Last GASP!

Media release – GASP!, 19 March 2021

The Last GASP!

It is with sadness that David Palmer, Chair of the Board and on behalf of the Directors of the Glenorchy Art & Sculpture Park (GASP) today announced the resolution of members to wind up the company.

In its tenth year as a not-for-profit arts organisation serving the people of Glenorchy, the Directors put the recommendation to members to wind up the organisation and it was passed unanimously at the February AGM.

ASP is winding up following the resolution of the Glenorchy Council in May 2020 – in a closed session – that the Council was no longer in a position to support GASP as a result of the effects of COVID-19.

This decision severely crippled GASP’s prospects and ability to realise the potential envisaged for it when conceived by the Council in 2010 and which assisted GASP to incorporate as an independent not-for-profit Company.

The decision ignored the substantial amount work by GASP management over the years, to align with and help to deliver the Council’s Community Plan, and deliver an exceptional vision of inclusion and creativity within the Glenorchy and wider community.

Two other important elements play a role in our decision to wind up:

• The Tasmanian government arts dollar is already stretched such that even the most deserving arts organisations compete for, and often fail to secure basic resourcing, and the Directors do not wish to exacerbate that situation.

• Tasmania’s philanthropic community is small and committed – but it is insufficient to expect that it might help in any substantial way to sustain GASP without the Council’s foundational support.

The GASP Directors stand by the early decision of our predecessors to develop site infrastructure ahead of commissioning public art, comfortable that this guaranteed substantial permanent public access around the entire bay which is now used and regularly enjoyed by the community.

This achievement – paired with a not-unexpected struggle to obtain the large sums required to commission significant public art, and the consequentially slow growth of the collection – we believe allowed a perception of redundancy to influence Council’s thinking. This was reflected in its decisions on the sale of Wilkinsons Point and upgrade of the Montrose Bay playground.

The resulting uncertainty of our tenure prevented GASP from accessing sufficient government, community or philanthropic funding, to fulfil our primary objectives: commissioning public art and delivering community art programs.

GASP attempted to amicably resolve all these issues with the Council over the past two years, and presented a strong, visionary and realistic plan for the site and our future partnership. While applauded by the Councillors, it was rejected.

While the Directors sincerely appreciate the original Council vision in initiating GASP in 2010, its ongoing in-kind support, and the last six years of recurrent funding, we are sad that its decreased enthusiasm for and sense of collaboration with GASP predestined the end of our partnership.

We are proud to have been instrumental in key achievements over the past ten years:

• The major redevelopment of the foreshore from the DEC to Wilkinsons Point and connection through Elwick Bay, and the re-establishment of wetlands at The Grove;

• the installation of the award-winning community access and amenities at Elwick Bay

– the iconic Boardwalk and the Pavilions at the Grove and Wilkinsons Point;

• the installation of public art by key Tasmanian, national and international artists: Justy Phillips & Margaret Woodward, Julie Gough, James Geurts, Susan Phillipsz, Natalie Jeremijenko, and Matej Andraz Vogrincic; and

• the creation and support of many community and contemporary art events on the site including Swimmable!, Fall of the Derwent, the Works Festival, MONA/GASP swim, New Year’s Eve activities, and the provision of a food van for many events.

In winding up, GASP has donated most of the site-based artworks to the people of Glenorchy via gift to the Glenorchy Council, and one work (James Geurts’ Refraction Principle) to the Clarence City Council).

We sincerely thank all the people, organisations and funding bodies (public and private) and sponsors who have supported or otherwise worked with and within GASP since its inception. Nothing would have been achieved without that support and we are immensely proud of what has been achieved with and for the Glenorchy community and the people of Greater Hobart.