With knobs on

Spend a day with the artist Fiona Connor in LA and you’re going to see some good art (and we did) but there's more. We also got to visit some of the stores that Fiona uses as references for her work - those sources of hard-to-find details like an unusual hinge or decorative lighting panel. The epitome of this kind of place is Liz’s Antique Hardware in mid-town. This large store is packed floor to ceiling with every item that ever went into fitting out houses in LA from around the 1920s on. The proprietors not only know exactly what is in their remarkable stock but they can lay a hand on it instantly. If you’re into replicating architecture, as Fiona often is, or you're home decorating or you just want to experience one of the great visual treats of LA, Liz’s is the go-to place.

Images: top, Fiona Connor at Liz’s. Middle, the shop on 453 S. La Brea and all the keyholes in the world and bottom, ‘electric candles, you want electric candles?’

Battle of the bands

A couple of weeks back two people put 686 rubberbands around a watermelon and 800,000 people went crazy. They even stuck around for 45 minutes to watch it explode online. Since then millions more have gone to BuzzFeed to catch the big bang. We mention this because there is an art connection. Last year Steve Carr used the same idea for his video work Watermelon which is currently on view at City Gallery. As many of these melon sites (there are a lot) have gone over a million viewers, and one over 15 million, it’s interesting to consider how the Carr version differs. It comes to context and presentation. BuzzFeed very strongly signals what you should be feeling with a near-hysterical build-up of will-it-won’t-it-squeals-of-anticipation from the crew. It's more about what we should be feeling than what we are looking at. In contrast, Carr offers a more objective and formal presentation with few emotional signals. Last week we watched people quietly sitting  through Carr’s Watermelon having just spent about the same time looking at his slow-mo bursting balloons. No commentary, no directives, limited framing. So maybe there's a bigger point here. You can hype and pre-condition your audiences expectations like BuzzFeed does, or you can leave some space for people to figure it out for themselves. As Te Papa leans more toward the BuzzFeed model, it’s good to see the City Gallery sticking with art.
Images: watermelon madness top, BuzzFeed and bottom City Gallery

BALLS

So what are thoughts of the Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Maggie Barry on the problem of diminishing funding available to the arts from Lotto gambling funds?

"the balls might just roll our way"

You can check out more of the Culture Minister’s profound interest in the arts on her home page. For example, watch the video of her 10 minute contribution to the Prime Minister’s debate - a few seconds praising the Government, 9.01 minutes on conservation, 16 seconds on Heritage and 33 seconds on senior citizens. Or you could follow up on the five highlighted news items (four on Conservation and one on senior citizens) and perhaps dip into her biography where the only mention of art is the fact that her partner is  ‘Grant Kerr, a consultant, lawyer and avid collector of contemporary New Zealand photography.’ Enjoy.

You say rod with a circle on the end of it and I say rod with a circle on the end of it

In the land of lookalikes, how astonishing is this? In 1956 Brazilian artist Ivan Serpa was experimenting with the idea of a series of rods ending in circles. According to the Auckland Art Gallery this was the same year that Gordon Walters made his first koru studies in New Zealand. Serpa and Walters both used gouache and cut-out paper collaging and they were both intensely interested in the earlier Swiss artist Sophie Taeuber-Arp (1889-1943). Other examples of Serpa’s work indicate that he came to the rounded end via a more abstract path than Walters’ reimaging of the koru form. With Auckland's exhibition of recent art from South America opening soon, perhaps there will be other examples of artists living in distant and very different countries coming up with similar solutions to formal challenges.
 
Images: top to bottom, Ivan Serpa  Gouache1956, Ivan Serpa Formas 1951 and Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Composition 1931

Lookalike

North and South's latest issue channels German artist Gregor Schneider in an illustration for Supermarket fatigue.

Images: top, North and South, bottom Gregor Schneider's Tatort Museum 2001-2003 in the collection of the MMK, Frankfurt

Duck and cover

We mentioned a while back that a copy of Michelangelo’s statue of Moses had been toured through New Zealand by the department store Milne and Choyce. In 1967 the company also toured Michelangelo’s David (those were the days) and we tried to find out whether or not it was fig-leafed. No luck. The reason for this interest is discovering (via Andrew Paul Wood, thanks) that the V&A owns a relevant fig leaf. It was custom made in the mid nineteenth century to protect Queen Victoria’s eyes and, we assume, mind, from the David’s carved equipment. A cast of the famous statue that stands at over five meters high was sent to Queen Victoria as a gift (er…thanks for that…) but she smartly handed it on to what is now known as the V&A. When the diminutive royal got her first eyeful of the David she was so shocked that this fig leaf was made to ensure future visits would be less stressful.  

Image: Plaster cast of a fig leaf, perhaps by the firm of D. Brucciani & Co, London, England, UK, about 1857. Collection: Victoria and Albert Museum, London. More here.

Here are some other OTN posts on Michelangelo's David
One day 
End of days
Moving along
Giving a fig 
David in adland

Time lords

The amount of cash Creative NZ has to fund artists may decline, but the number of artists applying for it is headed in the opposite direction. In the last five years, for instance, the number of applications for the round of Quick Response grants held each March has increased from 52 applications to 86. That’s around a forty percent increase. This is not a big surprise given the number of artists being churned out by the 18+ art schools operating in NZ currently and it isn’t going to do anything but increase year by year.

So here's an idea. Creative NZ might like to investigate an application process that is working for the National Science Foundation (for Earth Processes to be precise) in the United States. It found that by getting rid of deadlines for submitting grant proposals the number of submissions dropped of its own accord by 59 percent. A pilot of the process that resulted in a 50 percent drop has remained at that level for the last five years. What seems to happen is that people put more time and effort into their proposals and the ones that are hasty or ill-considered simply never get submitted. The hope is ‘that the change will filter for the most highly motivated people and the ideas for which you feel the most passion.’ Research has also shown that the reduction in numbers in an ‘anytime submission’ process had no effect on the demographic mix of people submitting. So there you go.

Room with a point of view

One of the big changes in the past decade has been the way dealer galleries have muscled into what was once the undisputed territory of public art museums. With no necessity on them to entertain their audiences, charge at the door or provide child friendly environments, dealers have expanded the services they offer their artists and the opportunities the give their clients and would-be clients. Starting at the top, take the Larry Gagosian global empire. It frequently presents serious, museum-quality exhibitions with many works borrowed from leading art institutions like MoMA or Tate. Research facilities, archives, publications, magazines, many dealers not coming close to the scale of Gagosian are jumping in to ramp up the credibility and accessibility of their artists. And then there is the controversial border crossing into the commercial sector by those who once were public art museum curators. They are rewarded with extraordinary curatorial freedom as long as they are happy to open their Rolodexes. Here in NZ dealers are starting to play the same game. The most recent example opens today in Wellington. In a spacious well-lit room above Suite Gallery on Cuba Street, you can access an extensive Ans Westra archive and rotating display of images. Westra's own record in media clippings of the infamous Washday at the Pah controversy is a highlight along with an extensive library of books and journals illustrated with Westra images. Or, buy an Ans Westra photograph. There you go.

Images: Westra museum at Suite in Wellington top to bottom, memorabilia and prints, illustrated books, Washday at the Pah clippings and exhibition space

If it’s broke, fix it

For around 15 years now the Colin McCahon online catalogue has had pretensions to being to a catalogue raisonné of the artist's work setting out to ‘catalogue McCahon's complete works’. An alternative attempt to research and publish a print catalogue was superceded by the current digital project with the understanding that professional cataloguing standards would be followed. Initially the site was to include commissioned essays and commentary on McCahon’s work but that never happened and eventually essays from a survey catalogue were dumped to bulk things up. For years the information in the Colin McCahon online catalogue has been scrappy at best. In 2010 an attempt was made to put it into some sort of order and improve the quality of the records but it was short lived and inconsistent.

Does this even matter? Given that the catalogue is hosted by New Zealand's national art institution, provides the document of record on McCahon and is the primary source of authentication for both institutions and the market, yes it does. Recently, when we were writing about McCahon’s waterfall mural held in the University of Otago, we looked up some details in the catalogue and also checked out how it was developing.

And it has to be said, it is not developing well at all. In this one entry we found -

•  The title of the painting is wrong. Whoops! It’s Waterfall Theme (and variations) not Waterfall theme & variations

•  The date is incomplete. It’s May–August 1966 not 1966.

•  The number of hardboard panels the painting is made up of is not noted.

•  The dedication to Mary de Beer which can be seen in an inscription on the work is not noted nor is the fact that the de Beer's and Charles Brasch funded the work for the university.

•  The inscription ‘As there is a constant flow of light and because of perceiving, the power of light with uninterrupted force, we are born into a new land’ is not noted.

•  The illustration of the work, as you can see above, is so poor it's barely worth publishing. There are no detail images available.

Pedantic? Sure and probably only of interest to a small number of people, but if this Online Catalogue is to be the primary record of McCahon's work it really is time to take it seriously after so many years of neglect.

Image: Colin McCahon Online Catalogue illustration of McCahon’s 7.3 x 3.31 metre mural Waterfall Theme (and variations)

Fair enough

The Auckland Art Fair has announced the dealer galleries that will be participating in the 2016 fair opening on 25 May. The dealers have also named the artists they'll show. As you'd expect, it’s mainly an Auckland affair with nearly seventy percent of the galleries based there. Fifteen galleries are coming in from overseas of which 10 are from Australia and three from the South Island.

The male female ratio varies greatly between dealers with overall 63 percent being male. Just three galleries are exhibiting only women artists and they are all one person presentations. Eight galleries have only male artists on show.

This year you can also take advantage of My Art to grow your collection. The offer is that with a $2,500 deposit you can get a loan to buy up to $25,000 worth of art. Of course you have to pay it back at $2,500 per month over nine months. Nothing's perfect, but the payments are interest free. You can see the full list of galleries and artists here.

Patrick Pound Pics

Last month we were in Melbourne and visited our good friend Patrick Pound. Like a number of other NZ artists, Patrick has made his life in Australia and it's been a long haul to get the recognition he deserves. At the time he left New Zealand in 1989 he was one of a number of artists who were getting a lot of attention. You can see this buzz reflected in Auckland Art Gallery’s collection database where 11 works are represented. To decide to leave this support and set up shop in Australia was not easy especially when he moved from his collecting informing his practice to collecting being his practice, as he recently told Serena Bentley. 

After decades of making connections, curating, collecting, writing and lecturing, the context of Patrick's work changed dramatically when he was invited to make an exhibition as part of Melbourne now in 2014. His eccentric, eclectic Gallery of Air combining elements from the National Gallery of Victoria’s collections with his own was a huge hit. And there's no stopping Patrick from collecting or showing his collections, so there's plenty more where that came from. On OTN:STUDIO we have just put up photographs from two visits one in 2013 and one this year.

Money for nothing

The Arts Foundation’s crowd funding site Boosted sent out an email recently pushing philanthropy as a way to offset funding cuts from Government agencies. It made us wonder just how much Boosted and the Foundation raise each year. While published numbers are hard to find we can make some educated guesstimates.

Starting with the Foundation itself, there are the grants it makes to artists of around $350,000 a year. And then there's Boosted. While the numbers are of course variable last week, for instance, there were 16 Boosted projects online waiting to have money thrown at them. If they all got funded we'd be talking $58,000 raised across the 16 projects. Now for the close-your-eyes-and-guess part. Let’s be generous and say that once a month Boosted projects raise around $60,000. Add them all together and you get say $700,000 a year. (NOTE on 19 April 2016 Boosted announced it raised $1 million in the years 2013-15 and $1 million in the last 12 months to April 2016. Se also the note below)  Add the Foundation's grants noted above and we get to say just over a million a year. and that could be generous. 
 
And also we need to remember that on Boosted, like most crowd funding sites, there a cost to getting support and it's borne by the artists. Most of the Boosted projects require ‘gifts’ from the projects to supporters. This does point out a critical feature of this version of philanthropy; even though the gifts are often small it still operates, like most philanthropy, on the ‘nothing’s for nothing’ principle. So while the million (plus?) annual input from the Arts Foundation (now an essential part of the funding scene) is much better than nothing, it's still not enough to even deal to Creative NZ’s shortfall far less bring in additional support. That shortfall in fact was nearly three times what the Foundation raised last year. In spite of the Foundations best efforts we're still running hard to even go backwards more slowly.

For philanthropy to make a difference the government will have to come up with an infrastructure that works both for the people being funded and the people giving the money. Them just saying in a stern voice that we have to move to a philanthropic model is not going to do the trick.

We received an email from Simon Bowden on Boosted that included the following correction to our post. 

'There is an element in your post that is not right. While most crowdfunding websites do require projects to list "rewards" (items given to pledges in return for their money at different levels), Boosted does not have this facility. The reason for this is that all donations made to projects on Boosted are made to the Arts Foundation and qualify for a 33% tax credit. If artists offered "rewards" then the gifts would not qualify as donations. When a project hits its target and closes the Arts Foundation makes a grant to the project. Our announcement of $2 million raised for the arts on Boosted is the amount that we have granted to artists (in some cases plus GST). This amount is net of transaction costs and the small amount Boosted retains to fund our support programme for artists using the site. '

Alarming

The popularization of the art museum experience and the consequential need for heightened security has had two dramatic and damaging effects on the art: the glazing of oil paintings and the use of barriers. One of the great pleasures of seeing art in studios or in private houses is that neither of these two constraints get a look in. Strangely the most extreme form of security we have ever seen was in a library last week. 

The University of Otago is fortunate enough to own one of Colin McCahon’s most romantically lavish works. It is the commissioned painting Waterfall (theme and variations) 1966 dedicated to philanthropist Mary de Beer. Currently it is attached to a wall in one of the study halls in the library. It's a very large painting and certainly not the sort of thing you'd want anyone to lean a chair against, so a small glass barrier has been installed in front of it. While this isn't optimal, it does feel fair enough with a lot of people moving around the area who are not thinking about art. 

But wait, someone obviously thought that this barrier needed back-up. Maybe students would get their grubby fingerprints all over the glass and then where would we be? And so elaborate decorate stanchions to keep a rope barrier airborne were put in place. OK, enough? Not a bit of it. To stop anyone leaning over the two barriers there is a electronic eye that sets off a very loud and aggressive alarm. The sort of alarm specifically designed to humiliate the offender rather than just warn them to back away. Public art. Gotta love it. 

Robert Jesson 1947 - 2015

A few days ago we heard that the artist Robert Jesson had died in February of last year in Tauranga. Anyone who knew Robert in the 1980s also knew they were in for a ride whenever they met up with him. As a sculptor Robert had something of a meteoric rise in the New Zealand art system. One minute he was exhibiting in Ray Castle’s Upper Queen Street Closet Gallery and the next he was showing fully-formed at Peter McLeavey.

Robert's work in New Zealand careened from large heavy works hewn by chainsaw to what became his iconic star-shaped forms. The most spectacular version were the two he attached to the wall of a Wellington building as part of an art for space deal. We were there as Robert signalled the cranes to place the two large (and heavy) objects onto their holding bolts. One of them wouldn't quite fit and Robert made a snap judgement to shift it along and up a bit. The guys on the crane who worked in millimeters rather than near-enough were amazed at his confidence. In the end everything was bolted into place even if Robert did mention that one of the nuts was just glued on. ‘Is that a problem?’ we asked, ‘well not one of mine,’ Robert told us. Of course he knew the installation was over-engineered in the first place, as was discovered by the crew that struggled to take it down some years later.

Robert Jesson gave up art almost as abruptly as he became a local star. Having moved to Melbourne in 1988 and continuing to work and show there, he announced to his wife Margaret that he had nothing left to say as an artist. And that was that. He was not interested, he said, in simply making something pretty just to sell.

Once when he was staying with us in Wellington a rather more buttoned-up artist came to visit with transparencies of his work immaculately presented in professional slide holders. Robert snorted and left the room. A few minutes later he was back asking if we'd like to see some of his slides. Before we could answer he poured a bunch of them onto the couch out of a creased brown paper bag. Buttoned-up had never seen anything so no-frills in his life.

For the third act of his life Robert and Margaret went sailing. The last time we heard from him they were in Japan. 'Currently in Japan. Next stop Philippines, Borneo and Malaysia.' We'd written a post about the relocation of those star forms and he wanted to tell us that he wasn't bothered by it. 'As far as I'm concerned' he wrote, 'once it's sold, it's pretty much forgotten.' That was definitely our Robert Jesson, head up, a grin on his face and moving forward.

Pointing the finger

What is it about art that sends marketing into such a spin? You can’t say that the Auckland Art Gallery hasn’t done its bit recently to present some new ideas about painting with riffs on what a sophisticated medium it is etc. But when it comes to representing a painter on an ad for Auckland's 'Autumn of the Arts' the AAG got itself associated with an artist in bullfighter pose hard at some sort of finger painting. And that’s ignoring the resulting artwork-on-an-easel that was probably knocked up by one of the art director’s kids. ‘We need to do a poster on brain surgery, anyone got a good image?' ‘I’ve got one of a guy wielding an axe, would that do?’ ‘Perfect.’

And tell us, which universe was that in?

“Why go to a store when you could go to a museum?” she asked
“Um, because the museum doesn’t sell shit?”

David Sedaris gets it completely wrong in the New Yorker

Stay where you are

Put a painting by C F Goldie together with an auction price of $1.175 million and odds are the media are going to suddenly get interested in the visual arts. Last night at the International Art Centre we got a flurry of excitement and a couple of interesting questions. The new owner of the Goldie was unwilling to discuss whether or not he would export the painting to China which raises the question as to just what can be taken out of the country. In fact any protected NZ artwork can only be exported if Government approval is given under the provisions of the 1975 Protected Objects Act. In the case of the Goldie approval would be all but impossible.
 
So what are the rules around NZ art being taken out of the country on a permanent basis? First and foremost it has to be regarded as a ‘protected object’. This classification is pretty sweeping and means something that is ‘part of the movable cultural heritage of New Zealand and that is of importance to New Zealand, or to a part of New Zealand.' Then, if it is over 50 years old and has been made by a New Zealand artist living or dead and is related to New Zealand, it stays unless permission is formally granted.

The 50 year rule is particularly interesting as it is now starting to affect modern artists like Colin McCahon and Don Binney and Gordon Walters. As the 50 year date line line moves forward, any of works created pre-1966 are now subject to export restrictions.

Intruder

Ok, no artist owns rabbits and none own huge inflatable sculptures or rabbits as metaphors for the invasion of an environment. But you have to admit if you put all three together the person who comes to mind in New Zealand and Australia is Michael Parekowhai. This pic of inflatable rabbits installed in San Francisco by Australian artist Amanda Parer certainly hits the same trifecta. Parer has been touring her rabbits round the world for the last couple of years following in the footsteps (ok wake) of Florentijn Hofman’s large rubber ducky. Parer's rabbit installation is called Intrude but maybe she might consider giving a little credit where credit is due and rename it Ghosts of Mike P.

Images: top, Amanda Parer’s Intrude 2012 currently installed in San Fransisco. Bottom left, Michael Parekowhai Cosmo Melbourne Art Fair 2006 and right, Jim McMurtry and Cosmo at the Queensland Art Gallery 2010. (Thanks for the point A)

The Millar’s Tale

The artist -themed dinner is definitely a thing. For those who haven't been to one of these sit-downs, it's an event with food by a celebrity chef themed by an artists and it has reached Auckland. Hot(ish) on the tail of LACMA’s table heads (via Marina Abramovic) and the Christchurch Art Gallery patrons (via Michael Parekowhai and Martin Creed) Auckland Art Gallery is getting ready to front with food. Looks as though the evening is inspired by a Dada / Futurist mélange.  The name of the event - The Holy Palate - evokes the raging Futurists and their Holy Palate Restaurant where museum hater Filippo Marinetti ('We will destroy the museums, the libraries ....') held sway. Presumably the AAG affair will be a little more restrained and supportive of the institutional context than your average Futurist debauch. The invite image of black squid ink dripping off pasta certainly feels like it is sticking one of its blue-gloved fingers to Marinetti who in the 1930s appalled Italy by calling for the abolition of pasta.

The Holy Palate's art director is to be Auckland/Berlin based artist Judy Millar. Her work is also the center of attention as one of the purposes of the festivities is to kick off an appeal to buy one of her site specific installations. And about time. This is an artist who has represented New Zealand at Venice, lived in Auckland most of her life, and has only one  work purchased by the Auckland Art Gallery in the 33 years since she left art school. Chartwell has one painting and two works on paper, Te Papa three paintings and the large Venice installation Giraffe, bottle, gun. So, in the spirit of better-late-than-never, a long overdue and serious commitment by the AAG  to one of Auckland’s most sophisticated artists.

Is there a Doctor in the house?

It wasn’t so long ago that the idea of university scholars spruiking art for auction house catalogues would have been shocking. Today such catalogues are one of the go-to places for readable art history by both academics and serious art writers. In the latest Art + Object catalogue Colin McCahon expert Peter Simpson makes a careful analysis of McCahon’s seventies works on Steinbach paper while discussing Rocks in the sky, series 2, No 2: Lagoon, Muriwai. You get info about the origins of the title, its place in the larger series, consideration of the use of Roman numerals and even a riff on what the subtitle might be pointing to. By the time he brings up the five wounds of Christ (another of McCahon’s key themes) you're with him wondering whether the large V shape could even be the tear of a spear wound. The A+O catalogue has also mustered Professor Laurence Simmons, Professor Emeritus Michael Dunn, Dr Oliver Stead and Dr Kriselle Baker. Bowerbank Ninow were playing the same game with their last photography catalogue including essays by Dr Andrew Paul Wood. He nails Ans Westra's sensibility noting that 'While Westra is not afraid to appeal to sentiment, she never romanticises human life.' Wood also drags up a great quote from American photographer William Eggleston talking to novelist Donna Tartt in Artforum from way back in 2001. Nice. University art history departments will now be lining up these catalogues on their library shelves for more than just the pictures.

The more things change

You think things change? In 1956 the Auckland Art Gallery came under siege when it opened an exhibition by the English artist Henry Moore (you can download the AAG catalogue here). The Mayor popped in to describe the exhibition as ‘a nauseating sight' and for two weeks the newspapers gave themselves over to mocking attacks and general outrage. One wit melted some plastic in an oven and the press was only too pleased to feature the resulting blob as equal to anything Moore could come up with.  Now exactly 60 years later in New York City at Columbia University (seriously) students are protesting against what they call an ‘ugly hunk of metal’ that is due to arrive on campus (Strangely enough we have posted before on this Henry Moore sculpture back in 2008 when one of the edition was stolen from the Henry Moore Foundation.) Over 1,000 students have signed a petition for the installation of Henry Moore’s Reclining figure to be cancelled. It would probably be best though in this current case that the complaining students don’t bother to hold their breath. A substantial base has already been constructed and the sculpture will be placed on it later this week.
Images: top a copy of the Henry Moore Reclining figure that will be installed at Colombia, middle the NZ Press in full flight and bottom the 1956 Auckland Art Gallery catalogue cover

Double or quits

Creative NZ has pressed the emergency button. After 'signaling' (aka managing bad news) that more funding cuts are on the way now a letter has gone out to warn 'colleagues' that things could get worse.

As we have reported previously, for the year 2015-16 Creative CNZ covered its shortfall from Lotto from reserves. 
Lotto stumps up with around 64 percent of Creative NZ's funding. Government is good for around 31 percent and 5 percent comes from other sources. The problem is that Lottery funding to Creative NZ has fallen around 10 percent a year for the last two years. Lotto is now paying less than it did in 2008 ($27.4 million) and has indicated that there will be a further reduction for the coming year.

 Setting aside any ethical implications to the arts largely being funded by gambling (NZ Lotteries started in 1987) what's Creative NZ going to do? In his email Chief Executive Stephen Wainwright outlined CNZ’s plan.

1 Bury its head in the sand
'assumes our revenue from Lotto for 2016/17 is $30 million'
It's hard to see what this assumption is based on as Creative NZ has faced cuts in Lotto's contribution year after year: 2013/14 - $37.5 million; 2014/15 - $31.07 million; 2015/16 - $26.31 million. Surely based on this record of continuing 10 percent cuts it would be more realistic to expect around $22-24 million in the 2016/17 year rather than $30 million.

2 Whistle in the wind
'brief the Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage on the consequences of the lower revenue'
None of this will be news to the Minister. The Government has barely increased its share of Creative NZ's funding for over eight years (2008 - $15.5 million; 2015 - $15.7 million). From the Minister's perspective Creative NZ's job is to manage the sector and protect its Minister when people send some angry emotions her way (like when their funding is cut). Job well done CNZ.

3 Pass the buck
'we would encourage you to run a series of  budget scenarios  including one that assumes up to 10 percent less financial support from Creative New Zealand.'
Let’s face it, if the reduction in Lotto’s funding for the coming year is only 10 percent on the 'budgeted' $30 mil it will be champagne all round.

4 Miss the point
'This shift in financial circumstances will be a major challenge for the Arts Council.'
... but not half the challenge it will be for a sector facing another round of cuts. Maybe this time Creative NZ itself will take some of the heat and reduce its 51-strong staff. Hmmmmm.....ok..... maybe not.