Bayside Council spends $79,215 on art too valuable to display

A COUNCIL in Melbourne’s south has spent almost $80,000 on art that is unlikely to be seen by ratepayers because it might go “walkabout”.

Council’s $79k art kept under wraps

BAYSIDE Council has spent almost $80,000 on art that is unlikely to be seen by ratepayers because it might go “walkabout”.

The council’s Art and Heritage Collection Committee has spent a whopping $79,215 since 2013 on eight works of art.

Among them are two steel sculptures totalling $40,000, plus two $15,000 oil paintings.

But the pieces, by sculptor Lenton Parr and artist Clarice Beckett, are deemed “too valuable” to be exhibited in public spaces and are only occasionally dusted off for exhibitions in the council-owned The Gallery, in Brighton.

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Art committee chair Alex del Porto defended the decision.

“If you’ve got a work of art worth $30,000, you can’t just leave it hanging anywhere in case it goes walkabout,” Cr del Porto said.

The sculptures were only briefly shown between May 10 and June 22, 2014.

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Hampton gallery owner Bridget McDonnell said the council was not getting value for money. She said she had contacted the council with prospective works but was told they “were only considering work by three artists”.

“That’s the worst possible way to buy artworks,” she said.

Ms McDonnell has been on the State Library Collection Committee since 2004, and is a government-approved valuer and Chair of the Committee on Taxation Incentives for the Arts.

She said Bayside Council “should be showing a little more imagination” and now wasn’t a good time to be buying work by Parr or Beckett.

“Those artists are very highly priced at the moment,” she said.

Cr del Porto acknowledged cash splashed on public art often drew the ire of residents but said the arts committee was guided by “strict policy criteria”.

The Art and Heritage Collection Policy requires acquisitions to be of “high quality”, “clearly established” and (preferably) “created by an artist with a link to Bayside”.

The policy also states purchases must “enhance and enrich public spaces” and “have the capacity to be placed on display and stored appropriately”.