Official Opening of Brisbane State High School’s Create Arts Festival 2017

Councillor Sri; Executive Principal, Mr Haynes; other distinguished guests; ladies and gentlemen; all members of the upliftingly vibrant Brisbane State High School community. It is Kaye’s and my great pleasure to join you today for the launch of this year’s Create Arts Festival.

I at once acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the lands around Brisbane, and extend respectful greetings to their Elders, past and present. I thank Maroochy Barambah for her Welcome to Country this evening. That we gather tonight atop this magnificent new building, the Kurilpa Building, so named after the Turrbal word meaning ‘place of the water rat’, reminds us that people have been gathering on these lands and using what we now term art to interpret surroundings now for many thousands of years.

Create showcases the work of over one thousand State High students across the many faces of the visual and performing arts. That must place it among Queensland’s largest arts events.   

This festival is a testament to the breadth, depth, and balance of the education that State High offers its students.

We all appreciate the need in our society for students proficient in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.  

I strongly support the drive to increase students’ engagement with these subjects, and to encourage more girls and young women to bring their talents to these critical areas.

I also strongly support the need for a ‘well-rounded’ education, to use an older term – to give young people exposure to the rich, complex and often challenging view of ourselves, our lives and our world that the arts provide.

Brisbane State High’s curriculum and ethos clearly place a high value on the contribution of the arts to the personal growth and development of its young people.

The Create festival demonstrates this. So too does a glance at some of the school’s alumni. .

In classical music alone, alumni include Paul and Brett Dean, Diana Doherty, Donald Shanks, and Patrick Thomas.  

In the visual arts, William Robinson is a stand-out. Alumni also include actors such as Ray Barrett, Carol Burns and Barry Creyton and comedian Matt Okine.

Many other alumni will have made their mark in the arts in Australia and further afield. Current and future State High students will too.  All those who attend the school, whatever career path they choose, benefit from their engagement with the arts.  

I congratulate Brisbane State High School on the way the Create embraces and engages the community in this celebration of youthful creativity.  

I congratulate all the students whose work features in the festival – which I look forward to experiencing and enjoying shortly. I further commend the recipients of the 2017 Peter and Julie Bellas Bursary Award to whom I will shortly make their special presentations.

I thank all those who have contributed so generously to the massive effort needed to organise this large-scale arts event. 

And it is with enormous pleasure that I now declare officially open Brisbane State High School’s Create Arts Festival, 2017.

Thank you.