Long Term Planning is an essential tool for Council’s to ensure a city is fit-for-purpose – not just for the present but for the future too. This year’s LTP process saw a large number of submissions in favour of continuing arts funding for the city – so what exactly did the Council decide on? Principal Arts Advisor at the Christchurch City Council, Kiri Jarden, joined us for a chat to explain exactly what was adopted in the LTP.
There was quite a lot of interest around this year’s LTP process, in particular around The Arts Centre – can you start with telling us what happened there?
You might recall there was some pretty strong campaigning put forward by The Arts Centre Te Matatiki Toi Ora which generated a lot of interest and so a high number of submissions to Council’s Long Term Plan. This resulted in a commitment of $750,000, inclusive of current funding commitments, for the next two financial years, and then $500,000 each year for the following eight years. Long Term Plans have a ten-year outlook and are reviewed every three years – so these three-year reviews are kind of like a snapshot where Councils can take into account any financial, social or cultural changes and adjust the planning accordingly.
In terms of the submissions, of which there were a large number this year, was it clear that support for the arts here in Ōtautahi is quite strong?
Yes. A good number of submitters had noted that one of the pillars to Council strategy is for the city to be a cultural powerhouse. A number of submitters noted the current percentage of funding committed to arts, creativity and culture and suggested the funding needed to be improved in order to achieve that outcome. I believe Council heard that, and so we saw an increase in funding and a commitment to funding some existing activity.
Such as?
The Screen Fund has a commitment of $300,000 each year over the next two years. What was a one-off Arts and Culture Fund of $50,000 – that’s administered by the Arts Team – that will continue for another three years, so that’s great. We have commitment to support ‘Watch This Space’ – a local street art trust. Street art of course became very much associated with the city post-quake, so what we’ll see in this financial year is a commitment of $298,000 and then $250,000 in the subsequent two years. It’s an opportunity to understand the impact that street art has on the city.
My own feeling is that our city is the capital of public art – I think we have some incredibly strong public art across the city as a result of the rebuild there are a variety of things that make that strong, including street art, but also the inclusion of mana whenua narratives which have, in the past, been absent from the city. It’s not just about the numbers but quality also and we have some great partnerships across the city delivering public arts.
And that also comes through in the architecture of the new builds – the Justice Precinct for example with Lonnie Hutchison’s work. There’s some real innovation happening.
I think so. It’s giving life to one of the aspirations you’ll find in most public art policies – integrating artists and artworks into development of new buildings and spaces. Mana whenua through Matapopore were able to give some real force to that aspiration here, to have artists and designers embedded in the process of developing ideas for artworks in buildings. We also had project teams and architects that were really open to it -you can see that in the Justice Precinct but also in Tūranga which is a stellar example.
Given the current financial climate which we find ourselves in, how does local government deal with this? Is support for the arts safe?
Yes, support for the arts is continuing. In fact, the funding has increased. The investment through this LTP does see a pretty marked increase in funding towards arts and culture.
That’s recognising how important arts and culture is to a city, not just for its wellbeing, but also looking towards the future in terms of attracting people to live and work and create?
People move to cities for a whole bunch of reasons but if the city doesn’t offer much in the way of arts, culture and recreation, then it’s less likely to be an attractive destination for individuals, business or industry. The more we invest in creativity and our creatives and our culture the better we serve the city as a whole for not just residents but visitors also.
That investment starts with our tamariki and mokopuna. Researchers and futurists are calling for a greater focus on creativity in education to ensure adaptable thinkers, capable of handling dynamic, complex and challenging situations with imagination and innovation. That learning should be life- long. Ensuring access to opportunities for creative engagement across our communities is a place where Council can and does pitch in-through support for galleries, museums, libraries, theatres, events and so on.
The city is already attracting new residents?
It is and not just because it’s more affordable than many other cities, but it offers a range of opportunities for people here which are now being recognised. We live in a pretty amazing part of the world and there’s lot of inspiration for a range of creatives here and I think we’re starting to see a bit of a buzz about the opportunities supported here.
Going back to the LTP and some of the perceptions that people have had – there has been a perception that arts funding is not a priority – is that a misconception?
It is. Through the LTP we can see an increase in funding for events for the city and that doesn’t just impact sporting events, but a whole lot of events including arts and cultural events. That will have a big impact. There are also other commitments such as underwriting the Akaroa French Festival in its next two iterations which is great for that festival – it’s a unique part of our culture. So, yes, there has been an increase in investment and it’s not just in the dollars, we have things such as the build of a new theatre, which is a Council owned building, which will be leased and operated by The Court Theatre. We’ve got Parakiore with dance, music and circus studios, and Te Kaha Stadium coming online. This will enable hosting of some pretty big concerts, both international and local, and they do have real and tangible economic benefits for the city.
Do you feel there’s support around the Council table from councillors and elected member for the arts?
I do. We’ve got some strident support from a number of Councillors – it’s pretty hard to argue against the vibrancy and colour that art and creativity bring to a city. Even if you’re not a direct participant in it, you’re going to be an audience for it or consumer of it somewhere along the way.
Just talking about the city’s art strategy – Toi Ōtautahi – we’re now in year five of this strategy – can you tell us where we’re at?
We had three years of Covid, it was adopted on the cusp of us going into the first lockdown, so it’s fair to say it has been a bit of a tumultuous time! We know a range of organisations have really made a huge effort to look at the strategy and work towards bringing it to life. We won’t be rolling into a full-blown review of the strategy in the near future, but we will be undertaking a check in – asking some questions around our priorities and whether they’re still relevant. We’ll also be looking at some of our actions and asking whether they’re still fit for purpose.
We’d like to provide people an opportunity to feedback to us on the implementation of the strategy so far. We want to understand whether any tweaks or changes are necessary or whether we need to shift gear a little bit. It’s really important to us that our strategy remains current and relevant.
Personally, how are feeling about the implementation of the strategy? I know there’s been a lot of disruption, but overall, how do you think it’s going?
People can find strategies a little bit pointless and that’s often because they can’t see how the strategy is being brought to life. I believe we have really brought our strategy to life and I hope people can see that. We have really focused our activities on implementing activities that make a difference to our city. We have the website, our newsletter, workshops and incubator programmes. We have developed Toi Auaha to provide studio spaces for artists. Those are some of the more tangible things we’ve done. We’re still a fairly small team delivering for the city and so we have to be nimble and focused on really delivering outcomes, but I’m really pleased at what we’ve achieved so far and what the future is looking like for our city.
Take a look at the city’s Arts Strategy here.