Library solutions

Re the decision by Wellington City Council to close indefinitely the Wellington Central Library in Victoria St: the solution to this problem is quite simple. The council should immediately requisition the old library building (now the Civic Gallery), and move the whole of the library collection to that facility.

The library ought to remain in one location to serve adequately the 3000 adults and 50 children who use this precious resource every day. At the same time, a place for the popular Clark’s Cafe could surely be found in the old library building.

It’s time for the mayor and the council to show decisive leadership and act now to overcome this catastrophic situation. David A Rarity, Kelburn

Is this the moment for the building recently erected in the Michael Fowler Centre car park (as temporary space for RNZ Ballet while the St James Theatre is strengthened) to be used instead as temporary refuge for the library?

The RNZ Ballet could be moved to an alternative temporary home in the spacious car park at Te Whaea, where it would be alongside New Zealand School of Dance, with whom it shares a memo of understanding. Good communication would be encouraged, space and arts funding would be saved, a dance facility would remain useful, and Wellington would have a library at its heart.

Opinion from experienced professionals in dance has long been held that passersby watching

dancers at work through the soundsealed windows of a studio does nothing to help them concentrate on their work of bringing strong and richly defined repertoire to the theatre stage, one of the places where we look to see ourselves reflected as a people, a nation, a city.

Jennifer Shennan, Roseneath