More funds for arts sought

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33463, 19 February 1974, Page 11

More funds for arts sought

Unless more funds were made available the professional arts in New Zealand could not continue to exist, the Select Committee on the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council Bill was told by the chairman of the New Opera Company of Wellington (Mr B. S. Carson). Mr Carson said that the company was not supporting the professional artist at the expense of the non-profes-sional. But it believed that the professional must set the standards which the amateurs would then seek to achieve.

“The special nature of opera singers must be recognised, and we consider that it is vital that a centralised body be available to the regions for regional opera, and that this body should be under the control or direction of the arts council or some central administrator,” Mr Carson said,

Without singers there could not be opera. New Zea-

land had produced many fine professional singers who worked in overseas opera houses. They were longing to return to their homeland, but were unable to do so because of the lack. of opportunity for them to continue full time in their chosen profession. “It seems a pity that New Zealanders are denied the opportunity of one of their countrymen who has achieved great success overseas from coming to New Zealand and taking part in an opera for a season,” said Mr Carson. Promising singers were thwarted by lack of opportunity to be properly trained and to work in professional productions. Their only remedy was to go overseas. Mr Carson said regional orchestras should remain under the wing of the arts council itself, and not of regional councils, because of the high funding involved, and because their policies and activities should be coordinated nationally. It was undoubtedly wise to take the means of financing the arts to the artists who needed it, the Federation of Film Societies submitted. Mr D. R. K. Gascoigne said the proposed bill sought to achieve that aim by the creation of regional arts councils and community arts councils. He said the arts council had gone a long way towards assisting aspiring local filmmakers. With a greater supply of funds the council could do more. The federation was concerned to see that a proper balance was achieved between the activities of the arts council and the regional and community councils. It felt that the bill as it stood emphasised too heavily the regional and community bodies, and that the powers and stature of the arts council had been unnecessarily and unwisely diminished.