Art gallery rally goes ahead despite mayor’s cash boost

Dionne Christian

A group set up to fight for better funding for Auckland Art Gallery will go ahead with a rally this week even though Mayor Phil Goff has proposed to boost funding to the institution by about $2 million a year.

The mayor’s recommendation will be considered as part of the council’s 10-year budget (2018-2028). This will be consulted on with the public in March and will be agreed upon in May this year.

Save Our Gallery had planned the Friday lunchtime gathering to draw further attention to the gallery’s financial woes and ask Aucklanders to sign a scroll indicating the 125-yearold institution is important to them.

Goff’s announcement means the event will be more celebratory, recog- nising the proposed funding boost and thanking the mayor for it. However, signatures will still be collected urging Auckland councillors to vote in favour of Goff’s proposal and highlighting the need for the gallery to be adequately funded.

Arts patron Sue Gardiner, one of the founding members of Save Our Gallery, said the funding boost was still a proposal only and the council needed to know support for Auckland Art Gallery was widespread.

“We want to ensure that the gallery is still there, growing and responding, in another 125 years.”

Save our Gallery was established late last year to get Auckland Council to at least restore the gallery’s funding to 2011/12 levels when it had an annual operating budget of $9.2m.

But, despite wide acclaim, the gallery’s funding was reduced every successive year. In 2017/18, its operating budget was just $6.8m leading to a financial crisis.

In a statement earlier this month, Goff said the council was short of funding and the first priority had to be infrastructure.

“However, we cannot neglect the things which also make our city great to live in,” he said.