Art fund scrapped
A fund that helped bring public artworks such as Antony Gormley’s Stay, the bronze bull sculpture and Fanfare to Christchurch has been scrapped.
Arts advocates have called the cut ‘‘very disappointing’’ and described the Christchurch boom in public sculptures and street art as ‘‘a real hero of the rebuild’’.
Since 2007, the public art advisory group oversaw about
$280,000 a year in Christchurch City Council funding for new street sculptures. The money was used to help purchase two sculptures by prestigious British artist Antony Gormley, Neil Dawson’s giant sculpture Fanfare on the northern motorway, Michael Parekowhai’s sculpture of a bronze bull on a grand piano, and three other major artworks in the central city.
The group had delegated powers to commission public art with its annual budget. The funding rolled over year to year to allow for larger commissions.
But the group’s funding was cut in the council’s 10-year budget, known as the long term plan, which was signed off by city councillors last month. About
$200,000 remains in the public art fund, which will be used to ensure two temporary public artworks in the city will be made permanent.
Public art advisory group chairman Anthony Wright, who led the group from 2007, said the funding cut was ‘‘very disappointing’’. ‘‘It will mean less public art,’’ he said.
‘‘They are trying to balance the books and keep the rates down and were looking for things they could cut.’’
But he said the fund could return.
‘‘I feel we are on the cusp of putting Christchurch on the international public art map. It would be a real shame if that momentum was lost.
‘‘All is not lost. We have a fantastic legacy there. I really believe it will come back bigger and stronger.’’
He said that every council dollar spent by the fund had attracted about $3 in private and industry funding. The fund had spent about
$2m over ten years, which had attracted
$6.1m in other funding.
Scape Public Art executive director Deborah McCormick, who runs an annual festival of public art in the city, hoped alternative public money could be found.
‘‘Public art and street art have been a real hero of the rebuild and it is really important that the private sector and the council have a role to play in this,’’ she said.
‘‘It is disappointing not to
have that committed fund, but we just have to work harder now.’’ She was lobbying for Scape’s status to be changed from a community event to a major event, which would mean extra funding. She also planned to pitch an idea as part of council’s new strategy for the arts where a fee of about one per cent of the value of new developments would fund public art.
Council citizens and community general manager Mary Richardson said the fund was cut because of rebuild pressures and maintenance costs for existing public artworks. ‘‘There was pressure to keep rates at an affordable level and the whole capital programme had to be prioritised against renewals, committed works and the payment schedules that we have with funding partners,’’ she said.
‘‘Council has a major repair and maintenance programme for the existing public art which needs to be undertaken over the period [of the long term plan], including the repair of Regan Gentry’s Flour Power in Stewart Plaza and reinstating the Hanley mural in the Town Hall.’’
‘‘Council supports the inclusion of art within the city and will look for opportunities to work with the public art advisory group, developers and the private sector to look at alternative ways to support the development of public art.’’
The approximately $200,000 left in the public art fund would be used to ensure Diminish and Ascend by David McCracken, which was installed in the Botanic Gardens in 2016, will become permanent, while an artwork by Nathan Pohio, which was temporarily installed by the Avon River in central Christchurch in 2015, will return to the city in a new permanent home.
It was a relatively small amount of money that went a long way. The Christchurch City Council has scrapped its public art fund of about $290,000 a year in the latest long-term plan.
Since 2007, the fund has helped purchase a series of high profile new artworks for the city, including Sir Antony Gormley’s Stay sculptures in the Avon River and the Christchurch Arts Centre, and Neil Dawson’s giant Fanfare sculpture.
The new artworks helped make the recovering city centre a more exciting and welcoming place. They also helped shake off Christchurch’s fusty reputation as the city that rejected a plan to put a large Henry Moore sculpture, called Sheep II, on the Port Hills in 1972 because it didn’t look like a sheep.
Or the same city that chased artist Michael Parekowhai out of town for proposing temporary inflatable rabbits in Cathedral Square in 2002.
The artworks also met the council’s stated aims in the longterm plan to help ‘‘arts and culture thrive in the city’’ and make ‘‘the central city . . . an appealing place to be and live’’.
The fund commissioned more major, new public art for Christchurch in a decade than was built in the city over the 40 years before. It felt like a quiet revolution was unfolding as the earthquake helped the city shake off its colonial and Nimby past.
But now the fund has been scrapped. Obviously, council has to be very careful with its money in the new 10-year budget. This is a city with many priorities and much to rebuild.
But, even in the context of a recovering city, this funding cut feels a bit mean. To put it in context, the fund’s $296,000 budget for 2014/15 made up
0.03 per cent of the council’s
$982 million capital expenditure for that year. Also, every council dollar spent on public art over about a decade attracted about three dollars in additional funding from other sources like philanthropists and central government.
The money also seems paltry compared with planned council spending on sports facilities.
The new budget includes about $253m for a new sports stadium. That money would keep the public art fund going for another 855 years. It is hard not to conclude that relatively minor arts spending is considered nice to have, while expensive new stadiums for rugby are essential.