Pay-to-paint plan appeals

By PAUL YANDALL

Sally Tagg has struggled for 20 years to make a living from her art.

The Auckland photographer has managed to pay for exhibitions of her work by doing other jobs.

But she still dreams of becoming a fulltime artist.

"It would be absolutely amazing," she said yesterday.

Tagg said she was one of hundreds of artists around the country who would welcome Government moves to pay them a weekly wage to help them pursue their careers.

Associate Arts and Culture Minister Judith Tizard has called for artists to be paid a wage, but said there was a long way to go before this could happen.

She said that she had discussed the plan's feasibility with Social Welfare Minister Steve Maharey, and hoped it would be operating by June.

Tagg, spokeswoman for the Artists' Alliance, a group that promotes the interests of visual artists in New Zealand, said financial help would need to be allocated carefully.

"I don't believe you could practically pay all the people who claimed they were artists.

"You would have to target those funds to maybe certain segments of their careers."

Tagg said she had struggled for years to exhibit her work and had trained as a primary teacher to earn an income.

Ms Tizard said yesterday that she was keen to see the Government recognise the unique contribution artists made to society, but it was too early to tell what amount of financial help would be available.

No decisions had been made on how much the payment would be or how much the Government would spend.

Writers, visual artists, actors and performance artists would all be considered for the scheme, but it had not yet been determined how they would be selected if it proceeded.

"What may be best is if we work closely with the lobby groups already there like Actors Equity and the Society of Authors."

The chief executive of Creative New Zealand, Elizabeth Kerr, said the agency was helping to put together a policy paper for the Government on the issue.

"We will support any initiative that helps artists, all artists, in New Zealand."