arts advocates auckland inc
Submissions Administrator
Royal Commission on Auckland Governance
Private Bag 92049
Auckland Mail Centre
AUCKLAND 1142
Dear Commissioners
SUBMISSION ON AUCKLAND GOVERNANCE AS IT AFFECTS THE ARTS AND CREATIVE SECTOR
1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Arts Advocates Auckland ("aaa") is an umbrella organisation established in 1986 to provide a region wide voice for arts professionals, administrators and practitioners on the development of arts and related policy at all levels of government.
1.2 The present membership of aaa numbers some 30 organisations each of which has its own individual experiences of dealing with local and regional government in Auckland. This submission is not intended to be an exhaustive examination of the experiences of those organisations but a summary of that experience and of the outcomes aaa and its constituent organisations desire from the deliberations of the Royal Commission.
1.3 The submission commences with an examination of some of the experiences arts organisations have had under the present governance model for Auckland. We comment then on the significance of the regional funding initiative and the importance of ensuring that whatever governance structure is adopted provides an efficient policy framework within which regionally significant arts organisations and the professional arts generally can operate. Finally, the submission sets out some of the desired outcomes for the Commission's consideration.
2 EXPERIENCE OF ARTS ORGANISATIONS UNDER THE PRESENT MODEL
Regionally significant arts activities
2.1 Until recently it has been a matter of continuing frustration within the arts community generally that regionally significant organisations and activities have had to rely upon necessarily limited and uncertain financial support from local authorities despite the significance of their activities. The frustrations experienced by such organisations over a long period of time led to their support and that of aaa for the Auckland Regional Amenities Funding Bill. It is not proposed in this submission simply to repeat the content of the submission to the Select Committee considering that Bill. A copy of aaa's submission to Select Committee is attached as Schedule 1 to this submission. We request that the need for regionally significant arts organisations to be securely funded be taken into account by the Commission.
Regionally significant venues/infrastructure
2.2 While it may be overstating the position, it has been said that Auckland is a city better known for closing theatres than for opening them. There is a dearth of arts infrastructure in the performance field particularly. The long gestation under the aegis of the Auckland City Council of the Q Theatre initiative is indicative of the enormous difficulties associated with generating political support for the development of arts infrastructure, even when need is acknowledged. That project is not alone. There are longstanding demands for infrastructural development for the arts within the region to support major organisations such as Auckland Theatre Company, the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, New Zealand Opera and others. These matters have been allowed to languish for a very long time and there is a very significant arts infrastructure deficit as a result.
2.3 The difficulties in generating support for regionally significant venues and infrastructure under a fragmented local governance model, and the difference that can occur from a change to a "single voice" is illustrated by the development history of the Bruce Mason Centre in North Shore City. That is a project which had a very long development stage under seven separate local authorities until 1989. It only really made headway and gained traction upon the 1989 amalgamation of North Shore local authorities into a single city. That provided a much more focused opportunity for the development of the project on which construction began in 1994. The centre was finally commissioned in 1996.
Arts policy development
2.4 With certain limits and exceptions arts policy development has been fragmented and desultory. For a number of local authorities arts policy seems to be limited to the lip service that might be paid to a local community arts centre or amateur dramatic society. For other local authorities there is (especially in recent years) a greater commitment to the development of a co-ordinated arts policy by the employment of art specialists in the policy development area. The cross-pollination that develops between such professionals, even under a multi-faceted local authority structure, has begun to suggest the synergies and efficiencies that could be developed if even greater co-ordination and, perhaps, standardisation of policy-making was undertaken.
2.5 For many local authorities the experience of the arts sector is that there is something of a "disconnect" between the expression of policy when it has occurred and the expectation of politicians in reality, and delivery on that view. Generally speaking, local authorities see their role as breaking down into a number of categories including funder, supporter, promoter, advocate and partner of, or in various arts activities.
2.6 The role of funder can be limited at the lower level to the way in which Council disburses creative communities funding. The extent to which councils are prepared to support community level arts activities through grants within their operational budget differs significantly between local authorities. There is a tendency for many local authorities to try to "pick winners" amongst local arts organisations and there is constant competition for the limited rating dollar in relation to which arts policy seems always to take a much lower priority than other "basic" requirements of local authorities.
Local arts support
2.7 By and large aaa considers that this is improving but support for the creation of arts infrastructure at a local level is exceptionally hard to muster. Support, guidance, promotion and development of arts practitioners at local level is honoured more as an idea than a reality in most instances. None of these comments are intended to diminish the laudable efforts made by a number of arts professionals assisting local authorities, some of whom are members of aaa's executive. However, even they would accept that it is exceptionally difficult to promote significant support for local or community artistic activities. Regrettably, that appears as much as anything to be a reflection of an abiding view amongst many New Zealanders that by comparison with sporting or business activity, the arts and those who participate in them are somehow frivolous, dissolute and perhaps a little suspect. The development of co-ordinated and effective arts policy which actually delivers meaningful support to arts practitioners at both community and regional level is something that aaa considers would translate over time into a real return on a vibrant cultural sector within the region which in theory, at least, local authorities assert they currently aspire to.
Arts as a business
2.8 Despite considerable work having been done by organisations such as Creative New Zealand, Auckland City Council, aaa itself and others, there is still a very significant lack of understanding amongst many local authorities in the Auckland region about the economic contribution made by the arts, both directly and indirectly. In part, that is because of a suspicion that models developed for the calculation of the economic significance of larger sectors of the economy cannot be fined down to determine how, for example, an art exhibition supported by a local community board may translate into economic activity over a period of a fortnight. The uncertainties in this area are clear, however the knowledge, disciplines and skills associated with treating artistic activity as a business in itself or assessing and supporting the business benefits likely to be generated by such activity, simply are not readily available or used and applied as often or as fully as they ought to be.
Summary and conclusions
2.9 aaa's membership has known enormous frustration at the slowness with which local authorities in the Auckland region have addressed the needs of the arts community. That has been reflected in inequities in the way a number of regionally significant organisations have been funded. There has been too much bickering between local authorities over who would owe what to whom if important organisations in the professional end of the arts were supported regionally. This is dealt with in more detail below in relation to the regional funding initiative.
2.10 The absence of a regional and strategic vision of the need to house and equip arts activity in Auckland has led also to a critical lack of arts infrastructure in the region. There have been isolated initiatives in some cities to try to address their local needs (witness the Bruce Mason Centre on the North Shore and the Telstra Stadium in Manukau) and although some work was done in relation to both to see how they might fit into a regional view of arts infrastructure, the decision to build them was not really driven by that.
2.11 More particularly the inability of local authorities within the region to have ensured that infrastructure exists upon which a vibrant, commercially successful and contributing arts community could be launched, is indictment on planning and delivery at the very least over the last 10 years.
2.12 Auckland certainly has flagship type amenities. In many respects that speaks of the way in which such infrastructure as has been provided has been advanced. Projects such as the Aotea Centre, the Bruce Mason Centre and others cater to the "top end" of the performance market. While efforts have been made over the years to try to accommodate smaller scale and mid scale community-based arts activity, that has often been done in converted premises, on a shoestring budget, and, in the case of the centre of the city, on a basis where that sector of the performing arts market especially, has been left almost without accommodation.
2.13 In many respects this reflects a fragmentation of any vision for the role of the arts in developing a world class city. It reflects a degree of inconsistency and parochialism in the development of arts policy, such as it is. It is important for arts policy to focus on and support local demand and need but it is equally important to ensure that there is an element of policy that spans the region so that as practitioners grow and develop, and the significance of their work does too, they are able to "plug into" a consistent policy framework for support.
3 REGIONAL FUNDING INITIATIVE
3.1 As already noted, it is not proposed to repeat the submission made to the Select Committee, suffice to say that aaa's support for the regional funding initiative was based largely upon frustration that it had taken so long for something to be done to place the funding of regionally significant arts organisations on a sounder footing. It was also based on sheer frustration that when challenged over the issue, most local authorities seemed completely incapable of breaking a deadlock over the issue of regional funding for the arts. Even as the Select Committee met to consider the Bill, various submitters on behalf of local authorities seemed unprepared to get to grips with the Bill itself and far more content to "kick for touch" by leaving decisions about funding to this Commission.
3.2 aaa certainly commends to the Commission the need to consider how regionally significant arts organisations might be supported, but if that means that the present Bill should be given an opportunity to operate and be reviewed in the context of any structure the Commission might suggest, aaa would be supportive. What it would not support is any suggestion that the present Bill should be shelved while the Commission deliberates, reports and its recommendations go through an inevitably long process of debate before implementation.
4 SOLUTIONS
4.1 aaa has acquainted itself with most of the submissions made by local authorities and some of those made by others whose various suggestions have been canvassed in the news media. It does not have the resources to be able to research these matters in the way others have and for that reason it does not propose a structural model, rather the need for certain outcomes to be targeted in any governance structure the Commission recommends. The major elements aaa would want to see reflected in any structure or response which the Commission recommends are:
(a) That investment in arts infrastructure should be consistently planned for and committed to on a continuing basis;
(b) Medium to long term partnerships between local authorities and arts organisations should be created and properly funded to support the development of such infrastructure and also the development of user groups able to produce and present artistic product in a manner that adds to the fabric of a world class city;
(c) A demarcation needs to exist between local and regionally significant activities. It may not be that the existing Regional Funding Bill adequately addresses this. It is important to ensure that local communities have a degree of individuality in their response to artistic and creative activity in their local communities. However, the professional sector of the arts and creative industries cannot look at local communities as their market. They have to operate within a regional context and they need, therefore, some assurance that in promoting and developing their activities, they can do so within a clearly understood series of regional policies instead of having to "pitch" their message to numerous local authorities or community boards;
(d) Elements of the local policy arts vision should also be consistent with a wider, regionally based, expression of arts policy. It ought to be an ambition of our policy makers that graduating from local or community arts activities into more significant, region wide arts endeavours, is an easier rather than more difficult transition. At the present time that is certainly not the impression and experience many arts practitioners have.
5 CONCLUDING REMARKS
5.1 aaa thanks the Commission for the opportunity of submitting on these issues. It would be happy to answer any questions Commissioners or the Commission staff have relating to the submission and to attend any hearings the Commission chooses to convene.
Yours faithfully
G D Clews
Chairman
