Council funding support for Toi MAHARA has become an issue in the campaign being run by the group Concerned Ratepayers of Kāpiti. The Mahara Gallery Trust Board believes a full and up-to-date picture of the costs and benefits of operating Toi MAHARA as the Kāpiti District Gallery should be in the public domain and has issued a Funding Facts sheet to candidates and Friends of Toi MAHARA.
TOI MAHARA GALLERY: FUNDING FACTS
The creation of the Kāpiti Coast District Art Gallery in the old library building in Waikanae and its later redevelopment as a modern fit-for-purpose facility is the result of a twenty-year project partnership approved by successive Councils. The essence of the partnership was that Council would fund one third of the redevelopment capital cost if the Mahara Trust could secure the other two thirds. Council would fund the Trust for operating costs (mainly staffing) in line with advice it commissioned from museum expert Richard Arlidge, and the Trust would continue to operate the gallery and provide governance and oversight services at no charge.
The outcome is that the Kāpiti Coast District Council and ratepayers now have a $6.5 million modern, award- winning district gallery recorded as an asset in the Council’s financial statements, which they acquired at a cost of only $2 million in ratepayer funding. Furthermore, the new building has made it possible to retain in Kāpiti the internationally significant Field Collection of works by NZ’s most famous expatriate artist, Frances Hodgkins, and her family who had a special connection with Waikanae. The success of the project is due to the generous and long-term commitment from many donors in Kāpiti and further afield along with investment in an important community facility by institutions such as the Ministry for Culture and Heritage and the Lotteries Commission.
Under the newly negotiated Partnership Agreement between Council and the Trust for managing Toi MAHARA the Council’s contribution to operational costs provided in the Long Term Plan has been capped at $ 605,000 (net of rent paid by the trust) annually. The Trust has undertaken to explore all avenues to increase Mahara’s self-funding capacity so as NOT to require additional rates funding for future years. The Trust raised external revenue of over $211,000 in the past year. The Council’s contribution is modest compared with our neighbours’ contribution to their public art galleries. In the current year, the Porirua City Council have budgeted $4.287 million for Pātaka and the Upper Hutt City Council $2.758 million for Whirinaki Whare Taonga.
In the last year, to July 2025, Toi MAHARA attracted over 15,300 visitors to 13 exhibitions and 147 workshops, talks, demonstrations, openings and tours. Ninety-five per cent of the visitors rated their experience 8—10/10 in the annual national museum sector survey, with more the 57% rating it as “exceptional”. One third of these shows and events engaged with Māori, families, youth and young professionals. Toi MAHARA is more than a facility for visual art fanciers: it is an expression of and a window on Kāpiti’s cultural and demographic diversity, offering participation for all age groups.
Toi MAHARA is also an economic asset. More than 50% of our visitors originated from outside Kāpiti and came to view exhibitions and the Field Collection. In the past financial year, 28 artists have benefitted from sales (totaling $26,000) of their artworks from exhibitions and a further 30 artists from sales of artwork through the gallery shop, totaling more than $37,000. On top of this direct activity comes the economic benefit for local cafes and other parts of the hospitality sector, and the earnings by local suppliers and creative sector workers. These benefits for Kāpiti residents and ratepayers were achieved in the face of a challenging economic climate.
A cost benefit report done in 2019 for a Waikanae Community Board grant estimated a return of $13.60 on every dollar invested. As the national profile of Toi MAHARA continues to grow through positive news media coverage and publicity about the high quality of the exhibitions and other activities at the gallery, it is expected that the economic benefits of this cultural community facility will continue to increase.
Mahara Gallery Trust Board
August 2025