Yesterday, I sought to urge Councillors to consult with the community before making a decision on who should govern our Art Gallery.
Councillors had previously stated there would be a “measured and thorough review” of different governance options, and this review would include “robust and thorough consultation”.
However, earlier this month, in a surprise move Councillors decided not to consult the community at all, and to instead stick with the status quo (ie; to keep the existing governance structure in place).
The decision to stay with the status quo was formally confirmed yesterday, by a 10 to 4 majority.
Those who voted for consultation with the community were:
- Mayor Grant Smith
- Cr Vaughan Dennison
- Cr Lew Findlay
- Cr Gabrielle Bundy-Cook (not standing for re-election)
Those who voted against consultation with the community were:
- Cr Rachel Bowen
- Cr Lorna Johnson
- Cr Brent Barrett
- Cr Aleisha Rutherford
- Cr Karen Naylor
- Cr Leonie Hapeta
- Cr Susan Baty
- Cr Bruno Pretranus
- Cr Tangi Utikere
- Cr Jim Jeffries (not standing for re-election)
Cr Duncan McCann abstained due to a perceived conflict of interest, and Cr Adrian Broad (not standing for re-election) is on leave.
Two Councillors chose to publicly speak out against public consultation.
- Cr Lorna Johnson said it was “distasteful to have this sort of campaign continue,” and that Council had already “heard plenty” from the local art society in last year’s Long Term Plan.
- Cr Rachel Bowen said “we have heard one person’s opinion, but there are different views on this.” Cr Bowen then implored other Councillors to vote against consultation.
In shutting down consultation on the governance review, the majority of Councillors appear happy for our Art Gallery to continue to be governed by Te Manawa Museums Trust.
This Trust has already had 20 years to prove it can deliver a thriving, vibrant Art Gallery for our community. Instead, this Trust:
- Last year tried to completely close the Art Gallery for 10 months (Council subsequently made them reopen seven months early)
- Proposed demolition of the Art Gallery building as part of its preferred option for redevelopment
- Has in recent years failed to achieve growth in visitor numbers to the Art Gallery, and has not attracted the number of visitors our community can reasonably expect for a City of our size and situation.
Here are Art Gallery visitor numbers supplied by the Trust last year:
· YE 2014 - 23,182
· YE 2015 - 20,515
· YE 2016 - 30,194
· YE 2017 - 20,252
· YE 2018 - 20,220
These visitor numbers pale in comparison to Art Galleries in smaller centres, such as Whanganui, Masterton and New Plymouth.
Our visitor numbers also pale in comparison to the visitor numbers our city Art Gallery used to enjoy – in the late 70s and early 80s, we know visitor numbers averaged over 50,000 per annum.
But despite the efforts of our community to highlight some of the publicly known issues, and to put forward a proposed governance solution, Councillors have chosen to stick with the governance model put in place 20 years ago.
So what is an arts community to do?
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
If you have any comments or questions, then feel welcome to post them on this petition, or contact me direct – art@zimmerman.co.nz
Warm regards
Bronwyn Zimmerman