Tauranga City Council's announced intention to again drive the city art gallery into deficit will be fought in the 2014/2015 draft annual plan submissions process, says gallery director Penelope Jackson.

Tauranga Art Gallery. Photo: file.

'It's the next part of the process. It will be interesting to see the depth of feeling,” says Penelope.

'If you look at pie graph on the council website, three per cent of council income goes towards art, culture and heritage. We cost the ratepayer less than one per cent of that. It's not a huge amount.

'[Tauranga City] councillor John Robson was saying in council the other day that we cost per rateable household, not per person but per household, seven dollars.

'I know Dunedin, New Plymouth – it's over $30 per rateable household for their public art gallery. What do you get for seven dollars over a whole year? Not a lot.”

The decision to remove the consumer price index adjustment from the annual operating grant is a repeat of an action by the previous city council, which changed its mind about the CPI after the gallery began advising of future deficits.

'We had the same grant for four years then [TCC councillor of the time] Terry Molloy put it forward last year; he got a resolution through and we've got it back now for this present year,” says Penelope.

'Now the proposal is we lose it again, which makes it very difficult, of course, for planning.”

The gallery's big costs are power, insurance and freight. Most exhibitions come from elsewhere and have to be returned.

'Freight doesn't come cheaply. Power, insurance, freight; they go up, up, up, as you know. But when the grant doesn't, then the gap gets bigger,” says Penelope.

'Over the last three years we have basically had a surplus. We have managed to break even or have a surplus, but it is really hard to continue along that line when you income is cut.”

Penelope thinks the gallery will break even this year, but going forward there will be a gap.

'The thing is we are always very honest, very transparent about our costs; we know what our costs are. If we didn't forecast for a deficit then we would be doing something wrong.

'But you take that funding away, there will be a deficit. So how do you cover that, because nobody likes having a deficit.

'We have very little discretionary spend. We have fixed costs; wages, salaries, power, insurance, cleaning. So what is it that you can change?”

The Gallery has six permanent employees with costs that include: salaries, wages, kiwisaver, recruitment, training, staff development, tea/coffee, etc. Plus there are more than six staff as per website, says Penny. There's the casual/part timers that aren't actually listed - and volunteers – seven Trustees and the Friends of the Gallery committee are all dedicated volunteers.

The options are to offer fewer exhibitions, or less interesting exhibitions, says Penelope.

'[But] We don't want to have lesser exhibitions, we don't want to have fewer and we don't want ones of a lesser standard. Because that's what we are about, we are a public art gallery and we want to show the best. There's nothing wrong with that.

'We send our best athletes to the Olympics; we don't send the amateurs or someone who is learning. We send our best.

'That's what public art galleries and museums are about, showcasing the top in their field. And we are really proud of that.”

The gallery has to find 20 per cent of its budget from income. Last year it achieved 28 per cent.

Another discretionary spend is the art bus, a free service to the schools that send classes to the gallery. It costs $45,000 a year to run –and its money on top of the gallery budget, says Penelope.

Children pay $1.50 each for the materials used and the teacher that takes them round the gallery is paid by the Ministry of Education.

'The art bus is funded through a variety of sources,” says Penny. 'It includes, at the moment, the Endeavour Trust, Bay Trust, TECT, Friends of the Gallery and Rotary.

'I basically put out applications all the time to all these organisations and different trusts, and basically beg for money. It is a lot of money to find every year on top of 20 per cent of a budget of $1.2 million.”