N.Z. losing professional artists through low pay

Press, 4 November 1978, Page 22

N.Z. losing professional artists through low pay

New’ Zealand is losing its professional artists a< I a disturbing rate, and an I accelerating one, according j to “Action,” journal of the ! Queen Elizabeth II Arts i Council. I The Arts Council blames meagre rewards rather than actual absence of opportunities for the “talent drain.” New Zealand artists are forced to accept working conditions and salaries well below the national average, it says. “Action” gives figures to emphasise the point: in April, when the national average wage was $132 a week, dancers with the

Impulse. Dance Theatre were earning just over $BO a week. The award wage for a stage actor was $96. Frustrations such as these have driven professional artists to leave New Zealand in increasing numbers in the last two years, “Action” says, and it quotes the chairman of the arts council (Mr Hamish Keith) as saying: “The tragedy of this situation is that when a government comes to its senses and restores funding to the Arts Council at a level equivalent to the council’s grant in 1974, the people needed to make the best use of this increased funding will no longer be in New Zealand.” “Action” says that a the statistics for the year ended March and the year ended June confirms that the rate, of loss is accelerating. The net. loss for the March year was 348: for the June year it was 464 “In the popular entertainment. field, a significant number - of people have left the country this year. Mike Harvey winner of the ‘Song for the Pa .’ific’ contest —- New Zealand’s top song competition — is now living in Australia, and Julian Lee, the well known jazz musician and arranger, left New Zealand in Apri[

because of the lack of suitable work. “During 1977-78, 692 artists, writers, and related workers left the country and only 344 people working in these areas entered. “Last year there was a net loss of 312 professional artists. Both these years compare most unfavourably with the year ended March 31, 1976, when there was a net gain of four professional artists. The Arts Council considers that a return to this stable pattern of migration for arts workers would indicate that the arts in New Zealand had attained a more healthy state. “For the last tw 7 o years there has been no real growth in the arts, despite increases, in the Arts Council’s grant from the Government of 13.5 per cent and 18.9 per cent. These increases have not been for new developments in the arts but purely to compensate the individuals and groups the Council funds for the effects of inflation. “This, together with the fact that the Arts Council funding from the Government stayed virtually static over 1975 and 1976, has meant that the arts have actually declined in the range of activity over the last four years,” “Action” says. . .