NTi NEWSLETTER
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Great news, and a break-through with the new theatre that we have been dreaming of and plotting for so long. Earlier this year we reached a milestone when Auckland City Council’s Recreation and Events Committee resolved to support the theatre with a capital contribution. Auckland needs an international quality flexible theatre that is innovative and sustainable. Many of you thought the same and turned up earlier this year to face up to Council and thoroughly endorse the case. Thank you for this great support. The Council heard your message! The bottom line is that Council will contribute the site and buildings plus $ 3 million towards capital costs (estimated at $ 10 million) when we raise our first $ 1.5 million by June next year (2005). It’s a big challenge which we have fully embraced. We aim to develop a world-class venue that is a home to artists and a destination for audiences seeking accessible and inspiring live performance in Auckland. To make this a reality, there’s lots of hard work ahead. Here’s an outline of where we are going and how we’re going to get there. The site remains in the Aotea Precinct between the Town Hall, Silo and Classic theatres. The entrance will be off Queen Street with a bar/ café, rehearsal rooms and offices in 305 – 309 Queen Street. The auditorium will be built on the site of the old Fleet Service’s Garage against the south end of the Town Hall. A public arcade will connect Queen Street to Lower Greys Ave and Aotea Square. When architectural firm Jasmax updated its building estimates for this site last year, the cost was $ 9 million. The target for fundraising will be bigger to allow for increases in construction costs and sustain the operation in its start-up years. Margaret Belich (see profile) has now started working as fundraiser for NTI. Justin, Andrew, Heather, Fiona, Mark, Arne and Raewyn (your volunteer Executive) are hard at work with Margaret developing the many aspects of a big 5 year plan -- funding, design and construction, establishment of corporate entities, leadership arrangements and board development, program development, marketing and communications - all the detailed strategic and operational planning needed for start-up. To raise the funds, we are currently recruiting a strong cross-section of persuasive and committed people for a fundraising committee. Other help has also already come in from very practical quarters. Noted arts patron James Wallace immediately offered to share his office space and give admin contra at 305 Queen Street until we all have to move out when building commences – a wonderfully generous gift. And much extra and devoted support for brand strategy development and design comes from Jude Hooson at Mandala and Annie Dow and the team at Dow Design. It is a most exciting and challenging period. The next milestone is that $ 1.5 million by June next year. Please take a moment to consider your part in achieving this. We do need your help. The first step you can take right now is to help us build rich information through the NTI network. You can request an information sheet to fill out by email or post but we may also contact you personally. There are two aspects to this – good communication with a growing base of supporters and great advocacy. Nothing happens without the engine of a good database which we need to build now. Advocacy Task One of our key tasks will be to advocate to government on the advantages of a performing arts cluster. By creating a hub for industry and audiences around the south of the Town Hall we can increase opportunities for people to share ideas, resources, work and play. We need facts and figures to make great advocacy stories and if you can help us here, please do. We want to make visible the creative interchange that is the life
blood of the performing arts. This flow benefits artists and audiences, grows
our identities at local, regional and national levels and shows the arts as
"a vital player in strengthening economic performance and building cohesive
communities." That creative interchange is reflected in the employment arrangements many of you face. Portrait of the Artist, Creative New Zealand's report on professional artists in NZ revealed that 70% of arts workers could be broadly categorised as self-employed or freelancing, compared with the national labour force average of 13%. That’s a lot of cross-industry-creativity flowing across the NZ economy. We think its time to focus the attention of the gurus of the Innovation Framework on how investment in the performing arts will deliver excellent value to them. First step is to gather the facts, please return the information sheet with as much detail as possible, or tell us directly.
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Who we areMargaret Belich - project management and
fundraising "Fundraising is about capturing people’s hearts as well as their heads. Donors will take on all the arguments and “the sell” but the central tenet is that people give to people." I’m passionate about helping to build a world class, flexible and affordable performance space in Auckland, because, with Young Vic Director David Lan, I believe the truth of the performing arts is in its “indefeasible communal nature”, that it is a place where strangers can come together without fear to tell their stories. And, of course, that it is so much fun." Andrew Caisley After gaining his LTCL and LSB and spending almost a decade teaching speech, Andrew ‘went over to the dark side’ and became a lawyer! He is a founding partner in what has now become one of NZ’s leading employment law firms, Kiely Thompson Caisley. Andrew has a new ‘special interest’ in seeing the project successfully completed. In the last couple of weeks he and his wife Vicki have had their first child - so he now wants to ensure that there is a thriving and dynamic drama and dance space in the city his daughter will grow up in. Raewyn Whyte "I’m involved with NTI because I believe in the magic that happens in live performance – and I want more of it to be experienced by more people. Having a world class venue downtown for innovative performing arts will help to grow audiences and encourage innovative practice. And I’m involved because contemporary dance in Auckland has reached critical mass, with an urgent need for a flexible and affordable non-proscenium arch performance space with a seating capacity that enables sustainable dance production." Your Executive: We are growing !!
For further information about NTI and the theatre project, The New Theatre Initiative |
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