It’s time to take fun seriously and Think Big to attract more people to big Sydney events
SYDNEY’S best and boldest thinkers say it’s time to “go big’’ when it comes to hosting the world’s most coveted events — an arts building to rival the Opera House for the West and events like The Everest, the planet’s richest horse race, are two examples.
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IT is time for Sydney to start taking fun seriously and Think Big.
And the template for how to do it has been set by Racing NSW and The Everest, which has surpassed the Melbourne Cup to become the richest race on turf in the world.
“We need to think outside the box.
Sydney has the best in the world, the trick is to capitalise on it,” Racing NSW chief executive Peter V’landys said.
Meanwhile, the son of Opera House designer Jorn Utzon believes that big thinking should extend to a new building for the arts in the West — with architects from around the globe competing to design it.
Racing NSW changed the face of racing when it pumped $10 million in prizemoney into a new race that attracted a bumper crowd of almost 35,000 people — with more than three-quarters aged under 34.
“The Everest was formulated for the under-35s. This demographic doesn’t engage with traditions their parents value.
Accordingly, The Everest is their event and one they relate to as it is new, bold, brash and exciting,” Mr V’landys said.
Danish architect Jan Utzon said it was that type of creative thinking that encouraged his father to come up a unique design for the Sydney Opera House more than 40 years ago. He believes it is time to do it again.
“We should have a design competition for an iconic new building in the West as we did for the Opera House,” he said, during a visit to the Good Design Australia Awards.
“A city like Sydney is ever expanding and it would be wonderful to have a visionary look at the way we live in this city.”
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David Borger, director of the Western Sydney Business Chamber, backed the call for a signature building and more funding for the arts in the west.
“One-third of NSW lives in Western Sydney but it only receives 5 per cent of the cultural funding from the NSW government,” he said.
“There is a lot of interest in the performing arts in the west.”
The director of Campbelltown Arts Centre said the $55 million proposed expansion of the centre was the perfect opportunity for a design to define the West.
“We would love to put the design out to competition among national and international architects,” Michael Dagostino said.
But the project has been stalled in talks with the NSW government since 2014.
Mr Dagostino said the centre was already one of the busiest in the nation and by 2036 would see the population in the area using it more than double from 450,000 to 950,000.
“We all should have access to cultural facilities close to where we live in the same way we have other services delivered in our region,” he said.
THE laneways of Western Sydney will play host to a festival of art, design, food and ideas in a bid to showcase the city’s burgeoning cultural scene.
The state government will today announce $500,000 for laneway festivals throughout the region, with the groundbreaking Vivid festival the inspiration for the initiative.
“Having successfully grown Vivid Sydney from very humble origins to what it is today I am confident we will be able to create a world-class event for Western Sydney,” Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.
Night markets and live music are also likely to feature as key parts of the new program.
Tourism Minister Adam Marshall said it was part a push to boost local and international visitors to the state.
“Western Sydney is perfectly positioned to attract visitors with the region currently undergoing a significant transformation,” Mr Marshall said.
“There are huge opportunities in future events for NSW to be bidding for.”
WESTERN SYDNEY ARTS NEEDS MORE FUNDING
THE state’s biggest cultural institutions are gridlocked in the CBD or the east — with restricted access for those living in the Greater West.
The lion’s share of arts funding has historically been diverted to the Australian Museum, AGNSW, the State Library, the Sydney Opera House and the Powerhouse, according to a report by PwC that calls on the government to invest in the “cultural diversity” of the West.
The PwC City Pulse report scored Sydney’s suburbs on “live”, “work” and “play” attributes.
It found that pockets of the Greater West such as Fairfield and Penrith scored poorly on the “Play” metric because of a lack of local investment and access to cultural hot spots.
Sydney artist Nasim Nasr exhibits at the Casula Power House Arts Centre, which receives the bulk of its $3 million a year funding from Liverpool City Council.
“I think the galleries in the western suburbs should get more money because there is a diversity of cultures represented in that area and they should have equal exposure to art as the CBD,” she said.
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