Arts Policy

Many members of the Mozarty Party have been very busy this morning, plastering posters onto virtual lamp post, ethereal public buildings, and metaphysical cathedral doors.  They have also been...

...circulating pamphlets amongst the assorted characters who inhabit Mr Twitter's Coffee House and Mr Google's Bookshop at this time of the day.  The reason for all this effort is to engage the citizens of Australia and the world in the discourse of enlightened arts policy.

Politicians from the other political parties do not appear to know very much about the arts.  Some of them quite like an opera house to look like a bleached jester's hat or an upturned boat.

Many politicians are avid impressionists, but do not realise that flickering, ever-changing lights are not symbolic of the only reality.  This is why the Mozarty Party, the only true realists in the current Australian federal election campaign, seek your views on what an enlightened nation's arts policy should be.

How will we compare with the other parties?  How would you portray them, and us, in the arts if you were to put your creative abilities to the test?  Think, for example, about the current leader of Australia, Prime Minister Julia Gillard.  It will always be appropriate to think of her as the leader, especially in artistic terms, rather than as Leda.  It is, perhaps, quite unfortunate that her deputy is called Mr Swan.

The most important question to ask today is:

Which artists, and other arts professionals, 
deserve to be supported by your political representatives?

It is advisable to leave mythology to ideologically-suspect historians and over-paid political commentators.  Bawdiness has a tendency to encourage unseemly excitement and news headlines, which brings me to the topic of the Liberal opposition.  I am wondering if Mr Abbott is a distant relative of a painter known as Mr James Whistler.

Mr Abbott's deputy happens to be called Mrs Bishop.  I do hope they are not primarily supporters of the first estate from the Ancien Régime.  There could be some serious difficulties, perhaps, with the current Shadow Treasurer over the coming weeks.  He appears to me to bear a striking resemblance to a very famous subject of that great artist, Mr Holbein the Younger.

Then we come to Mr Bob "Capability" Brown, who may, perhaps, have a genetic connection with Mr Lancelot Brown.  I even think they look quite alike.

Perhaps Mr Bob Brown is also an advocate of the en plein air method of artistic expression, and I am personally quite fond of the work of Mr Frederick McCubbin (as the picture of a friend of mine towards the top of this posting might suggest), even though his work is somewhat impressionistic.

Australian politicians are meant to provide patronage for great Australian artists.  Although I am only a back-room sort of person in Australian political and artistic life, I have a similar problem to many of Australia's art gallery directors and curators in that my own art collection is somewhat larger than my wall space.

However, I do like looking online at the works of Australian artists.  Here is a link to the work of Gail Rutland Gillard, an artist with colourful, environmental and musical inspirations.  When I have a new studio of my own, I might even buy one of her works.


Well, do let me know of your ideas for the Mozarty Party's arts policy.  We need your insights and artistic instincts for all of our policy ideas, even if you are not an Australian voter. Can the other political parties say the same?   Your opinion will be of most benefit to us if you are able to find Australia on a world map (especially if you are standing for election yourself).