Positive outcomes for City of Ballarat from Paris visit

Exciting cultural, economic and tourism opportunities have already arisen from the first stage of an international trip by City of Ballarat Mayor Samantha McIntosh and Art Gallery of Ballarat Director Louise Tegart.

Cr McIntosh and Ms Tegart have just spent four days in Paris, with several meetings resulting in positive, tangible outcomes, including the opportunity for Ballarat to play a role in the 2021 Year of Australia in France celebrations.

Acting Australian Ambassador to France, Angus McKenzie, made the offer after being impressed by the City of Ballarat’s willingness to travel overseas to “see things in the flesh”, seek out pro-active meetings and for being a very progressive council.

Talks between Cr McIntosh and Ambassador McKenzie resulted in:

 Mr McKenzie describing the City of Ballarat as the sort of “willing, enthusiastic partners” he wanted to involve in the 2021 Year of Australia in France. Mr McKenzie offering to undertake research on the effects of the Waste to Energy plant in Paris, along with gauging local residents’ opinions Mr McKenzie speaking about his role as a UNESCO Ambassador, his role on the World Heritage Committee and the HUL (Historic Urban Landscape) heritage approach which the City of Ballarat is currently piloting. The City of Ballarat is part of a 13-council bid for the Central Goldfields to receive World Heritage listing by UNESCO, which is predicted to boost the local economy by $68 million annually. Speaking about a partnership exhibition with the Musee de la Chartreuse de Douai and the Art Gallery of Ballarat, and the potential of an exhibition going to Douai from Ballarat. Discussing the opportunities for Ballarat to be part of the 2021 Year of the Australian in France’s cultural and public diplomacy celebrations

Cr McIntosh and Ms Tegart have also visited the Musee de la Chasse et la Nature (Museum of Hunting and Nature), which combines heritage and contemporary art in innovative ways.

It is one of the premier examples of trans-historical curating, which is mixing old art with new, which is one of the areas the Art Gallery of Ballarat plans to explore.

The gallery is currently installing an exhibition by Louiseann King in its permanent collection which is an excellent example of trans-historical curating.

Cr McIntosh has also visited the Paris Catacombs, which is one of the most successful underground tourism facilities in the world, welcoming over a million visitors annually.

The City of Ballarat is looking at developing underground tourism and Cr McIntosh gained some very interesting insights from the world’s premier example of underground tourism to bring back for discussion.

A meeting was also held with Kathryn Weir who is the Centre Pompidou Cultural Development Director and former Head of International Art and Director of the Cinematheque at Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art.

Ms Weir worked extensively on the Asia Pacific Triennale, which was hugely successful in developing new audiences for GOMA and Brisbane, while currently also working on multi-disciplinary programming in Paris and with partner museums in Malaga, Metz France and Brussels.

The Centre Pompidou has also just announced a cultural partnership with Shanghai’s new West Bund Art Museum, which will host a satellite gallery for the Paris Museum in the Chinese cultural capital.

This very useful meeting feeds directly into the City of Ballarat’s Creative City Strategy, which is currently being developed to make Ballarat Australia’s leading regional creative city.

They also visited the Musee de Quai Branly which features the indigenous art and cultures of Africa, Australia, Oceania and the Americas and is an incredible example of innovative exhibition design and production. It also has an active program which encompasses all artforms including performance, literature and film, which links in with the future Art Gallery of Ballarat direction.