Arts Access Aotearoa Kaiwhakahaere Matua/chief executive Richard Benge. Photo: Arts Access Aotearoa
Auckland Council's proposed $35.6 million cut to local arts funding has been protested by many groups, and one of Aotearoa's leading arts organisation's leaders says cuts would be a huge step backwards.
The council has proposed many cuts to help fill a nearly $300 million hole in Mayor Wayne Brown's first city budget.
Feedback on the council's budget closed last week, and many arts organisations hope the politicians listen to their submissions.
Arts Access Aotearoa Kaiwhakahaere Matua/chief executive Richard Benge told RNZ the arts make a difference across many communities.
"If you're not investing in the arts then you're taking everything and everyone backwards," he told Sunday Morning.
The proposed cuts would be "reprehensible," he said.
Arts Access Aotearoa was established in 1995 with a mission to increase access to the arts for people who experience barriers to participation as artists, performers, audience members, and gallery and museum visitors.
It does this by working in the disability, mental health and deaf communities, and through a network of community arts organisations.
It also advises the Department of Corrections and advocates for the arts as a tool to support rehabilitation of prisoners and their reintegration into the community on release, Benge said.
"We appreciate of course that Auckland has had huge challenges ... and now it's recovering from the floods and cyclone and the national impacts of inflation, et cetera ... but this is the time for investment so we don't fall backwards."
Arts Access said in its submission that the council's proposed $35.6 million cut in funding for the arts in Tāmaki Makaurau would damage the city's brand and the reputation of its vibrant arts and cultural organisation.
A lot of talk has been made about the "brand of Auckland" and its vibrant culture, Benge said, but "it's the arts and the cultural organisations, the artists, that drive it."
"If you turn the lights off on that then what's Auckland going to look like, what will happen to tourism?
"What will happen to the jobs and the economy of the Auckland arts sectors and what will it mean for the mental health that Aucklanders get from knowing they can access their galleries, their museums, their theatre companies, but more often, how they can participate as audience members or as artists themselves?
"Honestly, for people who are disabled or deaf or who are marginalised in some way, we're really making traction in Auckland ... but if we're going to cut those people off, what's going to happen?"
One of Arts Access Aotearoa's big projects is working with prisoners.
"I've met people who say 'Arts in prison, that sounds like a bit of a holiday'."
Benge said studies show prisoners engaging in art projects "bring people to their best selves."
"It's not the role of corrections to punish the prisoners, their punishment is their sentence."
Leaving prisoners to rot helps no one, Benge said. Placing cultural programmes that are relevant for Māori can help them once they're released, for instance.
"It's awfully inspiring" to see the results, he said.
Working with other groups, such as rangatahi who are at risk, "they're gathered up and they're mentored and they're given the opportunity to work in a creative studio and they're celebrated as artists, rather than someone who's gotten in trouble."
Benge also singled out locally led deaf and disability organisations.
"One of them is Equal Voices Arts. It's an extraordinary organisation out of the Waikato where deaf artists lead their equal voiced performing arts organisation.
"Through NZSL and English and sometimes other languages like Croatian, you can get performances in the audience ... you can sit and have a multi-lingual experience and suddenly the miscommunication is gone and the issues of culture, story, journey for deaf people is easy to understand for everybody.
"We've got these examples in our communities now and for Auckland and across Aotearoa, the investment in the opportunity is so important.
Arts are not a luxury, but an integral part of being human, Benge said.
"From ancient times all people have either made a mark, made a sound, created a ceremony, created stories, that are transmitted from one generation to another and we have no better example of that than in Māori New Zealand.
"It's artists that often shine the way forward."
If Auckland Council's cuts to the arts are severe, "things are going to get broken," Benge said.
Organisations and programmes that have been built up over years can't be restored overnight if their funding vanishes, he said.
"Why shouldn't Auckland still lead with its unique brand? For goodness' sake, starve the people and they'll die."
Learn more about Arts Access Aotearoa here: