Kulttuuritahtoa kotikunnan tapaan
Arts policy à la Wingecarribee
Kotikuntamme on jähmeä äijäbyrokraattien ihmemaa, jossa ei yli 40 000 asukkaan iloksi ylläpidetä taidemuseota, ei kaupunginmuseota, ei teatteria, ei orkesteria, ei musiikkiopistoa. Kirjasto on, mutta siellä ei ole musiikkiosastoa. Julkisten koulujen taiteen ja musiikin opetus on yksittäisten opettajien aktiivisuuden varassa, seudun hienoissa yksityiskouluissa onkin sitten orkesteria ja taiteen lehtoria vaikka millä mitalla.
Tällainen on lähestulkoon maan tapa. Kulttuurisihteeri Wingecarribeenkin kunnassa on sentään ollut, ja hänestä on ollut ilman varsinaista kulttuuribudjettiakin suurta hyötyä. Hänen avullaan ovat vapaaehtoispohjalta erilaisia taide- ja kulttuurihankkeita vetävät yksityiset ja ryhmät löytäneet toisensa, taiteilijoita ja koululaisia on saatu tekemään yhteisiä taideprojekteja, rahoitusta etsiville taiteilijoille ja muusikoille on neuvottu erilaisia apurahalähteitä.
Viikon uutinen on, että kulttuurisihteerille annetaan potkut ja koko virka lakkautetaan. Potkut saa myös seitsemän muuta kunnan täysi- tai osa-aikaista työntekijää. Joukossa on yksi sosiaalialan osa-aikainen työntekijä, joka on puhaltanut eloa erilaisiin kyläprojekteihin, muutama puutarha-alan henkilö, jotka olivat kerta kaikkiaan liian päteviä (ruohonleikkuutaito kuulemma riittää vastaisuudessa, ja siitähän suoriutuvat vaikka kunnanisien sukulaispojat). Ja kaiken kukkuraksi kirjastotoimenjohtaja, joka siirretään henkilöstohallinnon tehtäviin. Selviävät ne ylityöllistetyt kirjastonhoitajat siellä kirjastossaan ilman esimiestäkin.
Vihaksi pistää. Kuntalaisilta ei kysytty, ja ratkaiseva kokous kehdattiin järjestää suljetuin ovin. Jos olisivat edes tehneet kunnon säästöt näillä leikkauksillaan, mutta kahdeksan matalapalkkaisen ihmisen viroista kertyi vaivainen 460 000 dollarin säästö. Metelihän tästä nostetaan, tietysti, mutta auttaneeko.
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Wingecarribee Shire Council is without comparison. There are more than 40 000 people living in the Shire. There is no shortage of sports facilities (and a new leisure centre is being planned, I hear), but there is no art gallery, no museum, no theatre, no orchestra - God forbid, of course there isn't, but this needs to be spelled out since the Finnish readers might otherwise assume that these are basic facilities of a prosperous Shire. There is a library, but it has no music department.
The arts and music teaching in public schools is dependent on the activity of energetic teachers, if such miraculous creatures happen to be around. Obviously there is no shortage of good music and arts teachers in the expensive private schools of the area.
There has been an arts and cultural planner working in the Council building, only now they have decided to sack her and get rid of the whole post. Who needs a cultural planner anyway? Well, for instance all those individuals and groups that are the sole source of cultural activities in the Shire. Artists who are looking for cooperative partners and funding sources. Schoolteachers who would like to involve their students in arts projects. The cultural planner has not had much of a budget but she has been able to help with information about available grants, continuing arts initiatives, information about what is going on in other parts of the Shire.
They are also getting rid of a part-time community officer who has been a rare, helpful presence in the Council building. (She actually answered her emails!) They are getting rid of a library manager by moving her to a different deparment. Amazingly, they are actually keeping one or two librarians. They are getting rid of several people in the parks and gardens deparment - apparently it doesn't make sense to pay decent wages to a qualified gardener when anyone can operate a drive-on lawnmower. I am sure Councillors have idle nephews that are dying for a job like that - bugger the Tulip Time festival, and who cares about publicly funded floral displays when there are lots of private gardens, open for public for at least a few days in a year.
I am relying on the information provided by the local paper, so I apologise if I get the figures wrong. But it seems that by sacking 8 people they save $460,000. This is what you can achieve by making redundant part-time staff, female and outdoor workers. I wish they had sacked the undoubtedly very well paid male economic planner whose suggestions for the benefit of the tiny, rural village of Robertson have so far included a high security prison and a waste dump.
Comments - Kommentit
If I read them correctly, they will move funding of Tulip Time to the Tourist Promotion budget, then cut that back, pushing it over to the Private Sector.
They clearly see this Shire as developing as part of the semi-rural sprawl along the infamous Sydney-Canberra corridor. Rural sub-divisions will be the engine of growth, inevitably changing the character and the environment of the highlands. The awful dullness of Bargo and Tarmoor will spread up along the highway, into the highlands.
Council does not need a cultural officer to sell land.
The fact that the people who live here need one is clearly something the Council has not realised.
It is classic economic rationalism, just at a local scale. Pathetic, unimaginative, echoes of John Howard and Peter Costello. We are becoming a country without a soul.
Posted by: Denis | March 29, 2006 12:15 AM
But don't you see, Denis, high real estate prices will liberate our souls.
It was interesting what T. Blair said the other day to our federal Labor party - that part of their problem was there were too many talented politicians working at state level. Well maybe. Though in Morris Iemma's state that's pretty hard to believe. I think it's fair to say wherever else they might be they are not in local councils - at least not in ours. What a dull, dispiriting bunch of people they are. As you say, Denis, no imagination.
Posted by: Andy | March 29, 2006 10:34 AM