bradbury, 15 August 1988 I suppose it could be said that, as Chairman of the Gallery Trustees, I am, on this auspicious occasion, in the anomalous position of being, so to speak, a guest in my own house. If so, it is a very pleasant position indeed in which to be. I thank the President of the Royal Queensland Art Society [Mr G.Maclean Offner] for inviting me to join the high table and for inviting me to speak. He has allotted me three minutes and, as we all know, he is a very strict timekeeper. Itake the view-and I have said this before-that a great Gallery like ours is not just a placewhere paintings hang on the walls or where sculpture stands in the corners of its rooms. That certainly may be the way in which it fulfils what is perhaps its most important function-the provision of intellectual stimulation and pleasure to those who enter its portals. It should, in addition, be seen and recognised as a centre of civilised activity in the broadest sense, a place where all those interested in the arts can meet on terms of relaxed equality. And it should, as the basis for its educational role, be a centre of research and scholarship. This morning it is fulfilling both these latter roles. It is gratifying to see a book, which is, itself, the result of research and scholarship, being launched here-because that is a civilised activity if ever there was one. . And it is even more gratifying that half of that research and scholarship should have been provided by a member of the staff of the Gallery, one of our curators who already has a long and distinguished list of publications to his credit. The subject of the book, too, is of direct relevance to the Gallery. As is pointed out in the chapter 'The Society and the Gallery', many of the early records of the Society were lost in a fire in 1912. Even so, it seems certain that the founders of the Society, which was 100 years old last year, had as one of their principal aims the establishment of a Queensland Art Gallery, a Queensland National Art Gallery, no less. Indeed, the first President of the Society and the first Chairman of the Gallery were one and the same-that very distinguished Queenslander, Sir Samuel Griffith, also Premier of Queensland, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Chief Justice of the High Court (in that order), and after whom Griffith University was named. The close relationship between the two organisations, which began almost 100 years ago, persists, I am glad to say, to this day. And that is the reason I am glad to have been invited to this book launching today and to have had the opportunity of saying these few words. 6 Speech to launch Pamela Bell's Poetry 1947-1989, II July 1989 It gives me great pleasure on this marvellous sunny winter's morning to welcome you to our Gallery on the occasion of this launching of Pamela Bell's Poetry /947-/989. 109