Row clouds sculpture event

Collapse by Fletcher Vaughan was among this year's sculptures. Photo / Paul Estcourt

One of Auckland's most successful arts events - headland Sculpture on the Gulf - is under threat from ructions within the organising committee and the Waiheke Community Art Gallery.

The gallery is seeking to change the governance model for the event, which last summer drew a record 33,000 visitors in what has become New Zealand's leading contemporary outdoor sculpture exhibition.

On Thursday, the 380 or so members of the gallery will vote on whether to set up a company or trust to run the $1 million event.

Gallery leaders, who support a limited liability company to run the event in future, and "supporters of headland Sculpture on the Gulf", who support a charitable trust, both claim to have the best interests of the gallery and headland at heart.

But behind the scenes a bitter battle is taking place between the interests of a community gallery and a group of headland supporters who see the event, held every two years, becoming an international arts event for Auckland.

One source said headland was fast becoming Auckland's equivalent to Wellington's World of Wearable Arts with big-name sponsors such as Air New Zealand, Lexus, Westpac and Bayleys expressing strong, ongoing support.

This year's crowds, attracted to view 39 works by emerging and renowned artists along a coastal walkway, were 40 per cent up on the 24,000 visitors in 2009.

Organising committee chairwoman and former Waiheke gallery director Kay Peterson said she would walk away from headland if it became a company, claiming the event would be totally controlled by the gallery.

"The difficulty we have with that is they are not the people who have the passion and the inspiration to make this happen ... the event can only diminish in stature," she said.

A charitable trust, Ms Peterson said, would put headland in control of its destiny with a guaranteed vision and objectives.

She said the gallery was in financial trouble, whereas headland had about $100,000 in the bank from sales commissions and donations.

"That money will be swallowed up into the art gallery. How much of it will be given back to headland is something they are not prepared to say," Ms Peterson said.

Gallery chairwoman Susan McCarthy said there was no intention to siphon money off for the gallery. "There is a lot of stirring out there," she said.

Ms McCarthy said headland was a gallery initiative, the gallery owned the brand and the gallery's legal advice was that a company was a simple structure to provide autonomy for headland.