From the desk of Roland Rocchiccioli

THE pursuit of financial patronage for the purchase of the Ballarat Neil Street performing arts complex (BPAC) is a challenge which has hampered all creative disciplines in more recent years. While all levels of government enthusiastically fund sporting facilities, they are more diffident when it comes to the arts. The support is deemed less significant.

The BPAC Neil Street project requires $2-million in funding. It is a unique, significant venture. There is no comparable performance space in Australia. The Ballarat City Council’s reticence to a supporting financial commitment is profoundly disappointing and implies an absence of project appreciation. Funding distribution remains problematic. Governments are more disposed to financing a new sports stadium than a new theatre.

In the same way a panel allocating money for a sporting facility should be well represented by those who have performed at an élite level, art funding allocation should include qualified, professional practitioners whose expertise, lived-experience, and advice, should be revered, and heeded. Too often, public servants empowered to make funding decision are not necessarily professional experts across the diverse disciplines. An abiding passion and regular attendances at opening nights does not phantasmagorically implant an infallible knowledge; nor does it, necessarily, qualify someone to make a rigorous judgement. At best, they would be designated professional amateurs. Owning a smart-television and being capable of successfully changing channels does not mean you are in show business; nor does it make you a creative specialist.

The ancient Olympic Games date to 776 BC. Thespis, arguably the world’s first actor, dates to Greece around 580-520 BC. Sport and art are equally important. One builds the body, the other feeds the soul. It is a fallacy for anyone to say they are not interested in the arts. If ever you have watched a film, read a book, taken a photograph, recited a poem, performed karaoke, told a joke (it takes comedy timing to get the laugh), or enjoyed the Rocky or James Bond film franchises, you have been touched by the arts! It is all encompassing; an innate part of our psyche. Writers provide a journey: they record the present; recreate the past; and imagine the future. Good actors are as good as the words they are given to say. Stallone’s film scripts are exceptional; consequently, the films will survive for all time.

The performing and visual arts are a serious business. Psychologists are able to tell more about the state of a child’s mind from fingerpainting than from the way they handle a cricket bat or kick a football! Classical music has been known to pacify anxious, long-term, prisoners.

The various art forms are a multi-billion-dollar industry. Funding parity is imperative. Local community theatre companies deserve support; regrettably, too often taxpayers’ funding is expended on indulgent projects which do not warrant support. Available grants should be distributed on artistic merit. Regional and country Victoria has fostered some fine talent. In sporting parlance — Ballarat and Bendigo have punched above their weight — and continue so to do. It is incumbent on governments to encourage equally the aspirations of those intent on pursuing a career in sport, or the performing and visual arts.

BPAC is a rare opportunity to create a legacy. It would be lamentable if the Ballarat project failed from want of funding — or a lack of interest.

Roland can be heard with Brett Macdonald radio 3BA — Monday 10.40am. Contact: [email protected]