11 Nov 2018

Tauranga's Baycourt and a growing cultural scene - James Wilson

From Standing Room Only, 12:30 pm on 11 November 2018

Last year Tauranga overtook Dunedin as New Zealand's fourth largest city, but does it yet have the cultural reputation to match? It gained a fine new art gallery ten years ago, but this year its council voted not to build a museum for the city - much of its cultural treasures remain in storage. As our producer Mark Amery can attest to from the traffic -  the city is having its fair share of growing pains.

Recently Mark visited Tauranga's performing arts centre Baycourt and talked to new manager James Wilson who has been impressed by the range of arts activity bubbling away there: numerous theatre companies, a historic village enlivened by arts and community organisations, and pop-up initiatives like the container village Our Place, just down from Baycourt in CBD.

James has a good fresh pair of eyes to comment: he comes to Tauranga after six years heading the brand new Q Theatre in Auckland's Queen Street, and he was also chair for four years of New Zealand's performing arts network organisation PANZ, the national organisation for performing arts producers, venues and festivals.

James gave Mark a tour of the impressive Baycourt building, starting with its main theatre space and its rare wulitzer, and then its 200 seat second space, which hosts many touring shows, with an increase in performing artists getting their work out beyond Auckland and Wellington. Both theatres are well used. One interesting example is the national heats of the International Youth Silent Film festival - using one of only three in-use wulitzers in the country, says James.