ART GALLERY AND MUSEUM
Lack Of Public Support
LOSS FOR YEAR ENDED MARCH 31
The National Art Gallery and Do minion Museum showed a loss of £37 5/5 for the year ended March 31. “Owing to increased running and maintenance costs, the question of providing the necessary finance to carry on the board’s operations has become an acute and difficult one,” state the board of trustees in their annual report. They explain the endeavour made to obtain financial support from local bodies, and continue: “While favourable replies were received from the Wellington City Council, Wellington Harbour Board, and nearby boroughs, the majority of the counties and more distant boroughs have not consented to make a contribution, and in cons£quence the revenue will fall considerably short of the total required. Unless further contributions are forthcoming from public or private sources, the activities and usefulness of the institutions must therefore be considerably restricted, particularly in the direction of providing travelling collections of pictures and museum exhibits for display in the country towns and schools.” The treasurer, Mr. F. B. Dwyer, in his report, states that expenditure for the year in the main account exceeded Income by £3l/0/3. This, he says, is an actual cash loss, and should properly be increased by an amount for depreciation correctly chargeable to the income and expenditure account. A total of £8521 was expended, the principal items being: Salaries, £0611; fuel, light, water and gas, £765; photographic supplies, £167; printing and stationery, £l4B. Income totalled £8490 from these main sources: New Zealand Government, £700; Wellington City Council, £1000; New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts, £2OO. Cloak-room receipts were £44/14/8, and the collection boxes distributed throughout the building produced £27/0/3. The tearoom account showed a loss of £6/5/2.
“A close investigation of expenditure has been made, and to carry on the policy of the board with reasonable satisfaction and to give inducement to the staff to display their enterprise and initiative a curtailment is practically out of the question, . . .” Mr. Dwyer says. “It can be accepted that the additional income we will receive henceforward from the Government; and local authorities will be required for working expenses and depreciation. There will be very little left with which to extend operations or to purchase additions to the collections in the art gallery or the museum. The institution is in no sense commercial or trading, but it is reasonable to expect a measure of support from the public. A contribution of £27 through voluntary collections for twelve months measures the support of the visiting public, as many as 3000 in one day.
“The public is the gainer; much more Important, future adult public are provided with educational facilities and given an opportunity, whereby their artistic potentialities may be realised and developed all free of charge. After 20 months of operation it is quite evident that the public is not seized with the sense of its responsibility, perhaps through ignorance of the true position, and, in my opinion, the time has arrived when this situation must be remedied.”
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Bibliographic details
Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 296, 10 September 1938, Page 15
Word Count
506ART GALLERY AND MUSEUM Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 296, 10 September 1938, Page 15
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