Simon Wilson: How Auckland will find another good boss for the art gallery?

COMMENT:

Things got rather difficult at the Auckland Art Gallery last year when it became apparent that the mayor was planning to take a knife for his budget.

This is not the first time that he is facing cuts. The operating budget amounted to $ 12 million in 2012, the year prior to the appointment of Rhana Devenport as a director. But Mayor Len Brown and his successor, Phil Goff, both presided over such a fall, the proposed allocation for 2018 was only $ 6.9 million.

Barely more than half of what she had been. Devenport is one of the world's great hobbyists and she wears a pretty positive smile most of the time, but it was obvious that by 2018, the emotion she was really feeling was a consternation .

But not despair. She did not give up. She says her bosses at the Auckland Regional Consultancy Agency (RFA) have been lobbying long and hard. This is how many advisors, left and right on the political spectrum. A thousand people commented on Goff's plans for the gallery's budget and, according to Devenport, they all opposed the cuts. Above all, there was a large, independently organized social media campaign.

To your list of groups who know how to use the power of Facebook, you can add art lovers. You can add Phil Goff too. In the end, he said the gallery was "a vital asset" for the city and added $ 20 million over 10 years to the budget plan. Sighs of relief all around.

The gallery now receives $ 8.9 million for operating expenses and has also introduced door fees for visitors from outside the city. But Devenport resigned to return to her native Australia and become director of the Art Gallery of South Australia in Adelaide.

"The gallery is very solid now," she said yesterday. "I would not leave if it was not the case."

Is this true?

No questions, Rhana Devenport was successful. It has strengthened the arts and the gallery itself in a city full of artistic energy but, more often than healthy, strangely indifferent.

The number of visitors increased: last year, 521,402 people went through the doors, or 16% on the target. They are now fundraising campaigns, they have a new membership of 7000 members and there is a foundation for endowments. Education programs are strong and popular;

The exhibition Gottfried Lindauer in 2015-16 attracted 99,000 people and was both the largest and most popular exhibition presented by the gallery since the reconstruction and reopening in 2011

The comparisons are apt. In its first year after its reopening, the gallery attracted 618,000 people: a magnificent new building has power. But attendance dropped to 441,000 in 2013, under the goal of 450,000. When Devenport arrived that year, the Auckland Art Gallery retreated.

She brought a lot. A commitment to tangata whenua: to Maori artists and their work, and to the Maori audience. It was not the most natural thing for her – art lovers became tolerant with the way in which, on every formal occasion, she courageously, desperately, submitted her mihi to that Aussie buzzsaw twang.

But she was really committeed. She presented 18 Maori programs last year, up from the target of 10.

Gallery directors often form strong links with selected artists. For Devenport it was Lisa Reihana, that she helped to create the extraordinary In pursuit of Venus (infected) and then bring it to the Venice Biennale. And, as she leaves, the gallery has a retrospective of one of our greatest artists, Gordon Walters. It's a superb grace note on which to bow.

Devenport cultivated relationships. The Body Laid Bare: Masterpieces of the Tate which was co-created by the British Tate Gallery and the Art Gallery of New South Wales, would not have come to Auckland if this Was for the trust that her curators showed in Devenport herself.

She has dedicated herself to contemporary and new and has taken a particular pleasure in presenting Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Korean and other Asian artists. She knew that she was taking care of both these large communities in Auckland and building cultural bridges between them and the rest of the city.

She liked it. "I will absolutely miss the demographic diversity of Auckland," she said yesterday. It's a pretty white bread where she goes.

It can also be lacking in these communities. The cancellation room of Yayoi Kusama a show for all who wanted to cover a room in colorful dots, welcomed 150 000 visitors last summer and last fall. Two years earlier, visitors reveled in the exquisite sophistication and disturbing sociology of Yang Fudong's films . The close connections of Devenport to Shanghai have also made for Auckland.

"Auckland Art Gallery is on the map," she said. "At the Tate, after doing the show Body, we said," You tell us what you want, we would be delighted to present you a show ".