Labour and the visual arts

Labour has just published its Arts Culture and Heritage Policy. You can read it and get a copy here. And what do the have to say about the visual arts?

"Labour will: 

• continue to focus on measures which will lift the incomes of artists and those who
  work in the cultural sector. 
• bring back PACE (a special programme for artists on the benefit), and look at how we can link it into creative apprenticeships. 
• commit to a long term New Zealand presence at the Venice Biennale."
•  structure Creative New Zealand to ensure that it is practitioner led, that Maori and  Pacific Arts have independent top level representation, and that spending is focussed on supporting artists rather than bureaucrats.
• require Creative New Zealand to review processes and funding criteria to ensure that processes are easily understandable, clearly and fairly applied, including on a regional basis, and the focus is on funding high quality work, not high quality funding applications. "

 and

• partner with Te Papa and the arts community to ensure that the visual arts have a permanent and prominent home in a national institution." (What ever that means)