The Arts took a thrashing from a bunch of schoolgirls last Tuesday night at Craft ACT’s annual Sketching DAC:CAC debate. Perhaps it was the home ground advantage (it was held over at Canberra Girls’ Grammar), perhaps it was the invincibility of youth, perhaps it was merely something in the water…but whatever it was the girls carried the day with a spirited contention that there is indeed a distinct Canberran culture (as opposed to the common garden Australian variety.)
Canberra Girls Grammar School‘s champion debating team (l-r) Grace, Lauren and Sarah.
The evening (adjudicated by local ABC’s radio journalist Genevieve Jacobs, backdropped by portraiture from the school’s Year 12 art students and hosted by Craft ACT’s Director Barb McConchie) was a great success by all accounts – bar those of the losing team!!
Arguing the toss for a national, rather than regional, cultural identity were local arts gurus Deb Clarke (curator of CMAG), David Broker (Director of CCAS) and Erica Seccombe (artiste extraordinaire.)
All chums again, post the verbal fray
Despite some very fine intellectual fireworks from the distinguished arts panel, we have it on good authority that it was the steamy culture of Fyshwick that finally blew the generic ‘nasho’ argument out of the water.
Good onya girls.
Megan pleeeeze. Where are you getting your info? … The arts SCARCELY took a thrashing in the debate against an ill prepared and thoroughly confused Canberra Girls Grammar debating team last Tuesday night. The poor girls called upon the post structural ghost of Baudrillard to argue that Canberra had culture (or was that Sea World because I can’t tell the difference). Mercy … they couldn’t even pronounce Baudrillard ! In her dubious wisdom the Adjudicator chose to patronize the “school kids” rather than take their efforts seriously.
Darling!! I heard it was all over bar the shouting once the naughty schoolgirls brought in the slop shop argument. n(Ed)
Megan my love … its true that the Third Affirmative made a desperate attempt to distract attention from her team’s tragic arguments with a lurid invocation of the traditional Fyshwyck slop shop. However, this just highlighted the affirmative’s inexperience and rendered the art debating team’s task easier. While Canberra is indeed The Erotic Capital it cannot claim exclusive ownership to the concept of the good old Aussie Prossie.