Submission
9 year plan feedback
Should we remove 231 Stuart Street (formerly the Fortune Theatre) from the list of strategic assets in the DCC Significance and Engagement policy?
Yes, remove 231 Stuart Street from the list of strategic assets (this is our preferred option)
Do you have any comments about 231 Stuart Street?
Should we charge an entry fee of $20 (incl. GST) for international visitors aged 16 and over, at Toitū and Dunedin Public Art Gallery?
No, do not introduce an entry fee of $20 (incl. GST)
Do you have any comments about the entry fee for international visitors?
Is there anything else you would like to tell us?
Performing Arts Theatre
As someone who has delivered three arts festivals in Dunedin and over twenty festivals across the country as well as being the Board Chair of the Performing Arts Network Of New Zealand, which is responsible for touring works across Aotearoa, I am in a good position to evaluate the current venue dilemma we find ourselves in.
Internationally and domestically, I am consistently apologising to artists wanting to visit the city either for the lack of venue space in the city or for the state of the current venues. The Regent, although grand is too big and far too expensive for most productions, the Mayfair is inaccessible, tired and not of international standing or fit for domestic or local use, and school auditoriums are not accessible during term time.
Christchurch no longer has an arts festival (due to poor management), but when they did 2% of the Dunedin Arts Festival’s out of town audience came from there. Since they folded in 2019, those numbers now sit around 35%, showing that the Island’s largest city’s audience are starved of the arts and are willing to travel to Dunedin to experience them. It’s a well-documented fact that the arts audience are good spenders when travelling too.
Christchurch’s new stadium will relegate Dunedin to an afterthought when it comes to large events, but we do have an opportunity to position ourselves as the South Island’s cultural capital. By investing into the arts now through the building of a new venue(s), you would be future proofing the city’s place as both a touring location, and more importantly a place that performers, technicians, arts administrators, and the next generation see as somewhere that they can live and have a career. We already have the South Island’s biggest arts festival and fringe festival, iD, artists, technicians, and an incomparable history of delivering high quality arts experiences.
To make a visiting production sustainable financially, you need a venue of at least 400 seats – preferable around 600-700 to make ticket prices accessible. Dunedin currently has nothing bar the Mayfair that fits within that range. The revamping of current city venues is not an attractive option, as that would either put our current poor option out of use for too long, or deliver a substandard replacement.
A purpose-built theatre is the only way forward for the city. The performing arts community in Dunedin has become fractured while waiting for movement on this issue, and the longer Council takes to move forward and build a venue the more fractured it will become (and expensive). Plus, we are losing practitioners to other centres.
I was part of the New Theatre Initiative in Auckland that led to the building of Q Theatre. There are a lot of parallels between what was happening in Auckland then and Dunedin now. The theatre didn’t fix them all, but it gave the city a performing arts heart that was sorely needed (and still is today). It is constant use by local festivals, Auckland Live and visiting artists bring much needed income into the city with each performance.
Festivals and events plan
An additional $4.4 million for events is great – but the Council needs to ask the question: are the festivals and events to attract people from out of town to spend the money in Dunedin, or to deliver experiences to the community that already reside in the city? The answer is of course both, but with a leaning towards looking after the local community first. New one-off events then should not detract from existing events that already deliver to the community. Bay Dreams for example, may deliver short-term financial boost for one or two iterations before moving on, but if it comes at the expense of an already established local event that consistently draws in the community and adds to the local economy, then in the long run Dunedin would be poorer off. In fact, supporting and growing successful already established events making them independently sustainable is the most sensible way forward. Help Dunedin events and festivals with succession planning and organisational surety, and the community will benefit more than a one-off concert.
Local Water Done Well feedback
Which water services delivery model do you support?
Why did you choose this option?
Do you have any other feedback related to the proposed water services delivery models?
Supporting information
No associated documents with this submission.
Submitter
Submission id number: 1131678
Submitter name:
Charlie Unwin
Organisation
Dunedin Arts Festival & PANNZ