Performing arts ‘at risk from navel-gazing’

Press, 5 April 1989, Page 24

Performing arts ‘at risk from navel-gazing’

By

JANE DUNBAR

New Zealanders should beware of too much “navel-gazing” or they will get left behind, says the artistic director ol Christchurch’s Court Theatre, Elric Hooper. If too much time is spent looking “inwards” New Zealanders will find themselves left behind developments in the rest of the world, he says. Hooper was speaking after a recent meeting between the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council and the New Zealand Association of Professional Performing Arts. He has two major fears for the future of the countrys’ performing arts. One is the emphasis the Arts Council is required to place on “social programmes.” The Council is being asked to follow all sorts of "current lines” such as biculturalism and any other “isms” one can think of. But it is not easy for the Royal New Zealand Ballet, for example, to follow a bi-cultural programme when it is ballets like “Coppelia” which make money. The arts should be free to be anarchic and lead the public in new ideas rather than following on behind, he maintains. Monetarist and cultural pressures are making the patron the leader, and the result is “not very lively art.” Another concern is the monetarist thrust of Government policies. The arts are being asked to be “profitable,’.’ which limited their freedom.

Commercial restraints mean works which are expensive to mount or do not have a wide popular appeal are not likely to be performed. But this means important works which "should be performed in any civilised country” are not able to be seen here.

A further requirement of budgeting to make a surplus put particularly difficult pressure on the Court Theatre last year, and the planned programme for the year had to be changed. This requirement made arts bodies feel “shackled” to the state subsidy of the arts rather than freed by it. 1988 had been a tough year, but this year is looking better. The Court Theatre has got off to a good start with “The Three Musketeers,” he says. The meeting between the Arts Council and Performing Arts Association had been a "rapprochement” between the council and arts bodies after distrust of the council had grown up over the years through lack of communication, Hooper explains. The arts bodies felt the council did not always understand “what they were about.” They were also concerned the council had to cover too many fields with too little money. The Association of Professional Performing Arts had been set up because artists feel there is not a strong enough independent voice for arts bodies. The organisation is growing in strength, Elric Hooper says.