marcus westbury

IN POLITE company in arts circles these days, you do not mention the “e” word. No, not e-books or e-commerce or the other electronic innovations running a wrecking ball through Australia’s much loved big-box retailers. The uncomfortable e-word in the arts is “elite”. The arts are in a bind when it comes to elitism. Once [...]

TECHNOLOGY is creating a strange paradox when it comes to art and culture. It’s expanding our options but narrowing our choices. It’s a phenomenon that has consequences far and away from the online world and one that is even threatening the business models and viability of some companies and art forms. Recently, the National Endowment [...]

  JUST before Easter, Arts Minister Simon Crean announced that advertising guru and philanthropist Harold Mitchell (pictured) would undertake a major review of private sector support for the arts in Australia. The review will look at the range of existing government programs and incentives for philanthropic support for the arts in Australia and abroad, such [...]

[I've been incredibly slack at updating the blog of late, i put it down to travel, parenthood, and general need-to-make-a-livingness. However, that does leave me with a bit of a backlog of old scribblings to post here over the coming weeks. The piece below was originally in The Age on the 31st of January and [...]

Why i moved to Melbourne I HAVE described myself on more than a few occasions as a cultural refugee from New South Wales. Many young artists and creative types – some very talented and some obviously less so – left the state during the Carr years. Some went overseas, some went north and played a [...]

Image from Gavin Anderson’s Flickr stream. Used under a creative commons license. Australia’s arts and culture scene is in the grip of a bike helmet problem. ARTS? Culture? Bike helmets? Let me backtrack a bit. Apparently the take-up rate for Melbourne’s casual bicycle sharing scheme has been uniquely woeful in the world. Bad. Dismal failure [...]

Hand made Nick Cave, by Lucy of Newcastle. MEMO to anyone tempted to frame a cultural debate as a choice between “high art” and “popular culture”: don’t bother; you are missing the point. It’s not just that the terms are frustratingly polarising or that they frame the world as a simple hierarchy of quality based [...]

The Powerhouse museum’s Sydney Design iPhone App ARE OUR museums and art galleries our cathedrals, or our town squares? That was the question posed in The Wall Street Journal last week. American arts writer Judith Dobrzynski described what she refers to as “a big rupture” in the world of American art museums. She describes a [...]

THIS weekend I’ll be heading to Launceston with about a thousand artists and arts types for the biennial Regional Arts Australia conference. Against some of my best unreasonable prejudices, it’s a nice opportunity to remind myself that some of Australia’s more interesting creative dynamics are a long way from Southbank. I might be lynched down [...]

Ride, Vapour Trail. I once spent 6 hours on a train to buy this album. THE music industry has seen massive changes recently — both for better and for worse, as musicians have adapted to changing times, technologies and audiences. In many ways they might be the canaries in the mine for many other art [...]