HUTT CITY COUNCIL
Arts and Culture Subcommittee
Report of a meeting
held in the Council Chambers, 2nd Floor, 30 Laings Road
Lower Hutt on
Wednesday
12 September 2018 commencing at 6.00pm
PRESENT:
Cr M Lulich (Chair)
Cr T Lewis
(Deputy Chair) Mayor WR
Wallace
Community
Representatives:
Christine
Fagan Iwi
Representative
Pam Hindmarsh Stage and Event Manager
Anita Mansell Hutt
Multicultural Council
Johannes
Mueller-Welschof Hutt Art
Society
Desiree
Mulligan Heritage
and local history expert
Noel Woods Atiawa
FM, Event organiser, musician
APOLOGIES: Deputy Mayor Bassett.
IN ATTENDANCE: Ms P Sanderson, Community Arts Advisor
Ms J Henton, City Archivist
Ms C Christensen, CBD Development Manager
Ms J Randall, Committee Advisor
PUBLIC
BUSINESS
1. APOLOGIES
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Resolved: (Cr Lulich/Mayor Wallace) Minute
No. ART 18401
“That the apology
received from Deputy Mayor Bassett be accepted and leave of absence be
granted.”
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2. PUBLIC
COMMENT
There was no public comment.
3. Presentations
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a)
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Heritage Week (18/1422)
Mr D Batchelor, Director
of the Wellington Heritage Week Trust, (the Trust) advised the Trust had been
part of Heritage Week across the region for over 10 years and was supported
by funding from sponsors. He highlighted features of the 2018 programme that
included tours, exhibitions, films and talks. He said university students
were assisting with events and giving talks at the Great War Exhibition and at
the Wellington Archives. He advised the Trust had created Apps as a way to
connect with a wider audience of people who would not usually attend heritage
events.
In response to questions from
members, Mr Batchelor advised he did not work in a formal relationship with Council
but had worked with officers from the Promotions and Events team and the
Petone Settlers Museum. He considered relationships were
more important than policy for organising events. He hoped to involve local builders
in heritage events so they could better understand the importance of
preservation. He said the Trust had focused on built heritage but it expected
to expand the programme to include natural heritage. He recognised this would
be more relevant to local iwi and he would welcome iwi involvement. He
concluded the Trust’s primary goal was to ensure events were good
quality limited experiences rather than crowd pleasers.
The City Archivist advised she
had been organising heritage events in Lower Hutt for the past six years. She
further advised two events were planned this year:
·
An Exhibition celebrating suffragists in Lower Hutt at Vogel
House from 20 September to 3 October with speakers each weekend. The opening
of the exhibition would be attended by descendants of the early suffragists
including those of Kate Sheppard. The exhibition had been promoted at
schools and universities as an opportunity for young women to be inspired.
·
Hutt Heritage Weekend in October with speakers, including a Guy
Ngan expert. Students from the School of Architecture were to assist
with the event.
In response to questions from
members, the City Archivist advised the events were being promoted via social
media, the Hutt News, brochures and posters as well as through an interview
with the Dominion Post. She indicated she had been investigating other spaces
to present Lower Hutt’s history, including the history of local iwi. She advised Archives used Council’s Marketing Advisor, a
professional public relations agency and a professional photographer to promote
its events.
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b)
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Hutt Minoh House Friendship
Trust (18/1440)
Ms A Walters, a representative of the Hutt Minoh
House Friendship Trust (the Trust) elaborated on the history of Hutt Minoh Friendship
House (the house). She said the house was regularly used for Japanese
Tea Ceremonies, archery (Kyudo), language classes, a mothers group and
childrens calligraphy lessons. The house also held a collection of kimono and
Japanese dolls. She explained the Trust anticipated increasing awareness of
the house and its availability as a hire venue to the wider community. She
advised the house was maintained by Council but that income from tenants
assisted with maintenance costs. She added the house was a heritage building
and suggested it could be used for future heritage events.
Ms Walters noted that Lower Hutt and Minoh Cities had
the most active sister city relationship of any in New Zealand. Activities
between the two countries included an art exchange, Skype in schools, teacher
and student exchange programmes and a citizens to citizens Skype window in
the War Memorial Library each month. She added there was a strong connection
between the Waiwhetu Marae and Minoh City.
Ms Walters advised Hutt Japan Day was held
biennially, and hosted Japanese food, goods, arts, performances and events.
She noted that because of high attendance levels the event was not able to be
held at the house. She concluded 3,500 people attended the event last year and
it won the best community project award at the Sister Cities Conference.
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c)
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Poly Odyssey (18/1449)
Due to circumstances beyond the
Subcommittee’s control, the presentation by Poly Odyssey was deferred
to a future meeting.
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4. CONFLICT
OF INTEREST DECLARATIONS
There
were no conflict of interest declarations.
5. Minutes
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Resolved: (Cr Lulich/Mr Mueller-Welschof) Minute
No. ART 18402
“That the minutes of the meeting of the Arts
and Culture Subcommittee held on Wednesday, 20 June 2018, be confirmed as a
true and correct record.”
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6. Information Items
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a)
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Community Arts Advisor Update (18/1413)
Memorandum
dated 27 August 2018 by the Community Arts Advisor
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The
Community Arts Advisor elaborated on the memorandum. She advised the Hutt
Winter Festival (the Festival) had been a positive community engagement
opportunity, with large audiences and good community involvement. She
said the labyrinth created by Tape Art had been retained and would be
available for future community events. She added Tape Art would be involved
in the 2019 Festival as mentors and partner with more established artists.
She noted ‘Hutt’s Got Talent’ was very successful with good
publicity through television coverage. The workshops and the Wild Arrival
puppet parade had also been popular. She advised she would be
encouraging more performances from community groups in 2019 and would be
expanding the range of arts. She concluded Festival organisers would
use the larger Lower Hutt Events Centre venue in 2019 for the Festival.
In
response to questions from members, the Community Arts Advisor said organisers
would consider allowing ‘Pimp My Jacket’ to take place over more
than one day. She advised the Creative Communities Funding Scheme funding allowed
applications from individuals as well as groups and focused on community
access. She further advised applications tended to heavily exceed available
funds. She added the strongest applications were those that involved community,
rather than personal projects.
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b)
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Whakatū Wāhine: Women Here and
Now August 2018 – August 2019 (18/1415)
Report
No. ART2018/4/122 by the Communications and Relationships Manager
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The
Communications and Relationships Manager elaborated on the report.
Members
discussed the report and applauded the event’s success. It was
suggested a bigger venue be found for the next event so that more people
could attend.
Mayor
Wallace suggested a report be requested from officers with recommendations on
ways to enhance this event, make it an annual occurrence and attract
scholarships and funding for the young women.
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7. QUESTIONS
There were no questions.
There being
no further business the Chair declared the meeting closed at 7.21pm.
Cr M Lulich
CHAIR
CONFIRMED as a true and correct record
Dated this 5th day of December 2018