Their Ship's Come In

Day 1 of our East Asia Arts Meeting, with colleagues from China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan, Philippines, Thailand, Burma, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand plus a couple from UK. Always good to catch up, review, strategise, plan ahead and generally chew the cud. Thankfully we are not in a windowless conference room buried in the hotel; we are in a bright, funky space in the Museum of Contemporary Art two minutes walk away, with a view of the Opera House... except there's a  massive ocean liner in the way. It's kind of surprising that such a humungous ship can dock right in the heart of the city - the equivalent of the QE2 parked outside London's Houses of Parliament.
Today the Australian Government published its first cultural policy in 20 years today, so we took the opportunity to meet their equivalent of the Arts Council in the evening for a few drinks to offer our congratulations or commiserations. Turns out it's the former. The Aussie economy is doing well and to some extent that's reflected in funding for the arts.