The case for improved arts infrastructure in New Zealand

Wednesday, 30 October 2024

Dr Melissa Laing, the lead researcher for Stable Spaces, has worked in the arts as a curator, project manager and artist for 27 years.

OPINION: At the beginning of October the results of the 2023 Stable Spaces survey on how the arts are housed was published, finding that when it comes to space to work the arts are stressed and unstable. This instability impacts on their ability to create and present work, undertake long-term planning and development, and build sustainable communities.

Artists and arts organisations across art forms reported that they struggled to find affordable and appropriate spaces to operate in. In many cases the cost of accommodation is prohibitive or tenure insecure. Only 13% of the sector owns the building they operate out of and 65% are leasing. Many of those who lease have month-by-month or year-by-year leases, and half of them have had to relocate at least once in the last five years. Most troubling, a good fifth of the sector move between temporary and domestic spaces to do their work, many of them not by choice.

These findings are concerning because our cultural and social activity is enabled by built infrastructure. From home offices, rehearsal studios, recording booths and workshops to theatres, galleries, bars and libraries, the vast majority of creative work is made and shared inside the shelter of a building. While we do have strong, publicly-funded institutions in Aotearoa, they only cover a fraction of the need for space out there.

Most recently we’ve responded to this need by leveraging the temporary. Whenever the economy plummets and the inner city empties out, the arts pop up in empty spaces and secure rolling leases for studios, where before there were offices. But, when commercial real estate is booming, we are priced out.

This cycle shows that being the opposite end of the commercial leasing see-saw isn’t a long-term solution, and the arts sector knows this. A large majority (71%) of those leasing or making alternative arrangements indicated a desire for more security – whether that be a longer-term lease or ownership.

At the heart of the Stable Spaces initiative is the premise that we should actively grow the arts community’s ownership of buildings. The good news is there are really impressive local and international examples that we can draw from to develop pathways to doing this.

Over the last year I’ve interviewed nine property-owning arts organisations in Aotearoa. Their buildings ranged from the expensive – the multi-million dollar custom built ASB Waterfront Theatre in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland – to the modest – a community asset transfer of an old bowling club to Vogelmorn Community Group in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington for a small sum, plus the costs of subdivision.

Each of the nine building histories demonstrate that it is possible for arts organisations to strategically acquire a building across a range of budgets and then administer it well. They also show that arts organisations thrive when they have a solid foundation, gaining autonomy, increased stability, organisational longevity, better financial control, and a flow-on ability to support their wider arts community and economies. However, we have no national strategy to build on these examples.

When I looked for inspiration internationally I found a range of approaches to increasing community building ownership that we could adapt. In the United Kingdom they’ve implemented national policies, with supporting legislation, to encourage the transfer of viable buildings from public to community hands. In North America they’ve developed creative land trust models that enable ownership of buildings by the arts. Arts focused development companies have also taken advantage of tax credits and developer incentives to construct affordable new buildings for the arts, from live-work housing to dedicated studio and presentation spaces.

Collectively we, the arts, national and local government, the philanthropic and development sectors, need to work together to create this national strategy and pathway to growing the arts-community's ownership of buildings. And then we need to implement it.

Read the full Stable Spaces report at stablespaces.nz.