Issue 20 Exhibitions Ōtautahi www.artbeat.org.nz August 2020 Galleries Christchurch Studios Waitaha Street Art Canterbury Art in Public Places ARTBEAT In this issue: Te Matatiki Toi Ora 01 Haz Called a Tribe 02 News, Events & Workshops 02 At the Galleries 03 Discover Map 04 Reviews 06 Llew Summers: Body and Soul 07 Philip Aldridge. An Overview of the Arts Centre of Christchurch Te Matatiki Toi Ora It received 650,000 visitors in 2019 and is home to 23 category-one 19th century historic Gothic Revival buildings but The Arts Centre Te Matatiki Toi Ora in Christchurch is facing closure through lack of funding. The executive director Philip Aldridge estimates that unless it can secure public funding for the delivery of its services as an arts, events, education and community hub for visitor engagement, the essential attrac- tion and focal point that it represents in the central city will see it close within the next 18 months. The announcement is a complete surprise in view of the successful restoration and its relatively rapid reopening in compar- ison to much of the inner city. Two-thirds of → its buildings are restored and reopen and Winter Night that portion is now almost fully leased. Its Market at The attractions in 2020 are a mix of restaurants, Arts Centre Te Matatiki Toi Ora galleries, workshop spaces for the arts, a 24 August 2017 weekend market, specialist retail spaces, cinemas, museums and as a site for cultural ↓ activities. Amy Couling, Skiki, 20230 Opened in 1873 as Canterbury Univer- gouache on pa- sity and re-defined and demarcated a centre per. Exhibiting huge challenge to actually make the finances can and we can’t wring any more money out adjusted, combined with the cuts we are for artistic activity in the 1970s, its historic at Pūmanawa at The Arts Centre work. ‘The business of the site. Staff who have left have not been making, would probably get us over the line.’ Community Ex- and contemporary uses single it out as hibition Space model is so precarious. If you want to set replaced, others have taken pay cuts and Aldridge is looking forward to the reso- essential to the identity and cultural identity (available for up studios for artists you do it in the poorest more may yet lose their positions. On the lution of the financial conundrum and also of Ōtautahi Christchurch. hire to art area of the city. You’d do it in a grungy shed plus side we are 85% tenanted and nearly all to the complete restoration of the site and groups and art- So how did The Arts Centre find itself ists throughout wherever you can get the cheapest accom- of those are at market rates but the recovery further occupation by artists and arts organ- in such tenuous circumstances? Aldridge the year), her modation. You wouldn’t choose to do it in of operational costs is impossible. So there isations. The final restoration stage is of the notes that as a centre for the arts located solo exhibition, 23 category-one listed buildings - which is is always a financial gap at the end of each four engineering buildings with ambitions Musubi is open in a cluster of heritage buildings its circum- from 17 to 23 expensive real estate. It has always been a year and it is now too big a gap.’ for a conference centre, galleries, a perfor- stances are not new. It has always been a August. glorious but flawed model and it has always ‘It is delightful that we are fulfilling mance centre and studios. ‘We are miss- required funding.’ the act for the Trust, to be a centre for the ing the dance theatres and the presence He comments that The Arts Centre’s arts, but it doesn’t pay the bills. Even if you of The Court Theatre. They attracted huge access to funding is predominantly through commercially tenanted the whole site it still numbers which was great for everyone else’s one-off capital grants that are for the resto- wouldn’t work.’ activities. We have other venues for perfor- ration of the buildings. The problem being ‘The Arts Centre is a great success story mance but not a designated space. The main that for the annual operation of its services in terms of the number of artistic tenants that building in the engineering block is actually and activities there is a $1.5 million hole we have got. The problems have now multi- bigger than the Great Hall and that could every year. ‘So far that has been funded by plied but it is exactly the same underlying really anchor performance in the middle of the interest off capital invested from our problem as it has ever been. I have been the site.’ insurance payouts. As we reach the end of trotting down Lambton Quay in Wellington ‘The Arts Centre is basically a village hall the project that money is gone.’ for the last two years and central government at the heart of the city and it should be used ‘There are two big costs. One is the had shut the door in our face, making it abun- as such and the more diverse the communi- buildings themselves. The costs associ- dantly clear that this is a local issue. That’s ties that use it the better and more reflective ated with them have risen exponentially. a justifiable position. Predominantly we are of our society it is.’ Insurance has gone up and the value of viewed as a series of venues and the respon- ‘But what we need now is stabilisation. the buildings has gone up. That has made sibility for venues falls on local councils.’ We need to have a discussion about it as our insurance bill 400% more than it was ‘If The Arts Centre Trust fails the assets soon as possible. We need an indication before the earthquakes. With half the floor or buildings will be assigned by the High from council as to what it plans to do. One space on the site open it costs$500,000 Court to a new owner. That new owner, under way or another we can then plan - to either a year in insurance alone. Then you have the act of parliament that governs the centre, continue to serve the community or to close.’ got the compliance costs of the buildings, can only continue to serve the objectives of . warrants of fitness and of course building the current Trust. It must continue to be a The Arts Centre Te Matatiki Toi Ora maintenance. The fit-out of the buildings are centre for the arts. The most likely recipient 03 366 0989 splendid - contemporary and useable - but would be the Christchurch City Council and [email protected] expensive to run.’ if that happened, at that point there would be 2 Worcester Boulevard These costs cannot be passed on to huge legal bills and then re-establishment Christchurch tenants. To do so would drive tenants away. costs. By delaying or not funding the centre To remain competitive the operating expen- will only end up costing the public more. So Also see page 2, Maker Workshop and Rekin- diture contribution that all tenants pay has to they might as well just fund it now.’ dle and page 7, Arts Centre venues: The Teece be subsidised by The Arts Centre itself. ‘Council used to fund us. At its height Museum of Classical Antiquities and The ‘We have trimmed costs as much as we it was $800,000 a year. That, inflation Central Art Gallery Artbeat Issue 20, August 2020 01 Haz Called a Tribe at Outsiders writer Reuben Woods For a long time, retaining young creatives miles away from the white cube and high- has been a problem for Christchurch, the lighting the easy-going approach and urban attractive lights of more cosmopolitan desti- influence. An extension of the collabora- nations luring artists from all fields (looking at tive approach, Haz notes that Outsiders you Melbourne, London, and even Auckland). is essentially an extension of his circle of The desire to leave is of course a complex friends. The wine and entrées replaced by one, inspired by the allure of renowned artis- beers from a plastic chilly bin and a live DJ tic capitals and our relative geographic isola- set. Dispersed throughout the shop, works tion, but also a perceived lack of excitement made use of the disparate spaces, the juxta- and opportunity here in Ōtautahi. position as much to do with the retail envi- While the immediate effects of the ronment as each other. earthquakes exacerbated this trend, with lost Although a sense of youthful and anar- studios and exhibition spaces, the tumul- chic energy was evident, there was also a tuous events of the last decade have also sense of diversity, from PK’s amended thrift provided an inspiration, emerging creatives store painting, or the large collage by Reece operating with a resilient DIY spirit outside Brooker and Anna Han, to Meep’s defiant of established institutions. Graffiti, street portrait, Style Wars surrounded by graffiti art, skateboarding, and music scenes have by Magnet. The influence of skate, music, given rise to diverse yet cohesive creative tattoo and urban culture was also perva- communities of young people reflecting the sive: Semaj’s painted skate-deck Outsider local landscape. 1, Haz’s tattoo flash Am I Pretty?, VROD’s On Friday July 3rd, St Asaph Street skate combination of graffiti and official signage, store Outsiders played host to an example A Modern Day Slave, and Beccie B’s digital of this youthful energy, with the one-night illustration Snake Pit.