THEATRE NETWORK NSW
Cath McNamara NSW Minister For The Arts
Good evening everyone.
I
am Catherine McNamara, but you can call me Cath Mc. I am your new NSW minister for the Arts. I must say how fabulous it is that my portfolio is solely dedicated to the Arts again. What a great decision, when you consider that the Arts have pulled so many of us through the isolation, fear and uncertainty of this pandemic. In recent years, the Arts have been regarded as an add-on, an afterthought. Our Federal Arts Minister is in fact Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts. Before I became Minister, my predecessor was Minister for the Public Service, Employee Relations, Aboriginal Affairs and the Arts. You know they tried to ask me if I would be Minister for Infrastructure, Communications, Space Invaders, Holiday Houses, Casual Fridays, Beef Lasagnes and the Arts and you can only imagine where I told them to stick it. Art deserves its own portfolio. “There is no new normal” and thank heavens for that. The old normal was broken. It was terrible. The old normal would, as I’ve said, often shove the Arts in with Communications or the Public Service, but never properly acknowledge the public service it provides. I’ve been left thinking a lot the past year about the link between art and societal health. I recall there’s a Gertrude Stein quote saying art is like taking the pulse of a nation and I think this is very apt right now. Works of art are sometimes a bitter pill for society or governments to swallow, but this pandemic has presented an opportunity for us to be much more assured of our social function as artists. Art has always gathered us, started conversations, found commonalities and tried to figure out how we move forward – together. Our public service is that we don’t always play by the rules and we often question how things are being done. Perhaps an almost-direct correlation with why most politicians appear to dislike artists.
www.tnn.org.au
Cath McNamara is an independent theatre performer and maker. She lives near Bathurst, on Wiradjuri country, and works in disability support and as a freelance performing arts facilitator for people with disabilities. She co-wrote the immersive children’s theatre show Erth’s Prehistoric Aquarium with Drew Fairley and Scott Wright in 2015 and has spent five years touring the work throughout regional Australia (2017), Auckland (2018), USA (2018-19), and Abu Dhabi (2020). Cath collaborated and performed in interdisciplinary dance theatre works Tangi Wai: the cry of water, by Victoria Hunt (Performance Space, 2015), and Throne of Thorns, by Malaysian theatre director Norzizi Zulkifli (UOW, 2015 & ASWARA Kuala Lumpur, 2017). She is also the very lovable Central West drag king Clint Taurus.
Cath McNamara
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