facts + art = cash

i read this article on news.com.au today | a site that often pushes me to a level of foul mouthed verbal fury, mostly based on irrelevant mock journalism & the deadshits who blog on the articles | well ... guilty! | i'm officially a deadshit ... a tasmanian deadshit too! cause I have blogged the article | i hope i piss them off!

i had to respond to this with the comments below & have also written a letter to the editor of the mercury, with the comment below | a low quality fish wrapper that tries to pass as informed intellectual discourse on the green isle | puhh!

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http://www.news.com.au/mercury/story/0,22884,23734109-5007221,00.html

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ok folks, get a grip. been to Bilbao? I have. Been to the Guggenheim in Bilbao? I have. The impact of Frank Gehry's Art Gallery on the economy of a run down industrial centre has been incredible.

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Facts + art = cash, & Bilbao doesn't have the visual splendor of Hobart. Art is money folks, wake up! Art is economics, it brings cash, it spends cash, it generates cash. Art is business. Whether through the art blockbusters or through the collections or architecture, people will come.

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There are plenty of people who will travel to anyplace in the world to see a world class gallery, look at the ABS figures, give yourself a reality check. More Australians consume cultural product like art & libraries than attend sport.

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Apartment building does not generate ongoing cash for the economy or government. Art is a license to print cash. Parking at the Guggenheim, you don't! You either get off ya arse & walk to it or use the disability friendly light rail. Oh & Rodney Cappa of Margate, your tourist market argument don't wash with the millions & millions who visit the EU when the exchange rate sucks for the tourists, they still go. Those who bitch about `big money', well throughout history, `big money' built palaces, pyramids, gardens, galleries, stately homes and heritage buildings, which I notice with some glee that millions & millions of so called `plebs' pay good $$ to visit. Linda Brennan, do ya blockbusters research before making `gambling' comments. Get ya facts right, better still, get the facts!

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Lastly, Dave Roberts, you need to do ya sums on a fish & vegetable markets, more patronage? Don't think so mate.

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If you want average, you get average and surely there is enough average in Tasmania already.