By ERWIN CHLANDA
A steering committee to create a national Indigenous art centre in Alice Springs will be set up in the next couple of months, says Scott Lovett, of the Department of the Chief Minister.
He says he and Department of Arts head Hugo Leschen are following calls for such a facility from several local community members.
Alice is the logical place for the centre and “local thinking about it is quite well developed. It’s been talked about for many years,” he says.
Neither budget nor location within Alice Springs have been discussed at this point: The first task is to work out what the facility should be like and what it should do, he says.
It’s likely mission is to represent the 200-plus Indigenous language groups around Australia, in an arts centre “on Arrernte land”.
Because of its national reach, there would need to be a role by the Federal Government but so far no official contact with Canberra has been made, and no talks about funding have taken place, says Mr Lovett.