Catherine Stewart Tauranga City Councillor

A public art proposal for a kinetic sculpture outside Mr Gareth Morgan's property on the corner of Marine Parade and Pacific Avenue recently came to council. This is the first proposal to come to council since the Public Art Policy was adopted on April 28, 2015.

The Public Art Advisory Group met earlier this year and assessed the proposal prior to it coming to Council. The art work ‘Rimurimu' is 9.9 metres high and 9 metres wide. Mr Morgan proposed to own the sculpture and it proposed two pohutakawa trees nearest to the sculpture site be removed to enable the free functioning of the kinetic movement of the sculpture.

There were also some roading and street improvements required to ensure safety of the public interacting with the sculpture. The cost for council to carry out these works was $40,000. The motion was lost 6-5 with a resolution being passed to ask Mr Morgan if he would consider another public location for the art work.

I personally like the art work, but believe it needs to be in a higher profile public area with plenty of space.