ACT Government provides $200,000 for Handwritten

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The ACT Labor Government is providing $200,000 to support the marketing of the National Library of Australia’s Handwritten exhibition.

The National Library is the second recipient of the ACT Labor Government’s Special Event Fund. The fund supports major tourism events aimed at increasing visitors to the ACT and enhancing the overall tourism experience in the region.

Tourism events are an important part of Canberra’s tourism offering. They help attract more visitors to Canberra and the region, supporting the jobs of almost 15,000 Canberrans in the tourism industry and helping the sector contribute about $1.5 billion to our economy each year.

The Handwritten: Ten Centuries of Manuscript – Treasures from Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin exhibition will feature manuscripts, letters, sketches and musical scores handwritten by major figures in history. Included are writings by Machiavelli, Galileo and Goethe, Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, and a rare manuscript by Albert Einstein.

The National Library of Australia will use the funding for an extensive cooperative interstate marketing campaign of the exhibition. This follows the August announcement of $500,000 towards interstate marketing of the National Gallery of Australia’s Renaissance summer blockbuster exhibition.

The Handwritten exhibition comes from the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (Berlin State Library) and will run from 26 November 2011 to 18 March 2012. Entry to the exhibition is free.

For more information on the Handwritten exhibition visit www.visitcanberra.com.au.