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Suter worried about funding for schools programme

The Suter Art Gallery is looking to find an extra $37,000 year to keeps school programmes running amidst uncertainty over ongoing Government funding.

At a Nelson City Council meeting this month Suter director Julie Catchpole warned the gallery couldn’t rely on continued funding for its programmes where schools bring classes to the gallery for learning experiences.

Currently, the gallery receives about $37,000 a year in government funding for the Enriched Local Curriculum programme, but its existing contract will end at the end of December.

They were “really worried” the funding might not continue, she said.

Caption: Julie Catchpole, Suter Art Gallery Director, said they did not know if funding would be renewed next year. Credit: Martin de Ruyter/Nelson MailSuter Art Gallery director Julie Catchpole at the Suter site in Bridge St.

“In the current Government, it’s quite likely that whole learning outside the classroom may come to an end.”

Trust chairman Steve Green said they were trying to “build up some funds” to help continue the programme if it did get cut.

“We are going to have to go back to the community if we do not get that funding, or we’re going to have to curtail the work and we don’t want to do that.”

Mayor Nick Smith said he felt “very strongly” that the programme needed to continue, and would be willing to emphasise to the Government that the funding “is not something we’re going to give up without a fight”.

Councillor Pete Rainey suggested the gallery could look at incorporating maths through art to help make the project more appealing to the Government.

In response to question from the Nelson Mail, The Ministry of Education’s acting hautū (leader) curriculum centre Pauline Cleaver said the Enriching Local Curriculum programme funded 72 providers throughout New Zealand “to provide hands-on learning experiences that complement in-class learning aligned to the national curriculum”.

Decisions about any further funding rounds beyond the end of 2025 were “still to be confirmed”, she said.

“We will update current providers as soon as we have more information to share.”

In the 2023-24 financial year, the Suter delivered 267 lessons on site to school groups comprising 5845 students, accompanied by 1478 adult helpers.

Catchpole said the students came from across Nelson-Tasman, and occasionally from Marlborough.

The lessons, run by team leader education Dr Esther McNaughton, were developed to link in with school curriculum and often connected with exhibits, Catchpole said.

“Museums and galleries are really well placed to link into the relatively newly introduced New Zealand Histories curriculum – which has an emphasis on local histories – through exhibitions and collections, plus in our case our heritage building and surrounding environment.”

Transport and logistics already made it hard for schools to get students to the gallery, so they wanted to keep it as accessible as possible, she said.

“It’s available and it’s a resource for everybody and that’s been a very important thing underlying our education delivery … maybe that won’t be possible in the future, we’d have to charge a little bit per student, but ideally we’d like not to do that.”

By Warren Gamble, Nelson Mail

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