Council defends stance on public art

Public art is something that is available to everyone.

The Christchurch City Council’s chief executive has defended spending ratepayers’ money on public art.

Karleen Edwards told councillors on Thursday public art contributed to the cultural recovery of the city and has been a part of what the council had done for years.

It already had a number of publicly funded artworks, including Nucleus at High and Manchester streets, The Chalice in Cathedral Square and The Wheatsheaf sculpture on High St, she said.

Her comments come after the council revealed it had put $502,500 toward two sculptures by worldrenowned British sculptor Sir Antony Gormley. The Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority also helped fund the purchase but will not say how much it has spent.

Edwards reminded councillors they had agreed, during the Long Term Plan process, to continue funding public art to the tune of $280,000 a year. The money accumulated in a fund and was used only when projects came up.

The council had originally proposed to significantly reduce its contribution to public art in the draft Long Term Plan but decided against that after pleas from the public not to cut funding.

If councillors believed the city should not invest in public art, it should use next year’s annual plan process to have that discussion.

Mayor Lianne Dalziel agreed, saying the council needed to ask the public whether the council should defer any spending on pub- lic art because of the earthquake recovery.

‘‘That would create a genuine debate.’’

Dalziel said the public art works survived the earthquakes.

‘‘Public art is something that is available to everyone,’’ Dalziel said.

‘‘It’s not just available to private collectors. That’s why I like public art, but lets have the debate.’’

The decision by the council’s public art advisory group to contribute to the Gormley statues was made in December last year so the money did not come from this year’s budget, she said.

Cr Paul Lonsdale, a member of the advisory group, said for every dollar the council contributed, the group was able to contribute $3.25 from philanthropic donations.

Lonsdale said The Chalice was once massively contentious but after the earthquakes, people used it as a place to leave flowers to remember those who had died.

‘‘Whilst [the Gormley statue] is contentious at the moment for some, in the future we may look back at it in a very different way,’’ he said.

Cr Tim Scandrett said public art was crucial for the city.

Cr Yani Johanson questioned the use of the money.