‘The World in Study’ exhibition was a HUGE success - FULL ARTICLE

Excerpt from Sumpton’s Gold Rush Gazette - Friday 28th of July 2023

‘The World in Study‘ exhibition featuring works by Xander Townsend at the Charters Towers World Theatre

The following is the speech given by Daniel Sumpton at the ‘World in Study’ art exhibition held by the Charters Towers newspaper editor, Xander Townsend at The World Theatre.

The exhibition highlighted Xander’s paintings of photos taken for Sumpton’s Gold Rush Gazette.

FULL SPEECH BY DANIEL SUMPTON:

When large publications abandoned and ignored our town, there was a prolonged question mark over how we would receive our local news.

How will we know when longtime locals have passed on?

How will we know when a new store opens up outside the main street?

How will we publicly recognise the constant achievements of our hardworking locals?

It is one thing when a large corporation trickles news to us behind an overpriced online paywall, it is another thing when a big city entrepreneur swoops in and opens up smaller papers across Queensland… But it is really

something extraordinarily special when one talented person takes it upon herself to offer a deeply localised and friendly town paper.

It can not be understated how stunningly impressive it is for Xan to have offered such a service for so long and so successfully.

We DID NOT get help from mainstream press and we are still actively ignored.

We had no help from lifelong city news editors or multi-million dollar publishers yet Xander has helped turn what I birthed as a small ten page magazine into one of the most powerful publications in the North West with a statewide expansion.

This room today is filled with moments. These are our moments and points in time all of us have seen or experienced in one way or another.

These are moments which are now heavily documented, disseminated, and most recently beautified thanks to Xander.