Private lives

One of our readers suggested that Creative New Zealand no longer had anyone with expertise dealing with the visual arts. That didn’t sound right, so we sent off an email asking who was “responsible for the visual arts in Creative New Zealand” and also “Could you also let us know (a brief description will be fine) what qualifications or experience they have in the fine arts?” CNZ responded with news that Kate was on maternity leave and Jude was doing her job. But nothing about their visual arts expertise.

So we sent another email: “Could you give us a brief outline of the professional or other experience Kate and Jude bring to their role of "looking after the Visual Arts portfolio." CNZ’s response? “Unfortunately we are not in a position to release specific details about individual staff members as this is a privacy issue.” The news of Kate’s pregnancy obviously falls outside CNZ’s privacy restrictions.

We have a meeting with Creative New Zealand next week. We’ll keep you posted.