‘Grow a spine’ council told
An artist is calling on the Invercargill City Council to “grow a spine” and make arts and culture a priority.
Invercargill artist Lisa Benson said that art and creativity was vital for humans as a species, as individuals and as a collective.
She expressed concerns that the scoping for the proposed arts centre – Arts + Creative Invercargill, or ACI – in the Invercargill CBD was absent from the city’s long term plan 2024-34.
“Creativity is the backbone of what it is to help us engage and be.”
A 2017 report undertaken for the ICC had proposed developing an art gallery under the Southland Regional Development Strategy, “as the number 1 priority for the rejuvenation of Invercargill’s CBD – which is seen as a key regional objective”.
The report, by Tim Walker Associates, stated that the ACI be considered as “an integrated model of arts, culture & heritage collections and services being developed over time.”
On Friday, at the council hearings of the plan’s submissions, Benson, along with six other artists, performed a skit which asked the council to put the arts centre back into its plan.
“The call is going to be to advocate our city council to be a leader in the area of the arts, not a follower.
“Don’t just follow all the other regions and close your art galleries.
“Grow a spine and make arts and culture a priority,” she said.
In an earlier conversation around the lack of scoping of the ACI in the ICC’s plan, Arts Murihiku chairperson Becs Amundsen said when the times were tough, the arts were the first to be dropped off.
Amundsen said the council had decided that maybe the ACI was not the best project, and that it should have a look again since a lot of time had passed, with the museum redevelopment under way as well.
“Times are tough for a lot of people
and for councils too. They have lots of things that they’ve got to spend money on, and sometimes the arts is seen as is not as necessary as other things. So they get less attention and less money.”
“[Arts] is a different kind of importance than water and roads, but having a vibrant arts community and having places like art galleries is really important for the well being of our community.”
In response to the artists’ concerns and the council’s plans for the arts centre, ICC strategy, policy and engagement manager Rhiannon Suter said the council had allocated funding to scope an arts project in the city centre.
“However, the Arts and Creativity Project was planned prior to 2018 for a location which is no longer available. A wide range of stakeholders and interested parties would need to be involved in planning any new project.”
Suter said the council’s flagship project, the Te Unua Museum of Southland, may include some art, however the council had not made any decisions as yet.
After the current long term plan submission hearings process was over, there would be deliberations which would inform the decisions made regarding adoption of the long-term plan in June.
“Council does provide funding to and works with Invercargill Public Art Gallery to operate He Waka Tuia and provide a range of artistic outreach activities,” Suter said.
“Council also supports a wide range of artistic and heritage activities through the Regional Heritage Committee through its Community Wellbeing Fund and the Creative Communities fund, which it operates with Creative New Zealand.“