NZDF to fight ‘Hit and Run’ claims
Money for art is drying up in New Zealand, with regional theatres, galleries and museums closing doors, or introducing entry fees.
Earlier this year Dunedin’s Fortune Theatre closed, unable to make enough profit from performances to top up funding from Creative NZ and the Dunedin City Council. Invercargill’s public art gallery closed four years ago, and this year the Southland Museum and Art Gallery closed for at least five years due to its premises being earthquake-damaged.
And Tauranga, despite being the country’s fifth largest city, does not have a museum. Meanwhile, theatres and galleries in Palmerston North, Hamilton, Foxton, and Nelson had all been close to the brink of closing, but saved by last-minute funding.
The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Royal New Zealand Ballet now makes pit stops around the country instead of nationwide tours.
Research by Musical Theatre New Zealand found 29 per cent of societies did not make a profit. Instead, they relied on funding from local businesses, councils, and community trusts.
Invercargill’s arts situation is particularly dire. Except for a short pop-up gallery, the art gallery’s $4.2 million collection has been kept under lock and key since it closed.
New Plymouth’s combined Govett-Brewster Gallery and Len Lye Centre will introduce a $15 entry fee for adults from outside the region in August, to offset the gallery’s costs.
A spokeswoman for the Ministry for Culture and Heritage confirmed it would continue to help fund arts in the regions where it could.
Budget 2018 included additional funding of $23.3m for the ministry over the next four years – its first significant baseline funding increase in a decade.
The ministry would use the funding increase to progress the Government’s arts, culture and heritage programme, to benefit all regions, she said.
Furthermore, earlier this month, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced a $10m investment in Northland arts – Whangarei’s Hundertwasser Arts Centre and Wairau Ma¯ori Art Gallery.
The perception of the arts and artists in small towns is askew, says painter Michelle Edlin, who lives in Taupo¯ and has always wanted to be a fulltime artist.
‘‘It just doesn’t seem to be recognised as much as sports,’’ she says.
Artists put their heart and soul into their work and are not in it for the money, she says.
‘‘But to do something good for the community, you need to be able to support yourself too.’’