Courtesy of Frontseat - 05-06-05

Presenter (Oliver Driver): Last year it lost its Wearable Arts Festival to Wellington and now Nelson's reputation as a haven for artists is again under threat after the city council pulled the funding for the Local Community Arts Board.

Image: Sculpture by the river in NelsonCourtesy of Frontseat - 05-06-05

Presenter (Oliver Driver): Last year it lost its Wearable Arts Festival to Wellington and now Nelson's reputation as a haven for artists is again under threat after the city council pulled the funding for the Local Community Arts Board.

Image: Sculpture by the river in NelsonThe Nelson City Council spends 1.5 million a year on arts and heritage, this includes the School of Music, the annual Arts Festival and the Suter Art Gallery and the new regional museum, but it's voted against funding the Nelson Arts Council this year. The arts council was set up in 1969 to provide grass root support and advice to emerging artists, it also runs a gallery and administers grants. But its future is now in doubt after its funding was withdrawn in a process that involved neither consultation with the community nor analysis of its performance. Julie Hill reports.

JULIE HILL (REPORTER): This was the scene last Friday evening in Nelson as the community fought to save the country's oldest arts council. Nelson sells itself to its visitors as a haven of arts and culture but having lost the Wearable Art Awards the city council's now decided it won't fund its service for emerging artists. That'll mean the closure of the arts council's community art space Gallery 203. The nearby Refinery Gallery may also be forced to close after the council cut off funding to its owner Kahurangi Employment Trust.

JAN FRYER (CITY COUNCILLOR): My fear and my sorrow, really, I suppose, is that they provided an incubated space for emerging artists, so did the arts council; we're going to lose both those facilities within a month probably.

REPORTER: The arts council's application was supported by only four of the 13 councillors. Under council protocol that means it didn't qualify for discussion.

FRYER: It was purely based on the individuals' application to the committee and the council gets a folder with those . . . the councillors I should say, get a folder with those applications in which they are required to go through. So it's basically a value judgment [interruption].

NICK SMITH (NELSON MP): I think there's a really big question mark over whether the council has complied with the Local Government Act. It requires a process of consultation. In this particular instance it was just a decision out of the blue. I personally believe that if a lawyer was to have a crack at this before the courts the council would find themselves wanting. I'd much rather the money was spent on arts than the lawyers and so I'd hope instead they'll take a big deep breath that they will return the funding at least for a year and then subject it to a proper review.

REPORTER: Some city councillors say the arts council's become an anachronism with too great an emphasis on visual arts and that its funds are being spent on administration rather than helping artists.

ALAN TURLEY (CITY COUNCILLOR): I've been up into that office and I, from my perspective, there's not a great deal happening. They do run a gallery there for local artists to display their work but it's not exactly a highly trafficked place, the telephones are not ringing flat out.

LLOYD HARWOOD (NELSON ARTS COUNCIL): We are an administrative organisation. We administer grants, we administer, we communicate and network with community . . . yeah we're basically 1.5 office workers if you like but a good part of my role is actually working in the field meeting with groups and working on projects so, yeah, it could be seen as administration and that's very much the role of an arts council.

GRAE BURTON (THEATRE PRACTITIONER): The impact that their decision will have, it will mean that many, many, many community groups, many beginning artists, many entry level artists now will not have the support that they have had in the past.

REPORTER: In 2002 a new Local Government Act directed city councils to foster cultural life, not just infrastructure. Local writer Grant Smithie says he doesn't see Nelson City Council taking that too seriously.

GRANT SMITHIES (NELSON WRITER): The new council, I think, has taken a backward step from the previous council as far as even understanding the role of the arts in a healthy kind of community. I think the last council had a few more people that were a bit more switched on about that, you know, and had a bit more of an idea about the way Nelson is perceived and why a lot of people come here and how important it is but I think this council has got a whole lot more people who are more concerned with, you know . . . that don't even think the council should be involved in the arts, actually, a few of them have said in a kind of, informal ways, that, you know, the council's business is footpaths and guttering and stuff like that and those other things should be funded in other ways, you know.

REPORTER: At the packed out public meeting the community voiced its frustration at the process by which the council made its decision.

MIKE WARD (GREEN PARTY MP): Now what we said the other day in the paper, Jan, was that if you didn't have any numbers it wasn't discussed. Now if it wasn't discussed those decisions cannot be called robust.

BELINDA FLETCHER (NELSON BAYS ARTS MARKETING): This arts community is not feeling supported by you. You have to enter into dialogue with us; it's not just for us to come to you, you have got to move forward with that, and you have got to enter into active dialogue with us.

FRYER: Well really I'd like to see some of the faces in this room standing for council please.

REPORTER: Nelson's Arts Council has under a month to stump up with alternative means of funding. Artists also plan to protest the move, in Chris Finlayson's case by covering his iconic painting on Nelson's water front with a giant banner.

SMITH: We've had the tragedy of the losing the Wearable Arts to Wellington, we've just had a decision last week that the Government's declined funding for the upgrade for our Suter Art Gallery, it's sort of like the final kick in the guts to have the funding removed from an institution that has successfully supported community arts in Nelson for now 37 years.

PRESENTER: Well now it's possibly not all bad news. Nelson City Council says it may take over the running of the arts council itself and it may even revisit a rejected plan to appoint a dedicated art and heritage advisor.