{"id":181156,"date":"2025-12-13T01:52:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T01:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/181156\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T01:52:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T01:52:12","slug":"hundertwasser-art-centres-1-4m-loss-blamed-on-depreciation-low-tourism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/181156\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundertwasser Art Centre\u2019s $1.4m loss blamed on depreciation, low tourism"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt\u2019s not a cash figure but it features in our books and ends up in the media<\/a> as a $1m loss before we do anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

The award-winning building<\/a> cost about $33m to build but was recently revalued at about $45m, he said.<\/p>\n

It includes an afforested rooftop<\/a>, quirky tiling and the Wairau M\u0101ori Art Gallery, and is the last building designed by the famous Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser.<\/p>\n

The depreciation is attributed despite yearly maintenance being carried out on the building, Shepherd said.<\/p>\n

The trust also faces high fixed costs \u2013 such as $138,000 in insurance and $156,000 for electricity a year \u2013 needed in part to protect the artworks within the two buildings, he said.<\/p>\n

Expenses were scrutinised line-by-line and were $28,000 less than budgeted, Shepherd said.<\/p>\n

\"Whang\u0101reiWhang\u0101rei Art Trust chairman Bill Shepherd, a former Northland Regional Council chairman, says depreciation is a non-cash cost added to the Hundertwasser Art Centre’s deficit. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the whole of our board is confident that to reduce expenses further would involve cutting staff, cutting into the nature of the organisation and cutting services.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the Hundertwasser Art Centre continues to fall short on admission fees, which were $117,000 less than budgeted, and revenue from commercial activities, which was $114,000 less than budgeted for the year.<\/p>\n

Need to attract tourists to Whang\u0101rei, director says<\/p>\n

Director Dr Joost de Bruin said for the current business model to work, the Hundertwasser Art Centre needed to attract large numbers of international tourists.<\/p>\n

That had not happened for a number of reasons, including the post-Covid downturn in international visitors to New Zealand and the fact only 10% to 12% of international tourists come to Northland, he told the committee.<\/p>\n

On top of this, many tourists do not regard Whang\u0101rei as a destination, often travelling from Auckland to places further north without stopping, de Bruin said.<\/p>\n

\"HundertwasserHundertwasser Art Centre director Joost de Bruin says getting international tourists to Whang\u0101rei is a challenge. Photo \/ NZME<\/p>\n

The Hundertwasser Art Centre is working with the likes of Northland Inc to get tourists to stop in Whang\u0101rei, he said.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, the centre was denied a request to have brown tourist destination signs<\/a> placed on State Highway 1.<\/p>\n

NZ Transport Agency declined the request, in consultation with the council, because the spot was oversubscribed with signs, including a generic Town Basin one.<\/p>\n

But de Bruin successfully argued the Hundertwasser Art Centre was unique and deserved its own signs.<\/p>\n

Approval has now been granted and signs will be put up very soon, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very excited about it. We need to get people off State Highway 1 for people to see us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HundertwasserHundertwasser Art Centre could be added to the signs on the corner of SH1 and Tarewa Rd in Whangarei, as proposed by this mock-up. Photo \/ Denise Piper<\/p>\n

Facilities cost council but benefit district<\/p>\n

Shepherd said the trust is now working on a strategic plan to stay financially viable, including reducing its reliance on council grants by 2027.<\/p>\n

The council gave $710,000 in funding to the trust in 2024-25, including $186,000 in rent concessions. Just $30,000 of this was allocated to the Hundertwasser Art Centre, with the majority benefiting the Whang\u0101rei Art Museum.<\/p>\n

The council\u2019s long-term plan budgets annual funding to the trust of $920,000 to $930,000 a year, dropping to $461,000 in 2027-28.<\/p>\n

Shepherd said the trust is assessing the value of the two facilities to Whang\u0101rei.<\/p>\n

Of the Hundertwasser\u2019s 34,000 annual visitors, about 11,000 were international and 18,000 were domestic visitors from outside Northland<\/a>. The Whang\u0101rei Art Museum has 39,000 visitors a year but there was no breakdown of visitors\u2019 place or origin, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s still a work in progress but we\u2019re pretty confident that the two facilities add at least $5m worth of spending power to the local economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s in addition to the richness that we add to the community with education and art appreciation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whang\u0101rei Mayor Ken Couper thanked the trust for its work, which was not easy given the council\u2019s economic constraints<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt does add richness to the community but we also have to be aware of the economic realities that we have<\/a>. It\u2019s very tricky.\u201d<\/p>\n

Councillor Brad Flower also thanked the trust, saying while scrutiny was coming, it was being applied to all council expenses.<\/p>\n

Denise Piper is a news reporter<\/a> for the Northern Advocate, focusing on health and business. She has more than 20 years in journalism and is passionate about covering stories that make a difference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt\u2019s not a cash figure but it features in our books and ends up in the media as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22256,37228,1228,15382,674,1550,34518,37462,104254,1644,115153,685,2225,17576,1362,1132,5969,111,43,139,69,90,3048,1361,10097,5427,57767,379],"class_list":["post-181156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-22256","tag-14m","tag-art","tag-blamed","tag-building","tag-centre","tag-centres","tag-chairman","tag-depreciation","tag-financial","tag-hundertwasser","tag-last","tag-loss","tag-low","tag-made","tag-million","tag-much","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-said","tag-that","tag-tourism","tag-unique","tag-whangreis","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}