Held at the New Athenaeum Theatre, all but two of the 16 candidates attended (Mickey Treadwell and Doug Hall had prior commitments, but praised the arts community), and the broad discussion largely centred on the council’s $17 million theatre package.
The package, passed earlier this year, sets aside money towards the restoration of the Playhouse Theatre ($3.35m), expansion of the New Athenaeum Theatre ($4.25m) and about $9.5m in seeding funding towards a new performing arts theatre space.
Some candidates expressed their full support for the plan.
Cr Sophie Barker said although the plan "needed a much better helicopter view" of the whole arts sector, there was a lot of positive support behind the proposals and now was the time to "get cracking".
Crs Carmen Houlahan and Mandy Mayhem were similarly positive towards the plan, Cr Houlahan saying the performing arts community were right to feel "betrayed" when the $17m was originally removed from the council budget and Cr Mayhem praising the community’s "hard graft" to get the idea to this stage.
Mayor Jules Radich was more circumspect about the plan. He said the Playhouse provided an excellent service and "needed a do-up", but had "misgivings" about the money set aside for the New Athenaeum Theatre.
"We will have a very long wait for our idealised theatre."
He also ruefully commented on the collapse of the Fortune Theatre in 2018, saying he "didn't know what happened there".
While Dunedin had a great reputation for performing arts, it had not been as good at making it a "viable industry", he said.
Cr Marie Laufiso said a long-term arts plan was needed, as well as looking at equity funding when making grants for performing arts.
"We need arts to get us through."
Candidate Andrew Simms said he had "limited knowledge" of the performing arts’ scene, but was concerned to see "theatres competing against one another" for funding in incredibly difficult economic times.
Fellow candidate Benedict Ong said he had come back to Dunedin because it had "everything to offer", but using his background in finance, he estimated a good, professional 500-seat theatre would cost more than $20m and would need investors.
"We don't need the biggest anything."
Lync Aronson used his time to talk about the council needing to become "fully funded" akin to the ACC model, and candidate Pamela Taylor believed a Sydney Opera House-style arts centre on the waterfront would be the best long-term solution.
Self-declared vampire Ruthven Allimrac gave a speech about the importance of arts as the "language of the soul" and its ability to defeat tyranny.
