Arts Ministry seeks views

Press, 12 July 1988, Page 10

Arts Ministry seeks views

PA Wellington The public is getting its first chance to have a say on what role the proposed new Ministry of Arts and Culture will have. - Mike Jarman of the Department of Internal Affairs is consulting hundreds of groups thoughout the country before preparing a report for the Minister of Arts, Dr Michael Bassett, by the

end of this year. That report will become a discussion document which will give the public a second chance to have its say. Should the report result in legislation, the public will have a third chance for consultation during the select committee process. One of the questions Mike Jarman must tackle is what is meant by arts

and culture. The Minister has no preconceptions on that score, he says. He is including the arts, creative expression, language, cultural heritage and recreation and sport in his investigations leading up to the report. That means the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council, the Hillary Commission, the Nation'al Art Gallery and Museum, the National

Library nd the Historic Places Trust must be included in his preparatory work, he says. All those bodies are covered by separate legislation. Mike Jarman says he is taking a bicultural approach with the Treaty of Waitangi being considered. He is also taking into account the multiracial nature of New Zealand society.

He began working on the project in April and is already getting a wide cross-section of opinion on what shape the Ministry should take. Some people have suggested the word arts should be dropped from the name, while others want the word culture left out. Dr Bassett hopes to have the new Ministry operating by 1990.