Attachment 2

Terms of Reference for Hutt City Public Art Advisory Group

Public Art in Hutt City:

Hutt City Council’s vision is to make Lower Hutt a great place to live, work and play. Our goal is to make Hutt City a place where our people are proud to live, where working and investing is a smart choice, and where there’s always something for our families to explore.

Public art plays an important role in delivering this vision. Public art can help create a sense of identity and pride for the City; it can attract innovative thinkers who create opportunity and prosperity; it creates destinations and is a vital aspect of world-class public spaces. Public art is essential to revitalisation strategies like Making Places as well as being a key tool for delivering Leisure and Wellbeing.

Purpose:

The purpose of the PAAG is to provide advice which will help council and its officers deliver an excellent public art programme for the city. The PAAG will be an important source of vision for what can be achieved in Hutt City with public art. They will bring in innovative ideas and approaches informed by their extensive knowledge of public art.

The public art policy (to be developed) will be the key guiding document for the PAAG. Other key documents include:

- Arts and culture policy

- CBD Making Places

- An Integrated Vision

- The Leisure and Wellbeing Strategy

- The Urban Growth Strategy

Responsibilities:

The key responsibility of the PAAG is to provide sound, expert advice to enable officers and councillors to deliver an effective, quality public art programme.

The group is an advisory body rather than a decision-making body; it will make recommendations to council officers and council itself.

The PAAG will:

- Assist in developing Council’s Public Art Policy,

- Work with the Public Art Manger to set strategic priorities and goals for Hutt City’s public art programme;

- Work with the Public Art Manager to develop Hutt City’s public art programme:

o Identify potential public art projects, sites and opportunities;

o Evaluate projects, sites and opportunities against each other and prioritise them to deliver an effective, targeted programme that unfolds strategically in time;

o Identify potential artists, and/or artist recruitment methods;

o Provide feedback on the Public Art Manager’s project briefs and proposed artists or artist recruitment methods for major projects;

o Assess artist’s proposals for major Council and E Tu Awakairangi art projects and provide recommendations regarding artist selection;

- Liaise with E Tu Awakairangi, Hutt City’s Public Art Trust:

o Providing information about the strategic direction of the public art programme;

o identifying priority sites and opportunities; and

o Giving feedback on their proposed projects, project briefs, and proposed artists or artist recruitment methods regarding their fit into the strategic programme.

- Request public art funds from council;

- Provide recommendations as to when a work should be deaccessioned in accordance with a deaccessioning policy (to be developed);

- Provide recommendations as to when a gifted artwork should be turned down in accordance with a gifting policy (to be developed);

- Work towards developing a public art programme for Hutt City that draws on the full range of possibilities represented by contemporary public art as appropriate, including but not limited to:

o Artworks integrated into the fabric of the city (paving, seating, lighting, etc);

o Freestanding artworks (primarily to be delivered through E Tu Awakairangi, Hutt City’s Public Art Trust);

o Temporary and event-based artworks;

o Object and action based artworks;

o Digital artworks; etc.

- Direct the programme towards artworks that are site-specific and/or fit for purpose rather than artworks that are pre-made for a generic site or situation; and

- Focus on public art (art made by professional artists for public spaces) rather than community art (art made by non-professionals).

In making their recommendations, the PAAG will:

- Consider the city’s cultural and sociopolitical makeup; and

- Consider the need for tangata whenua to be represented.

Members will declare any conflict of interest and sit out of any discussions and votes relating to the conflict of interest.

Membership:

· The PAAG has between 7 and 9 members.

· All members will all have expertise and/or experience in public art (except for one councillor); and have an interest in or connection to Hutt City.

· At least two members will be local; at least one of these will be tangata whenua.

· Expertise will be brought in from outside the Lower Hutt region as required, to bring expertise that is not locally available into the city and upskill local representatives.

· A chair will be elected by the group biannually.

· Membership will be for two years with an option for renewal for a further three years.

· Potential new members will be proposed by the sitting PAAG and the Public Art Manager, who will assemble a final list for sign off by council. Expressions of interest may be called for, with applications to be assessed by the panel and/or Public Art Manager.

· New members may be brought in as needed. Council reserves the right to bring in extra expertise as it sees fit in addition to those proposed by the panel.

· Council and the Chair may ask members to leave if they are not contributing to the responsibilities identified above.

Meetings:

· As required up to a maximum of 6 per year.

· Members should attend all meetings and submit apologies if they are not available.

· Meeting expenses will be paid for at a standard meeting rate (TBC).