Spotlight on venue funding

Arts venues are regional assets, and both Nelson city and Tasman district should reconsider how they’re being funded, say local advocates.

Artist and arts advocate Anne Rush said she thought art venues were ‘‘part of essential city infrastructure’’.

‘‘We’ve got a legacy here that’s been created over generations . . . but you can’t take that for granted.

‘‘I think the council should fund more, but that doesn’t stop philanthropists or anyone else, or even just citizens, to donate.’’

She said the ‘‘bigger picture’’ needed to be looked at, including the contribution cultural institutions made to the region.

Rush said the Nelson Centre of Musical Arts (NCMA) refurbishment, as well as the Suter and Theatre Royal redevelopments, had involved heritage buildings, which meant ‘‘you don’t know what you’re going to find’’.

Arts advocate Pete Rainey said the Theatre Royal and the NCMA together owed about $3 million to the council. The debt hindered the operational capacity of the trusts running them.

‘‘I don’t think there’s a single bit of sporting structure that has any debt hanging over it.’’

NCMA trust chair Roger Taylor said the residual debt of arts venues in the region was ‘‘an issue that needs to be considered’’.

He said the NCMA had a $680,000 debt to the council, which had to be paid off within two years.

The interest-free bridging loan was granted in March as the centre faced a $900,000 shortfall because of the need for more seismic strengthening work and the discovery of asbestos in the building.

‘‘Whilst we have a commitment to try and raise money to pay it down over two years, it would be very hard for us to pay [it] off from our resources.

However, he said council grants to the school of ‘‘over $3m’’ had been ‘‘a pretty good arrangement’’.

Unlike the Theatre Royal and the NCMA, the Suter Art Gallery was placed under Nelson City Council governance in 2008 and is being managed by the Bishop Suter Trust.

However, council ownership of the NCMA wasn’t the solution, Taylor said. ‘‘In some ways, it would probably hinder our freedom to move.’’

He said he was ‘‘disappointed with the lack of support from the Tasman District Council’’.

‘‘For some reason, Tasman seems to decide that if the facility is in Nelson, they are not going to contribute anything towards it.’’

Mark Christensen, chair of the Nelson Historic Theatre Trust, which owns and operates the Theatre Royal, said the theatre’s long-term debt to the council, at $2.1m, was ‘‘manageable at the current level of operations’’, although it was ‘‘not nice to have [it] hanging over you’’.

Christensen said his main focus was the ongoing viability of the theatre.

‘‘These sort of venues require ongoing financial support from local authorities because basically. they deliver a lot of community outcomes.’’

He said the division between Nelson and Tasman was ‘‘a bit artificial’’.

‘‘We are a region, and these facilities are regional facilities that are well used by people from all parts of the region.’’

Nelson Mayor Rachel Reese said arts venues were ‘‘critically important’’ to the region. The Theatre Royal, NCMA and Suter, as well as other arts organisations, received annual operating grants.

Tasman District Mayor Richard Kempthorne said his council was ‘‘very limited financially in what we can contribute in the arts space’’ in Nelson city. ‘‘Tasman has its own facilities to look after and fund.’’

‘‘These facilities are regional facilities that are well used by people from all parts of the region.’’ Mark Christensen, Nelson Historic Theatre Trust chair

STUFF Arts venues such as Nelson’s Theatre Royal are seen as ‘‘critically important’’, but arts advocates say the Nelson city and Tasman district councils should view them as regional assets and reconsider how they are being funded.