Councils asked to help show costs

Press, 25 February 1986, Page 7

Councils asked to help show costs

All Christchurch councils will be asked to contribute towards the costs of Te Maori exhibition to show in Christchurch from March 15 to May 15 next year. The Robert McDougall Art Gallery, which will exhibit the Maori art, will be charged $25,000. That is only a small part of the exhibition’s total budget, which organisers are at present keeping secret.

Admission to the exhibition will be free, although a large portion of the costs are expected to be recouped from voluntary koha (gifts) given by visitors. That money will be for the organising committee, not for the exhibiting gallery. The McDougall direc-

tor, Mr John Coley, and the Canterbury Museum director, Mr Michael Trotter, who are co-ordi-nating the Christchurch show, have recommended that all councils share costs on a proportionate basis.

Christchurch city councillors yesterday approved that arrangement and the cultural and public relations committee voted to ask other councils for a contribution..

Cr Helen Garrett questioned the absence of an admission fee. She was told the fee was not appropriate for an exhibition of such cultural significance. “This is our cultural heritage,” Mr Coley said. Signs at the gallery

would suggest an amount that people could give as koha. The other exhibition centres would have similar arrangements.

The exhibition was one of the main cultural events at the gallery, Mr Coley said.

Cr Clive Cotton asked that local Maori elders be involved in the setting up of the exhibition. It was an ideal opportunity to involve them and for “us to stand back and say ‘Teach us’,” he said. Mr Coley assured him that the local Maori elders were being consulted. The exhibition will open with a dawn ceremony which will involve the elders as the tangata whenua.