A showdown between the Tauranga Art Gallery and the city council has been avoided after the council agreed to a key document which sets the gallery's direction for next year.
The council this week approved the gallery's statement of intent for 2012-13 after instructing the gallery in March to get sustainability back into its financial forecasts.
The gallery is a council-controlled organisation. Ratepayers fund $847,000, or 75 per cent, of its annual operating costs.
Art Gallery trust chairman Graeme Horsley spoke to the meeting, supported by more than 40 gallery supporters.
Mr Horsley did not come armed with ways to shore up the $100,000 shortfall in the gallery's budget over the next three years, starting with a projected $32,000 deficit for 2012-13.