‘The South Island has been done in the eye’: former Dunedin playwright decries arts funding decision

A former Dunedin playwright calling for an urgent investigation into the government’s arts funding says its treatment of the South Island is “unconscionable”. Jan Bolwell, compared Creative New Zealand’s operations to “shifting deck chairs around the Titanic” and said it was about time the Crown-owned arts development agency was done away with. It comes after the entire South Island received less than 10% of the more than $100 million dished out by Creative New Zealand in its latest funding round. Ms Bolwell, a Wellington-based playwright who was born in Oamaru and raised in Dunedin, co-authored an open letter asking for “urgent investigative attention to the current restructure and funding changes happening in the arts and culture sector in New Zealand”. “We believe the current arts situation with its paucity of funding, cuts and restructuring of funding will deliver the most devastating blow to Aotearoa/New Zealand arts we have ever seen,” the letter said. “We believe that this calls for a full investigation into Creative New Zealand, and possibly also some actions of the Ministry [for] Culture and Heritage.” Ms Bolwell, 76, told the Otago Daily Times she had worked professionally in the arts since she was a 25-year-old. She was a dance lecturer at the then-Dunedin Teachers College in the 1970s and also worked with the late Shona Dunlop MacTavish at Dunedin Dance Theatre. She could recall being a young artist and feeling like the South Island was not on the government’s radar. “I’m not sure that’s changed much,” she said. “You’re a long way away from the centre of things, you don’t have a huge population base, but that doesn’t mean to say some extraordinarily important work in the arts is coming out of places like Otago and Canterbury. “Anyone who’s got a bit of a knowledge of the history of the arts in New Zealand would know how seminal the South Island has been to its development — it’s still the case.” Creative New Zealand had been untenable for a very long time, but the results of this latest funding round were “catastrophic” for many arts groups, including well-established ones, she said. A minuscule amount went to the South Island and it was “deeply inequitable”. “We’ve got fabulous artists throughout the South Island who have made a huge contribution to this country’s arts and culture, and I just think it’s unconscionable that the South Island is treated in this way. “I think the South Island has been done in the eye, well and truly.” Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Paul Goldsmith said he disagreed with the letter’s assertions. The ministry and Crown entities had delivered a 2% baseline saving, “along with everyone else in this year’s budget”, because the country was still running substantial deficits. “Creative New Zealand’s individual funding decisions are made purposely at arm’s length of ministers,” Mr Goldsmith said. “However, our expectation is less is spent on administration, and more goes out the door to artists.” The arts sector would receive $1.7 billion over four years and a strategy had been developed that outlined how the government would help create an environment for the country’s creative and cultural sectors to flourish over the next five years. “Our government’s vision is for New Zealand to be as well known for its arts and creativity as it is for dairy exports and beautiful scenery.” A Creative New Zealand spokesperson said while it disagreed with many of Ms Bolwell’s assertions, they shared some common ground. This was a critical moment for arts and culture in New Zealand and it was acutely aware of the challenging conditions facing the sector. Demand for funding had grown significantly over time “and has long outstripped the resources we have”, the spokesperson said. “Organisations are having to make difficult decisions and, across the arts community, critical arts infrastructure is vulnerable.” Creative New Zealand was making significant operational changes and would focus on growing arts investment through various avenues. It was committed to ensuring artists and groups across the country, including in the South Island, were better supported. “We firmly believe the changes we’re putting in place will help improve the long-term sustainability of the arts community.” tim.scott@odt.co.nz