Council accused of playing favourites with art shows

The organisers of one of two major art shows being hosted in Wellington this autumn are accusing the council of playing favourites.

John and Kate Morrison of Arts Shows Across Aotearoa brought their commercial Wellington Art Show to Tākina in April, and though generally happy with how it went, they were less than impressed with the lack of support from council and a comment from a councillor which they believed actively worked against them.

Another major commercial art event, the New Zealand Art Show, is coming later this month to the waterfront, and the Morrisons said the council seemed to favour that show.

John Morrison said they struggled to get publicity from promotional body WellingtonNZ and on top of that Wellington deputy mayor Laurie Foon promoted the competing art show on their business Facebook page. He said Foon posted on Arts Shows Across Aotearoa with a link to the other show saying: “This is not the same as the NZ Art Show which is the original and is on Queen’s (sic) birthday weekend.”

The Morrisons complained to the mayor and council saying that Foon breached the council’s code of conduct.

Mayor Tory Whanau replied that she had “determined“Foon’s comments did not breach the code of conduct. “Deputy Mayor Foon’s comments that were made in her posts were factual and were not promoting one event over the other.”

Councillor Foon declined to comment. John Morrison said they approached WellingtonNZ prior to their event to seek promotion on its platforms but were told by WellingtonNZ that the other art show was their focus for promotion.

WellingtonNZ marketing and communications manager Todd Barberel wrote: “We have had a subsequent conversation with Wellington City Council from which we are now committed to focusing our support for the New Zealand Art Show at TSB Arena on King’s Birthday Weekend.”

Barberel told The Post that WellingtonNZ had a long-standing contractual arrangement with the New Zealand Art Show “for which we also provide support for the promotion of the event on our website and social channels”.

“For the Wellington Art Show we agreed to publish a promotional post on X (formerly Twitter) ahead of the event.”

A council spokesperson said events being held at council-owned venues “do not automatically receive promotion” from the council.

She said they did provide support for Wellington Art Show through their social media channels and email marketing including a ticket giveaway for the gala and VIP events.

Morrison said they would like to return to Wellington but were worried about future bookings and promotion.