Arts role for council

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 13, Issue 600, 22 August 1995, Page 6

Arts role for council

Ruapehu District councillors this month voted to support a resolution that Council consult fiirther with Creati ve New Zealand on the matter of funding for a wide range of local arts activities. Council had been invited to take part in a new initiative known as the Local Authority Arts Scheme (LAAS). Creative New Zealand (the Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa) was established to replace the former QEII Arts Council, the Council for Maori and South Pacific Arts and three regional arts councils. It has a mandate to encourage, promote and support the arts in New Zealand for the benefit of all New Zealanders. Creative New Zealand consists of a council, a general arts board and a Maori arts board. Because of their "local knowledge, representative mandate and administrative competency" local authorities are deemed to be the most appropriate bodies to act as Community Arts Providers (CAP) to distribute funds to community arts groups. In her report to Council recommending that it consult. further with Creative New Zealand, RDC executive assistant, Tessa Hall, advised that if the Council decided not to

participate in the Local Authority Arts Scheme the funding would then be administered from Wellington. "I think councillors will agree that this would not be the most beneficial option for the community," she stated. By voting to consult with Creative New Zealand at their meeting this month councillors initiated a process that will provide funds to the Council which becomes a Community Arts Provider. The Local Authority Arts Scheme will provide funds that will greatly increase the pool of grants available for local arts activities on an annual basis calculated on a base grant that will provide all CAPs, irrespective of size, with a minimum sum to set up an assessment committee together with a per capita grant to reflect the population serviced by each local authority. Each CAP will receive a base grant of $5000 while the additional per capita allocation is to be 57cents for each man, woman and child living within any given district administered by a local authority. On the basis of the 1991 census the Ruapehu District (population 1 8,062) would qualify for a per capita grant of $15,295.

The suggested resolution which councillors were initially asked to approve at their meeting in Taumarunui was drafted as follows: That the "Council consult further with the Taumarunui Community Arts Council, Iwi and Creative New Zealand and consider the matter further at its next meeting on 29 September." However, Cr Ellen Gould (Waimarino) expressed concern about the wording of this resolution saying that, while there was no single arts organisation (such as the Taumarunui Community Arts Council) in the southern wards, there were many separate arts groups involved in creative activities. "We must allow for input from the south because one of the biggest events (the Ohakune Arts Awards) is held in the south of the District", she said. Cr John Compton agreed saying that Council should ask for submissions (from all creative arts groups) from the south. Fellow councillors were in agreement and the following amendment to the original resolution was made: "In the absence of a single arts group in the south, public submissions be sought from arts communities in the southern wards".