As someone who was born in Brisbane (more than 35 years ago now) and having lived here for the bulk of my life, I have the right to be objective about the city. It wasn’t so many years ago that Brisbane used to be known as a city seriously lacking “culture”. Of course this depends on your definition, but “excellence in the arts” is one given by dictionary.com and in the past, it did feel that though Brisbane has always had this to some extent, it was often either hard to find or limited offerings. However that has now changed.
After several years living in Europe (2001-2007) and then returning to Brisbane to live again, I was very pleasantly surprised. I think it was a combination of both me changing and the city, but Brisbane now offers a cultural buffet.
Just a sample of a few of the “cultural feasts” I’ve enjoyed in the last few months are the Valentino Exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA was built while I was in Europe and I didn’t even know it was there until I received an invite to this). Not only was it a great exhibition, according to ABC News, we (meaning Brisbane) even beat many other cities to host the exhibition: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/08/06/2975742.htm
Another treasure I discovered on returning to Brisbane a few years ago is the amazing Brisbane talent of local theatre company www.harvestrain.com.au – though now celebrating 25 years of “culture” I have only recently discovered them – first at New Farm and now resident at QPAC and Alderley. After attending many of their performances over the last few years I can attest to the fact they definately offer “excellence in the arts”. The most recent of these performances I attended was Jesus Christ Superstar, which was superb, and it’s returning to replay at QPAC shortly so grab a ticket if you missed out!
Tonight I just took my 3,5 year old daughter to the theatre for the first time, along with my schoonmoeder (mother in law) who is visiting from Nederland. We had a very enjoyable evening of culture – first visiting the great Queensland Museum and then seeing a great show which delighted all three of us – “Letter’s End”. http://www.lettersend.com.au/
Dutch Australian 
