Budget cut: Question mark over CBD arts event
“Unfortunately, with the budget we have, as it stands now, we won’t have the funding to be able do that."
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A question mark looms over the future of Invercargill’s Night of the Arts winter event as Arts Murihiku continues to work through a reduction in its operating budget.
Although Arts Murihiku chairperson Becs Amundsen has confirmed they will investigate ways to try to keep the event going in the future.
Arts Murihuku received a one-off $448,000 Ministry of Culture & Heritage contribution to be used for the 18 months through to June 30 this year.
It allowed Arts Murihiku to employ four staff across a total of 115 hours per week.
With that Government funding now coming to an end Arts Murihiku has investigated other funding opportunities to fill the gap. Although it is unlikely to be fully replaced.
The Invercargill City Council - through its wellbeing fund - has stumped up $10,000 and the Community Trust South has contributed $20,000.
Applications have also been made to ILT and ILT Foundation, with a funding announcement looming.
An application to Creative NZ is also pending.
Arts Murihiku is aiming to be able to retain staffing resources to cover about 45 hours per week.
However, that would not allow for putting on an event such as Night of the Arts in Invercargill.
Arts Murihiku launched Night of the Arts in 2023 as a winter event that saw Invercargill’s city centre filled with live performances, interactive installations, musical intrigues, and more.
The event also went ahead in May this year, but there is some work ahead if it is to take place for a third year in 2025.
“The reality is that there is quite a few hours tied up in organising that event. And also quite a bit of the funding for that event goes directly to the creative people who participate and perform,” Amundsen said.
“Unfortunately, with the budget we have, as it stands now, we won’t have the funding to be able do that.
“However, we are actively looking at how we could do those Night of Arts events on a contract basis and maybe apply for funding separately from our operational funding.”
Amundsen said the Night of the Arts did bring value to the inner-city and they may look at the role some retailers could play in helping ensure the annual event continued.
“Anodically we’ve been told the food and beverage retailers throughout the CBD and in the mall did really well from the event of the Night of the Arts.”
For 11 years Southland previously had annual month-long Southland Arts Festival. But that disappeared when a Great South-funded Creative Projects Manager position was discontinued.
Amundsen said great stuff happened from volunteers in Southland but it was made that bid easier by having someone who is paid to at the very least pick up some of the admin tasks.
With Arts Murihiku’s staffing set to reduce from 115 hours per week to potentially 45 hours, the Arts Murihiku board has worked through what to prioritise on the back of what it has learned from the past 18 months.
A focus now will now be ensuring the arts space Whare Taupua at Forth St remains open to the public and available to the arts community.
“The number of hours might change a little bit, but we are still hoping it can be as successful as it has been up to now.”
It has been open from Tuesday to Saturday and the hope is to retain that. Although the opening hours each day might reduce.
Another focus for Arts Murihiku, in terms of staff resources in the future, will be on the promotion and publicity of the arts sector in Southland.
“We’ve been able to draw a lot of attention to the arts, not only what we do but what other people in the region in the arts are doing.
“We think that is something we can continue to do,” Amundsen said.
Just what further work Arts Murihiku can do is likely to hand on the result of a Creative NZ funding application which is likely to be made public on August 7.
Amundsen was hopeful but also realistic that the demand for Creative NZ funding had increased but the money available hadn’t which meant it was highly competitive.