Arts Centre seeks help to fight funding cuts

The Arts Centre Trust is seeking the public’s help after the Christchurch City Council proposed to cut its funding for the first time, threatening the Trust’s demise.

The council didn’t include any funding for the Arts Centre in its draft 10-year budget released last week after giving it $1.83 million annually for the past three years.

With no funding the trust said it would be on the path to insolvency and would legally have to start winding up from July.

The trust has now urged Cantabrians to use the draft budget’s submissions process to “help councillors realise a mistake is being made and save The Arts Centre”.

A communal iPad has been set up outside Rutherford’s Den for those who can’t do it at home, and the trust pointed to paper submissions at council libraries for those who did not want to use the online platform.

“Council is trying to save money but has not understood the finer points of the situation,” the trust said in a message to supporters.

It said upon insolvency the High Court would likely hand the trust’s assets to the council, which would then “then have to cover all the same costs, plus pay for the transition”.

The council would then miss out on the grants, donations and sponsors that currently support the Arts Centre, it said in an email.

In Saturday’s issue of The Press Arts Centre director Philip Aldridge said “no arts and heritage precinct this size can survive without public funding. The council is being short-sighted. It’s trying to save money but it will cost the ratepayer a lot more in the future. The council’s ownership would spell the end of the Arts Centre. It would fail.”

The trust has encouraged people to attend a rally at the Arts Centre on April 16 at 5.30pm.