The Christchurch earthquakes have had a profound impact on local culture and heritage. A proactive response from the Ministry is needed to support Christchurch’s sports and cultural organisations and heritage places damaged by the disaster, and to help ensure culture and heritage are a key part of Christchurch’s rebuild.
We have a staff member based in Christchurch to liaise directly with the City Council and affected cultural groups, and to keep a dedicated Wellington-based team informed on what is happening across arts, heritage, sport and recreation, and broadcasting.
Working with other government agencies, Christchurch City Council and the Christchurch cultural sector, the Ministry has initiated a coordinated approach to the sector’s recovery and contribution to the Canterbury Earthquakes Recovery Strategy led by CERA. We also work closely with Council staff responsible for the Canterbury Earthquake Heritage Building Fund and help ensure cultural sector stakeholders were supported to contribute to the Council’s central city plan, due to be delivered December 2011.
The Ministry led a number of specific initiatives to facilitate the cultural sector’s recovery:
• With Creative New Zealand we began work to identify requirements for performance facilities and exhibition spaces in the short and longer term.
• We developed an Order in Council to streamline processing of applications to modify, damage or destroy archaeological sites (including pre-1900 heritage buildings) under the Historic Places Act 1993, which was used effectively to speed assessment of sites.
• We began a mentoring project for ten cultural organisations, to help them attract significant philanthropic funding tailored to their recovery goals.
• We worked with the Air Force Museum at Wigram, which has responded proactively to the earthquakes by working with local community museums and making its largely undamaged facilities available to other groups for temporary accommodation.
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