MEMORANDUM 3 11 April 2017
TO: Chair and Members
Arts and Culture Subcommittee
FROM: Pippa Sanderson
DATE: 30 March 2017
SUBJECT: Community Arts and Culture Advisor Update
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That the Subcommittee notes and receives the report. |
Purpose of Memorandum
1. To update the Arts and Culture Subcommittee about community arts activities over the past year. A report with officer’s recommendations for community representatives for the Arts and Culture Subcommittee is included in a separate report.
Background
2. Community arts are part of the Museums Division of Council. The Community Arts and Culture Advisor reports to the Director, Museums.
3. The Community Arts and Culture Advisor:
· provides advice within and outside of Council on matters relating to community arts;
· leads programmes for Council that deliver on the Community Arts and Culture Policy; and
· administers Council’s arts funding.
4. Council - led community arts programmes and events are funded through the Annual Plan.
Community arts funding
5. The Community Arts Advisor, working with the Community Funding Advisor, administers two lines of arts funding to local individuals and groups.
a. Creative Communities Funding
The Creative New Zealand (CNZ) Creative Communities programme allocates funding to local government, which is distributed to arts groups and practitioners undertaking community art projects. Decisions are made by a panel of local arts practitioners and representatives, assembled by the Community Arts and Culture Advisor.
Creative Communities Funding schedule:
§ $70,000 annually, distributed over two funding rounds.
§ The second round from 2016/17 opened on 13 February and closes 27 March. The Creative Communities panel meet on 8 May 2017 to allocate funds. This will be reported to the Subcommittee at their meeting to be held on 4 July 2017.
b. Council Community Arts and Culture Fund
This Council fund provides support for operational costs to local arts organisations.
The Community Arts and Culture Fund:
§ Provides $40,000 annually, distributed in one funding round;
§ Opens 26 June, closes 7 August; and
§ Will be
reported to the Subcommittee at their meeting to be held on 12 September 2017.
Organisations currently funded through the Community Arts and Culture Fund include:
§ Baggage Arts Charitable Trust
§ Faultline Chorus Incorporated
§ Hutt Art Society Incorporated
§ Hutt City Brass Incorporated
§ MIX - Connecting Creating Living
§ Nextstage Theatre Charitable Trust
§ Scout Association of New Zealand, Hutt Valley Gang Show
§ the Nepalese Society of Wellington
§ Toku Reo Charitable Trust Board
Community art programmes and events:
6. The current funding for Community Arts is $65,000. The Winter Festival was allocated an additional $50,000 in the 2016 Long Term Plan.
7. Events and programmes core-funded by the Community Arts budget and managed by the Community Arts Advisor include:
§ the annual Summer in Dowse Square performing arts programme
§ the Hutt Public Art Festival
§ a mentoring programme
§ a mural programme
§ the Community Arts Network
§ the forthcoming Winter Festival (mid 2017).
8. These events and programmes are designed to increase community connectedness through arts and culture, increase opportunities for local practitioners to present their work, to help build the local arts infrastructure, and to increase access to arts experiences for the Hutt community. The Community Arts Advisor works with several divisions of Council to realise these events.
Common Ground: Hutt Public Art Festival
Budget: $35,000 (2016/17)
Dates: 25 February – 4 March 2017
External funding: $15,000 Creative New Zealand, $5,000 Chartwell Trust
9. Common Ground fulfils the Arts and Culture Policy objectives of raising the visibility of arts, attracting national and international events to the city and creating opportunities to increase community participation in arts and cultural activities.
· The theme for Common Ground this year was ‘Groundwater’, and one of the aims was to raise awareness in the Hutt community about water issues, and create or strengthen connections between the Hutt waterways and the community.
· Wellington arts production company Letting Space was contracted to curate and project manage Common Ground in 2017.
· A number of community hui were held to develop the concept for the 2017 Common Ground festival and create networks for the event.
· Partnerships: There were strong active partnerships with significant organisations: Hutt Libraries, Greater Wellington Regional Council, Wellington Water, GNS Science, First Assembly, Wellington Access Radio, Enviroschools, Kiwirail, Sustainable Business Network, The Dowse Art Museum and Waiwhetu Marae.
· Collaborations across Council included Parks and Reserves, the Urban Planner, City Promotions and About Space.
· Numerous Wellington and local artists were involved in five commissioned projects and nine public programme projects, developed and presented in 23 sites around Hutt City, culminating in an eight-day festival involving 76 events.
· The festival involved the active participation of 100s of Hutt Valley arts practitioners, 12 volunteers and close to 100 people in running the programme. A schools’ programme attracted over 500 Hutt city children deeply engaging with the theme of water in the Lower Hutt CBD.
· All in all, 3167 active participants participated in the events, with a further 10,007 viewers to the public street and space artworks and projects (estimated from the Council and GWRC pedestrian counters in the respective areas).
· The Centre City Plaza was transformed with eight vacant commercial spaces activated as a festival hub.
· significant opening and closing events were held at the festival hub and at Dowse Square.
· five evening discussions with community partners were held.
· The festival received some rich media coverage including TV One news, several strong Radio New Zealand stories and numerous local Hutt News/Stuff stories. There was very strong social media engagement. See: http://commongroundfestival.org.nz/media/.
· Survey results showed that the festival succeeded in making connections between the community and our waterways. Many felt that the festival was life-changing. 78% said the festival drew their attention to issues and promoted social change. 94% said the festival increased their connection to the river. 80% said the festival increased their level of knowledge of water sustainability and Hutt waterways.
10. Attendee feedback:
“Amazing festival! Thanks so much for coordinating it - what a treat!” Micheline Evans, Enviroschools
“Being able to share with other people appreciation of an area I have been involved with all my life is uplifting…Integrating the Maori cultural elements into the whole festival gave a very holistic feel to the whole festival. The ability to share not only stories but values. (There was) the feeling of community in the urban setting” - Survey respondent, Te Atiawa/Taranaki whanui
“It gave the concept of placemaking a high public profile.” Paula Warren, Growing Places Charitable Trust
“Thanks for putting on a wonderful festival, I thoroughly enjoyed the evening sessions I attended and it was great to meet so many people who were passionate about Te Awa Kairangi.” Travis Moody, River Ranger, Greater Wellington Regional Council.
“I'd like to make a special thanks to the team at Common Ground who put a lifetime of work into enabling fantastic community led art and public discussions into the Common Ground Festival which in turn inspired us to tap into this worthy subject with a business lens.” - Laurie Foon, Sustainable Business Network
“We really enjoyed being part of the festival and sharing songs of the river with others. Seeing the look on people's faces in the train station as they came home from a busy day's work - to see them smile and listen to the music and watch the video . .. it was priceless. Hopefully they went home with a spring in their step. I also really got a lot out of the group chat session, it gave me a lot of insight into the water issues in the Hutt” - Susie Hardie, Hutt Valley Community Choir
“Gabby O'Connor's session with the classes was very inspirational. The kids really got it and were excited. It was great to see learning and thinking about the river being wrapped around the creative activity. It was a lovely cycle of learning, science and art. The Festival was a great idea and appears to have been largely successful. We look forward to future Common Ground Festivals!” - Lillian Pak and Jill Marriott, Hutt City Libraries
"An amazing experience for me as a local artist. It gave me a chance to apply all my recent learning and apply everything. It was really rewarding. A great experience. "- artist Dionne Ward
Common Ground 2017 photos are attached as Appendix 1 to the report.
The media report is attached as Appendix 2 to the report.
Summer in Dowse Square 2017
Budget: $13,000
Dates: 28 January – 4 March 2017
11. The Summer in Dowse Square promotes Dowse Square as a prime temporary public art and performance space to local and regional artists and performers and increases the visibility of arts in Hutt City.
12. In 2017 Summer in Dowse Square was part of Summer in the Hutt programme, promoted by Council’s City Promotions team.
· 15 local bands and groups performed.
· 4 cultural groups, including Maori, Pacific Island and Filipino groups, performed.
· Sponsorship in kind worth $2,600 + GST was contributed from The Music Warehouse.
· Council’s City Promotions team collaborated with the Community Arts Advisor to deliver Summer in Dowse Square marketing, including media releases, presence on Council’s In the Hutt web page, Facebook page, rates notice, sign boards, posters and designing all the material.
· Of the 100 visitors surveyed 78 described the event as ‘awesome’ or ‘very good’.
· The most frequent requests for improvement were ‘more food stalls’, ‘more shade’.
Photos of Summer in Dowse Square 2017 are attached as Appendix 3 to the report.
Media coverage is attached as Appendix 4 to the report.
Mural programme
Budget: $15,000
Dates: Ongoing
Partnerships: Resene (paint) Mitre 10 (timber boards)
13. This programme fits the aims of reducing graffiti in Hutt City and creating opportunities to increase community participation in arts and cultural activities, helping to make the city a safe place to live, work and play.
14. The community arts advisor works with the Council’s graffiti manager to identify heavily tagged walls, secure permissions from the owners, and protect the mural afterwards with graffiti guard.
15. Participants typically include youth who are, or may be, taggers and we typically partner with a local school or youth organisation. Where possible, the school align the mural with NCEA units, ensuring buy in from the youth.
16. The murals to date have been enthusiastically supported by the schools and local communities. Youth are reporting tagging, indicating a turn around in their attitude to public space. Youth are graduating from the mural projects to form their own mural crews, secure further mural commissions, or go on to further arts education.
Completed mural projects
Dairy on corner of Seddon Street and Waddington Drive 2016 - A mural project involving youth from Naenae College was completed in September 2016. The mural project was led by an art teacher at the school, Joe McMenamin, who is also a practicing artist.
Discussion with the shop-keepers revealed that the wall has remained untagged eight months after the mural was finished. Until then, the wall had been tagged up to three times a week over the past eleven years that the proprietors had run the shop.
The students formed a mural painting crew, ‘Off the Wall’ mural crew, recording their work in photos and film which they have uploaded on Facebook. They worked on three subsequent murals: one at Naenae College, and the 180m mural at the Walter Mildenhall development.
Conductive Education Wellington Trust 2016 - Artist Ranga Tuhi worked with the Rangatahi School to paint a mural on the heavily tagged Conductive Education Wellington (CEWT) building in Naenae. The frequently tagged wall is visible from the road. The building houses a preschool for children with physical and intellectual disabilities. The children were involved in the mural project, and met with Rangatahi students during and afterwards.
Walter Mildenhall mural – A community mural project led by Sue Lytollis with funding and support contributed from Community Arts. This mural project attracted strong community support and national media coverage. The artist and students involved had participated in the Seddon Street mural.
Upcoming mural projects for 2016/17 include a community mural for the Stokes Valley Hub, a mural in the Knights Road service lane and a possible mural adjacent to the Walter Nash Centre.
Mural photos are attached as Appendix 5 to the report.
Mentoring programme
Budget: $2,000
Dates: Ongoing
17. This programme fits the aim of strengthening community arts infrastructure in Hutt City through offering professional development and support to arts practitioners and community arts group managers/co-ordinators.
18. The Community Arts Advisor recruited mentors and mentees for the 2016 programme. A ‘meet and greet’ event was held to promote the programme. 24 attended, resulting in 14 applicants for the programme.
19. The Chamber of Commerce has partnered with us, offering a reduced membership to mentees and circulating the information amongst their membership.
Hutt Winter Festival
Budget: $50,000
External funding to date: Pelorus Trust $1,000, Wellington Community Trust $5,000
Internal: The Roading Division of Council have contributed $2,000 through their cycle awareness budget.
Dates: 14 - 23 July 2017
20. The Hutt Winter Festival is a new event for winter 2017.
21. Council has contracted Barbarian Productions to curate and produce the festival.
22. The Festival will offer a nine-day programme of arts and cultural events that are fun, free or low cost, accessible, family-oriented, local and created with community participation.
23. The purpose of the Winter Festival is to:
· Connect people through art
· Support local community arts and cultural activities that are easily accessible to people of all ages, cultures and abilities
· Make better use of existing community arts and culture spaces and continue to look for new opportunities
· Improve the visibility of arts and culture in the community
· Build audiences for arts in Hutt City
· Extend summer community arts events into winter season.
24. Community groups and artists involved include:
Naenae and Taita Computer Clubhouses
Filmforchange
Hutt City Council Libraries
Lucid Dream Bikes
Voice Arts Trust and Great Start
Mix and Creative Voice
Hutt Valley Orchestra
Rangitahi Centre
Christine Fagan, Waiwhetu artist and iwi rep on the Community Arts and Culture Advisory Group
Anna Bailey, String Bean Puppets
Rebecca Bond, environmental artist
Local choreographers
Stokes Valley Libraries staff
Many of our local cultural groups will be involved in the final event at Walter Nash Stadium
25. The Winter Festival will be held in collaboration with the Roading and City Promotions Divisions of Council, as well as the Walter Nash Centre.
26. The Festival consists of three main events (see below), complemented by a series of smaller, community-led events, culminating in a grand finale at the popular Walter Nash Centre in Taita.
27. A complete programme of events, including locations, dates and time information will be on the Hutt Winter Festival website and Facebook page from end of April 2017.
Wild Arrivals
Artist mentors Anna Bailey of String Bean Puppets,
Christine Fagan and Rebecca Bond will work with three neighbourhoods each
across the Hutt to create up to nine fantastical puppet creatures which will
feature in a parade at the final event.
Lucid Dream Bikes – A wonder of light
and motion
A parade of fantastic, lit up bicycle floats will
cycle along Hutt City bike trails and through the CBD on Saturday 22 July.
Naenae Clubhouse will work with Lucid Dream Bikes to create the floats. The
public are invited to join in a float-creating workshop.
Closing event: The Wild Gathering
The Wild Gathering will take place from 1.30 – 5pm on Sunday 23 July at the
Walter Nash Centre in Taita. It will feature food stalls, hands on creative
events, performances by local cultural groups, prizes for arts competitions, a
parade of the puppets created during the festival, and a ‘crowd dance’ led by
local choreographers.
Community Arts Network
28. The Community Arts Advisor initiated the Hutt Community Arts Network in the first year of taking up her position in 2013.
29. The purpose of the network was to:
· build relationships with the local arts community,
· Build relationships across the local arts community, encouraging collaboration
· Identify the needs of the local arts community by carrying out regular asset surveys.
· Support the local arts infrastructure with professional development opportunities / workshops.
· Enable Council to access the local arts community for consultation regarding Council arts initiatives eg. the Arts and Culture Policy.
30. The network ran for two years under the administration of the Community Arts Advisor. It met every 6 – 8 weeks, hosted by arts organisations in the Hutt including: The Learning Connexion, Hutt Art Society, Alfred Memelink Gallery and The Dowse. Costs were kept low by sharing the hosting and by attendees bringing a plate. Speakers volunteered their time, expertise and resource material.
31. As the Community Art Advisor’s role developed the Advisor had less time available to maintain the network.
32. The Community Arts Advisor will explore reviving the Community Arts Network and supporting a community led approach by appointing an external co-ordinator from the local arts community. This meets the Community Arts and Culture Policy aim to strengthen local arts infrastructure.
Community Arts and Council’s Hubs
33. The Community Arts Advisor has been extensively involved in facility developments.
34. Community art projects and works by local artists were commissioned for the Walter Nash Centre. The Community Arts and Culture Advisor also commissioned local artists to produce the motifs on the exterior concrete panels.
35. Art projects for the Stokes Valley Hub include a carved entranceway by Sam Hauwaho, local esteemed Te Atiawa artist, a community mural along the service land, professional murals inside the building, and an art project led by The Dowse education team.
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No. |
Title |
Page |
|
1View |
Common Ground 2017 photos |
13 |
|
2View |
Common Ground media coverage |
21 |
|
3View |
Summer in Dowse Square 2017 photos |
59 |
|
4View |
Summer in Dowse Square media coverage |
96 |
|
5View |
Mural programme photos |
103 |
Author: Pippa Sanderson
Community Arts and Culture Adviser
Reviewed By: Courtney Johnston
Director, Museums
Approved By: Matt Reid
General Manager Community Services