The next period saw the Gallery’s relationships with the City Council change to a contractual arrangement necessitating a complete overhaul to the Gallery’s management practices. Local government funding to the Gallery was reduced substantially as the City tried to shrink its operating deficit. The Gallery was the subject of several functional reviews. The outcome was the implementation of performance indicators, full cost recovery for the Outreach services, and user-pays charges for booked school groups and special exhibitions. Staff cuts, including the loss of one education staff member, followed. The underlying tension between the Gallery’s status and funding as a regional institution drawing on ratepayers’ contributions, and its national profile un-funded by central government, was exacerbated in the climate of economic rationalism. In addition, the City faced restructuring to meet reforms mandated by the Local Government Act.
Despite the burden of economic conditions, the Gallery experienced growth in some areas. Plans proceeded for the purchase and refurbishment of the Telecom Building in adjacent Khartoum Place as the Gallery’s contemporary art annexe. Finance and equity concerns were resolved by a three-way partnership of substantial private investment, the City as manager and the Gallery as operator. This was hailed as an innovative solution to the public-private split demanded by government as part of its economic reforms.
Staff development also proceeded. The director and several senior members of staff participated in international conferences and study tours. The Senior Curator Education, for example, attended several international conferences in 1995 and undertook study tours in Australia to investigate new directions for art museum education.
Late neoliberal period: from 1999
The fourth period of policy development coincided with the appointment of Chris Saines as director in 1996. This period looked back to New Zealand’s social welfare heritage to reclaim principles of social justice while retaining new public management practices and exercising entrepreneurial acumen consistent with neoliberalism in its earliest phase. Following an internal strategic review, the role of education and public programmes was boosted by the formation of the Art and Access division, which brought curatorial, education and library staff into a
management relationship with the potential to balance scholarly curatorial reputation and broad public appeal. Performance indicators remained focused on quantitative measures with specified visitor attendance targets closely monitored and painstakingly reported publicly through the AAGEB papers. Qualitative measures followed the City Council’s templates for visitor satisfaction surveys. School groups were encouraged to submit evaluation reports as part of post-visit activity, but consistency was difficult to achieve.
Outreach, considered increasingly less connected with the Gallery and no longer deemed core business, was devolved to the City Council. Instead, the Gallery concentrated on attracting business sponsorship and central government grants to establish flagship projects, such as Art on the Move which promised high throughput and assisted in restoring concepts of equity, diversity and social inclusion to education services.
Such initiatives signalled the Gallery’s determination to focus on services to schools, meeting curriculum-based outcomes demanded by the Ministry of Education. The direction was thus set to win an LEOTC contract from the MoE. That was accomplished in late 2006, fifty-two years after the Gallery’s first overtures to the Department of Education. Art on the Move also provided administrative assistance to teachers wishing to conduct experiences outside the classroom under its aegis. Concomitantly, investment in public programmes sought to attract families to the Gallery. Both strategies were predicated on the philosophy of growing new audiences, building a sustainable future through repeat visitation, catering to diverse audiences and being socially inclusive. Such strategies reflected the City Council’s corporate planning and its vision Towards 2020.
The period saw specific outcomes for the Gallery’s education and public programmes. The number of programmes and annual participation grew steadily. In the main, however, formal education programmes built on core initiatives established in the 1950s and mid 1980s. More recent initiatives were modified to align with current strategies. The transformation of Art on the Move to the more cost effective and durable ArtSmart / ArtStart programme was the most salient example. Revenue from education services also grew through user charges, grants and sponsorships (see Table 4.1). Public programmes, sometimes working in tandem with City initiatives, developed events aimed at mass entertainment, high visibility and media coverage. Within this area there appeared to be more experimentation and a drive for programmes with widespread public appeal. While there was some
Policies. Practices. Public Pedagogy.
anecdotal information of widening demographic participation, consolidated social research has yet to be undertaken to understand patterns of audience development and the impacts of museum learning.
The Enterprise Board papers show that staff engaged with local colleagues to plan collaborative programmes and joint marketing (see also personal communication, Taberner 17/6/2005). However, they rarely participated in national or international conferences.63 This is consistent with national trends which suggest that less than
half of museum and art museum educators in New Zealand engaged frequently with specialist disciplinary activities (Abasa, 2010). The Gallery’s Manager Art and Access indicated that she would like to see staff take charge of their professional development and training to realise their career aspirations (personal communication, 2005). The Gallery’s support for staff professional development is well documented in reports to the Enterprise Board. This suggests that the initiative rests with education and public programme staff.
The period also saw increased corporatisation and entrepreneurship in the Gallery’s education services with clearer focus on children and families. Central to success was the Gallery’s ability to meet government-mandated school curriculum needs and sustaining teachers’ confidence in its delivery. The number of programmes and total visitation exceeded targets. The content of education programmes varied frequently in response to changing exhibitions and Collection rotations, in keeping with annual performance criteria agreed with the City Council. Pedagogies followed the tried and true; practices were policy and the staff establishment remained the same.