It was shocking, and even offensive, that the Dunedin City Council had not included an arts strategy for the city in its draft long-term plan, councillors were told yesterday.
The comment came from Dudley Benson, one of about half a dozen artists and other people involved in the arts community in Dunedin who gave submissions at the annual plan/long-term plan hearings in Dunedin on the urgent need for an arts strategy for Dunedin.
Paul Smith, from the Dunedin Fringe Arts Trust and the Dunedin Midwinter Carnival, said it was critical, as was the establishment of an arts hub, which the council could be part of as either a landlord or assisting landlords who had artists as tenants.
One building dedicated to housing artists would attract other artists and grow to become an arts precinct.
Mr Benson said he struggled to understand why there was no arts strategy in the draft plan.
He moved to Dunedin from Auckland 12 months ago specifically because of the arts community in the city.
"The creative communities you have here are like nowhere else, and it's a privilege for me to be here and to engage with that energy.
"It is simply not acceptable that the council have failed to acknowledge this community, and a major part of our city's life, by including a sound and developed strategy for arts and culture its long-term plan."
Creative communities were strong in Dunedin, but they still needed several levels of support and security that the council should approach in its long-term plan.
The council needed to survey the creative communities of Dunedin, then the arts strategies of other cities.
April Dolkar said Dunedin had a world-renowned reputation in the arts and the council should nominate the city as a Unesco city of the arts.
There should also be a council-supported physical space for artists to work in and council supported promotion of the arts and the city's arts heritage, such as the fact it was the birthplace of the "Dunedin sound".
Council staff said while they supported the development of a culture and arts strategy, there was at present no budget line in the draft annual plan for the work to start.
A proposed decrease in council funding for an already small art acquisitions budget is a "greatly disturbing" prospect, the Dunedin Public Art Gallery Society says.
The city council's annual plan proposes to cut its annual ratepayer contribution from $50,000 to $40,000 next year and its long-term plan plan shows no intent to increase the grant in the next 10 years.
Murray Grimmet, from the society, instead suggested a modest staged annual increase to bring the funding up to around $300,000 a year by 2020, on a par with what the Auckland and Christchurch city councils contributed for acquisitions to their city's main art galleries.
It was evident the gallery and city were to be starved of funding because of a series of damaging council financial decisions, mainly in relation to professional rugby, Mr Grimmet said.
"It seems we have been rewarded for managing our funds with a drop in funding over the next 10 years."
The art gallery was a valuable asset to the city.
Even $50,000 was not much for acquisitions of art works, only allowing for the purchase of less important pieces, he said.
Cr Richard Thomson asked what was wrong with selling works from the gallery's $75 million collection and buying new ones to keep it fresh and people coming back, but Mr Grimmet said artworks went in and out of favour and the society did not favour selling works.
He conceded his request was "somewhat hopeful" in the current economic climate.
The acquisition budget was currently on the list of unfunded items, but staff were looking for a way it could be returned to current levels without requiring additional rates, they said.
