Scotch College

A sextet of Presidents

The Foundation President's Dinner held at Royal South Yarra Lawn Tennis Club in August brought together 200 members including six of the seven Foundation Presidents.

John McIlwraith, who succeeded Bib Stillwell, was enjoying the warmth of Noosa.

Carrillo Gantner, actor, theatre administrator, pioneering Australian cultural counsellor in China, Chair of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and Vice President of the Myer Foundation, was the Guest of Honour. Known for his articulate and incisive views on the Arts, his themes: the arts and Asia, were delivered in a combination of humour and sometimes provocative seriousness.

It would be impossible to do justice adequately to Carrillo's presentation in these few comments, but given that Scotch is planning the construction of a Centre for the Performing Arts, it is important to be reminded that "the process of art is the application of creative imagination to the distillation of excess, the disciplined discarding of dross to reveal and illuminate truth and beauty and spirit.

As a Playbox brochure once said - 'it should be contemporary, important, alive, Australian and fun. It should stimulate the mind, tickle the ribs and touch the heart'".

The Foundation President's dinner is one of the special functions in the Scotch calendar and Foundation members should put the date for the 1998 dinner in their diaries - Tuesday 11 August.