Let’s sing off the same hymn sheet, people
Arts in the south
need to band together to argue for
a central hub.
The fat lady may well have sung for the Invercargill Performing Arts Centre’s central-city arts hub proposal, but it ain’t necessarily over.
City council chief executive Richard King has left the door for a future performing arts centre proposal, if not ajar, then at least not deadbolted shut.
There is still ample opportunity here for all southern arts groups to do something they’ve never done before – unite to present a case that cannot be denied by the city council and community funders.
Proposal driver Trevor Daley’s frustration at the abrupt rejection letter he received from King is palpable. The veteran southern music activist has been working for six years on a proposal to build a central arts hub on Esk St land formerly owned by Fairfax Media, adjacent to the Scottish Hall. Its premises would have been shared by the Southland Musicians Club, Invercargill Garrison Band Society and Scottish Hall Community Trust, with art spaces available for public performance and exhibitions. It was the closest thing to a united front yet put forward by any southern arts organisation, but it failed to meet the council’s criteria to be considered a serious proposal.
It must stick in Daley’s craw that while his group was talking to the council about acquiring the land and buildings it needed, the council had its own designs on the assets and eventually bought them, instantly turning some of it into a car park.
That wasn’t particularly visionary on the council’s part, but King says it’s all up for grabs in the future, and an arts centre is still a possibility.
So let’s look at this as less a golden opportunity missed – which it is, tying in neatly as it would have with the council’s own CBD upgrade work – and more as a salutary motivational tool to focus the collective will of all the arts groups in Southland.
This includes the Arts South Charitable Trust, a wide-reaching arts advocacy group set up two years ago by Venture Southlland creative projects manager Angela Newell for, presumably, just such a purpose.
The trust’s runs on the board so far have been low key, but perhaps this is its raison d’etre. The south already has its share of sporting temples under community control.
It was an ironic juxtaposition on yesterday’s front page that had news of the arts centre proposal rejection sitting next to a report saying that it’s business as usual at Rugby Park.
It’s time for the arts to get together and up their game.