Grants for arts criticised

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32567, 29 March 1971, Page 2

Grants for arts criticised

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, March 28. The Queen Elizabeth Arts Council was continually beset by the fact that funds available to it are inadequate to enable it to do the job properly, the chairman of the council (Mr W. N. Sheat) told the annua] meeting of the New Zealand Federation of Operatic Societies at the week-end. “In terms of actual money value the council received something tike 16 per cent, less than it did in 1965,” he said. At that time New Zealand’s support of the arts per head and through the Government was ahead of the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada.

"The position is now reversed, we tail the field,” Mr Sheat said.

A problem which would be facing societies in the future was the question of buildings, Mr Sheat said. Most theatres in which musical comedies were performed in the major provincial centres were now getting rather elderly. In some cases they had been owned by cinema interests who were no longer interested in retaining them.

“In Wellington, for instance, the St James is to be demolished and replaced by a cinema complex, leaving only the Opera House, which is nearly 60 years old,” he said.

The position was probably likely to be reasonably satisfactory for another 10 years, but some time in the next 10 to 20 years the possibility of rebuilding facilities for the major performing arts was likely to be faced by a large

number of cities and towns throughout the country. “The cost of this is likely to run into many millions of dollars,” he said. However, this need not be any cause for despair. It would result in the evolution of different ways of presenting musical comedies. “Ixe possible solution will be the use of large tents. These are widely used in the United States where seasons of musical comedies are presented by professional companies in a wide range of areas. I can see the situation where your societies, in addition to hiring the production sets and costumes, also hire the tent.” The competition for the writing of an original New Zealand musical last ydar was a magnificent step forward, Mr Sheat said. “The change of pattern of writing musical comedies

means that the regular sources of Broadway and London successes are no longer the same. One way of providing the necessary material is to bring forward some New Zealand comedies.”

Support for the recent proposal by the council for local bodies to spend part of the petrol tax on the arts was given by the meeting.

Local authorities were receiving a “windfall” from tax on petrol sales, the annual report said. But it was already becoming clear that some local authorities would be content to spend the huge sums collected on the rehabilitation of existing losses rather than in any positive way to enhance the life of their communities. “It is always necessary to bring the total needs of a community, including its artistic needs, constantly before our local body administrators,” he said.