The $448k phone call that could change the arts
It's being touted as the most significant boost to arts, at a community in Southland ever, and it's created a fair bit of excitement.
Rebecca Amundsen recognised the number from a missed call on her phone. Her mind started to race.
It was late December, and a representative from the Manatū Taonga Ministry of Culture and Heritage was trying to get in touch.
Amundsen is Arts Murihiku’s chairperson. Arts Murihiku had applied for funding from Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage’s Regeneration Fund.
It had earlier been told it was unsuccessful in its funding bid but was provided some pointers and asked to go away and resubmit. That happened in November.
When the number flashed up on her phone Amundsen tried to temper her expectations that the arts community was about to be provided a Christmas present like no other.
“I was like; ‘don’t get excited’; they had probably just got feedback from last time that sending an email was shitty, and they should call people to tell them the outcome.”
After playing a little bit of phone tag Amundsen and the Ministry for Culture and Heritage representative finally connected.
Amundsen was advised Arts Murihiku had been successful in its application. $448,000 is on its way.
“I don’t squeal, because I hate squealing, but I squealed,” Amundsen says about the reaction to that phone call.
That $448k is to be spent by June 2024 and will help with its “pathways for the arts in Murihiku initiative”.
Amundsen agrees that it isn’t a stretch to suggest this funding is the most significant boost to the arts sector, at a community level in Southland, ever.
It’s now about putting it to good use in a push to “amplify the arts”.
So, what will the $448k go towards?
One part is resourcing and activating the new community arts space in Invercargill at 34 Forth St.
Whare Taupua – The Rest Room Community Arts Space was officially opened in January and dedicated arts place for community exhibitions, meetings, workshops, small gigs and performances, practice and rehearsal space, short-term working artist space, storage, and office use.
An “arts incubator programme” will also be established to help people and organisations grow in their practice, skill, and ability.
It means a fulltime administrator will be employed, as well as 1-2 people in Arts Activator roles, and a project manager (eight hours a week) to co-ordinate the project.
To have dedicated resourcing on the ground available to help active the arts will be significant in many ways, Amundsen says.
At the moment arts in Southland is basically left up to volunteers, such as Amundsen, to navigate.
Amundsen is fine with that, she enjoys it. However, if the new community space and the people involved in arts are to flourish, it was a bigger assignment than just having volunteers fit it all in around their day jobs.
“Having staff, whose job it is when you come through the door and say, ‘I’ve got this crazy idea, but I don’t really know how to do it’. [Our staff] can say, ‘let me help you. You need to talk to this person, would you like me to come with you, I can ring this person and see if that place is available’.
“That is definitely something the arts sector has lacked.”
Amundsen feels at the moment there are spikes in interest in the arts throughout the year, whether it be when Polyfest is on or during Matariki.
“Then it goes away and there’s no vibe in between.”
The quest is to create a buzz about arts all year round, as well as helping artists progress without having to move away from Southland.
“There are no real pathways [at the moment] to grow your skills, there are lots of nice one-off things but not anything that is like mentoring.”
But what happens in June 2024 when this funding runs out?
Amundsen says the next 18 months are very much about proving to local councils and funders what can be achieved in the arts through some investment.
“We see this whole thing as being able to bring the arts community together and start having more conversations about what the future looks like for the arts in Southland.
“So as part of that, we also need to be having conversations with councils and funders and things like that in order to show them and demonstrate what an investment in the arts can look like in real life.”
It means part of the $448k, Arts Murihiku will also put resources into “recording the journey” to create a blueprint for the sector’s future.
The hope is council and funders will see the benefit in investing in that blueprint beyond June 2024.
Over the years it’s not unusual to hear a gripe or two surface from those attached to the arts that they are underfunded compared to other interests.
It’s also been suggested by some that the arts sector is somewhat splintered, and in turn, that’s hindered it when trying to tap into funding streams as other sectors, such as sport, has been able to.
Amundsen doesn’t buy into that theory though.
“Lots of people say that, but I don’t think that’s the correct way to describe it.
“If you look at the sports sector rugby, soccer, and netball don’t all hang out together and do the same thing and have the same goals. So why should painters, sculptors and musicians all hang out together? So that’s kind of my argument there.
“But what we can do is actually start to bring some of those conversations about what we all want for the future together so that together we can articulate what that is. And I don’t think that is one place for everyone to be in one room or one facility.
“You’ve got to be realistic about people’s needs.”
Amundsen acknowledges Southland does have some catching up to when it comes to its work in the arts space.
She fully understood that when she joined the Regional Arts Network Aotearoa group and realised what was happening in other parts of New Zealand.
“They did what we are doing now, maybe 20 years ago. So, they are so far ahead, they have loads of people making money from their craft and I feel like we are still at the beginning of that.”
But you’ve got to start somewhere. There’s plenty of excitement as those involved in arts in Southland go about now carving out its own path with aid of $448,000 over the next 18 months.
Sculptors, not sculptures. Sculptors create sculptures. ☺️