Arts ‘miss grants’

Press, 5 December 1979, Page 6

Arts ‘miss grants’

Cultural and arts groups in Christchurch have missed grants because they have been applying only to the Christchurch City Council for assistance, according to the chairman of the Christchurch Community Arts Council. Mr Reeves Harris told the annual meeting of the coun-. cil last evining that some arts organisations had “missed out quite badly” because they had not applied to the

Metropolitan Grants Committee for assistance. Almost without exception? Mr Harris said, the organisa-i tions which applied for financial assistance catered for! people resident in all parts ‘ of the Christchurch metro-! poll tan area, and not just! within the area of the Christ-, church City Council alone,! which represented only 59.5 per cent of the Christchurch . population. In the last year. $109,010

was given in grants to organisations in Christchurch, but Those groups that applied to the Christchurch Ciy Coun-1 cil for money instead of the! Metropolitan Grants Committee were limiting themselves to 59.5 per cent of the available funds, Mr Harris said. ! Grants were allocated bn a > population basis. , “By the very simple fact (that the Christchurch City iCouncil cannot be expected; to carry the responsibilities of the other parts of the city, it ft obvious that organisa-l tions are clearly missing out iby not applying on a ‘metropolitan’ basis,” he said. Organisations in Christchurch with a common interest, such as choirs or bands, 1 should make a joint approach [for funds “in order to increase the size of the cake instead of fighting over the smaller cake we now have,” said Mr Harris. He praised the system [ whereby the Southern Regional Arts Council guarantees arts projects against loss. Arts organisations 1 should be looking for subsiidies rather than an income from grants. he said.