The Territory Labor Government is developing a National Aboriginal Art Gallery that will deliver significant economic, social and cultural benefits to the people of Alice Springs.
The Alice Springs Town Council passed a motion last night in support of the Gallery, but it is unclear what Councils position is regarding the Anzac Hill Precinct site.
Following community feedback earlier this year, we undertook an extensive consultation process with the people of Alice Springs. The local engagement team spoke to hundreds of Aboriginal people, business people, members of the arts community, heritage representatives and members of local user groups through this process.
88 per cent of the people we engaged through this process support the Gallery being built at the Anzac Hill Precinct or are site neutral and just want us to get on with it.
That is what we intend to do and we believe we have the community mandate to do that.
It will never be possible to get a consensus view on where this project should be located but at some point, the communitys elected representatives need to show leadership and get on with it.
The National Aboriginal Art Gallery in Alice Springs will be a game-changer for the town economically, socially and culturally.
We want to build the Gallery in the CBD because this will deliver the greatest economic benefit to the town. Anzac Hill Precinct is the only CBD location that meets the criteria for such an important cultural institution in terms of size and scale, sense of place, connection to landscape and accessibility to name a few of those criteria.
We intend to continue with this project and we have said all along that we want to do this in conjunction with Council, with stakeholders and with the community. But we need to make a call on the site and move onto the next phase of the project, which includes developing a masterplan for the site which will include open green space for community use, ample car parking and a new home for rugby.
