By BERNARD ORSMAN
A window work of white Crown Lynn vases put together by Rodney Fumpston is as perplexingly contemporary as a mangy old piece of plywood on top of a ladder, a construction by Don Driver.
This is not for those who like their art framed on a wall, but is the challenging and often "out there" contemporary art at the New Gallery.
But a crunch time of sorts has come, as it has for similar institutions overseas. Falling visitor numbers and consistent operating losses mean the Auckland City Council will have to decide if, how and by how much it should subsidise contemporary art.
From next year, the city council is considering giving the gallery an annual operating grant of $250,000 to cover staffing and exhibition costs.
That's a $10 subsidy, or the price of a movie ticket, for every visitor, who must also pay a $4 entry charge, except on Mondays which are free.
Chris Saines, director of both the Auckland Art Gallery and the New Gallery, says put in those terms it seems expensive. But he says the art gallery, like parks and sports grounds, provides a lot of intangibles that are part of a civilised society.
Saines is proud of the lively and full programme of 82 exhibitions and artists' projects since the New Gallery opened its doors in 1995.
But despite boxes full of publicity material to back up his claims, the New Gallery is attracting fewer people and, from next year, is likely to be a drain on ratepayers.
When Saines, an articulate Australian, took over the gallery in 1996, it was meant to pay its own way.
Art benefactors Jenny and Alan Gibbs handed over the former telephone exchange, transformed by $8.5 million of public and private money, with an income of $100,000 from the retail shops in the building to cover overhead costs.
The gallery was to pay operating and exhibition costs from a door charge, sponsorships, donations and by hiring out space for cocktail parties.
Senior management of the day agreed with the council that there would be no addition made to the gallery's base operating budget — now about $4.3 million a year.
Saines, who came to Auckland from Queensland Art Gallery with specific ideas about wooing the corporate sector for sponsorship, says it has become increasingly difficult for the New Gallery to deliver a consistent and high-quality programme by skimming off funds from the main gallery operation.
Commercial sponsorship has been thin on the ground. Telecom was on board for the first three years. Vodaphone is backing three major shows this year.
Without a budget to actively promote itself, the gallery is limited in its ability to deliver innovative and exciting exhibitions, Saines says. The result has been annual losses of about $250,000 and shrinking visitor numbers. In the first year of operation, 70,000 people visited the gallery. This year, the gallery will be lucky to get 25,000 visitors.
By comparison, Wellington's contemporary City Gallery, which receives about $2 million a year from the city council, has had a steady increase in visitor numbers, from 100,000 to 170,000 over the past seven years.
Sydney's Museum of Contem-porary Art tried to fund its $A7 million ($NZ 8.75 million) annual budget by door charges, philanthropy, corporate sponsorships and its retail stores. Last October it went to the State Government for a $A750,000 bail-out.
The chairman of the council art gallery board, Gray Bartlett, said from the outset that the New Gallery would operate at no cost to ratepayers. He now acknowledges there is a need for council support, "but how we deal with that is open for discussion."
Auckland dealer-gallery owner Judith Anderson says if the council is to open up its purse strings it should demand greater accountability from senior management.
She is curious as to how decisions are made about what exhibitions go into the New Gallery and the Auckland Art Gallery, which still hosts contemporary shows.
"I also believe the building is quite an intimidating space and people are not sure what to do when they get there."
Saines, who says that to increase audiences the New Gallery must put on shows that are not just challenging but of relevance and interest, says certain shows work in certain spaces. Some, like the Andy Warhol show, were simply too large for the New Gallery.
"In the main gallery we are trying to insert contemporary art into a continuum, something that builds on and can be read in conjunction with other art. We are trying to do things in the New which are less about the continuum and a set of relationships with art in the past and more self-sufficient."
Jenny Gibbs remains a strong supporter of the gallery, earmarking money from her regular "large donations" to the Auckland Art Gallery for projects across the road.
She says the Auckland Con-temporary Art Trust was set up solely to establish the New Gallery and is in no position to help with ongoing running costs.
"I would clearly like to see more people in there and more cutting-edge art. I would certainly like to see some more excitement in there but I also recognise that a lot of that is dependent on availability of funds."
Losses blunt the cutting edge
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