Its about time that this council stopped pandering to the minority arty farty types with their noses up their fundamental orifices and started considering the majority of the ratepayer and general community. If there is to be a super duper art gallery - lets have an admission charge reflective of it - also if there is to be a super duper museum - lets have an admission charge reflective of it. The time for the "freebies" is over - the alternative is for this council to go the same was as the "sub prime" issue took the USA.

Jeff, I regularly go to the Lake Macquarie Art Gallery on a Sunday morning and love the peace and quiet of the place. Usually my wife and I are the only members of the public there. Meanwhile down the road the soccer fields are full of people.

Sports can't even be compared with art as far as culture is concerned, but demand and usage patterns also need to be considered. If the art gallery is barely used, then that surely indicates that the current situation is inappropriate, and the gallery is possibly over-sized or is situated in the wrong location. Perhaps the gallery could be co-located with the University, where it would be surely used by art students, and where it should cost less to maintain.

I don't think an occasional enjoyable visit to a museum would make a better person of me, nor do I think a reasonable charge would destroy my budget. If you are one of those who object to paying then the better person concept is obviously not working in your case. Surely there are very few people who would object to a charge for admission to a facility that is only ocasionaly used unlike swimming pools which are in constant use and the users expect to pay. Two places where I would place parking meters is at both of the Ocean Baths where people like me (clapped out ) can rarely find a place to park and have a swim in relative safety away from the pounding surf.

How can you complain Jeff about the resources dedicated to sport when your own newspaper frequently dedicates both the front and back pages to something as worthless as football and footballers?

i think using the art gallery is like referencing a book at the library and you dont and never have paid for that privilige,my theory drawing on my earlier analogy is that some how art is educational and blackbutt ,pools etc recreational and you pay for the latter.I have never stepped into the art gallery but i remember being one of the first people through the turnstile at stockton pool, the fee was 10c bargain.I just hope the council work at and around merrywether pool is not a fencing off job so they can charge us there.

Bravo Jeff. A deeper probe into the Art Gallery may prove interesting too. What happened with the winner of the Art Gallery design competition? The design that did not go ahead...and yes, people should have to pay to go into the gallery as they do in Sydney, New York, Madrid, Paris and all those famous art galleries. Keep on keeping them honest.

User pays for all - the core business of Government is twofold: Defence of the realm (including emergency services provision) and the administration of justice - all else is fluff. If the art gallery's administration were worth their salt they'd be out there making the entire enterprise self-funding through a combination of benevolent private support and direct revenue raising. The same people who whinge and moan about forking out a couple of bucks to take their kids to the pool or the art gallery will doubtless sign up for pay TV @ $100 a month without a second thought.

As a "regional capital" NCC provides many facilities which are utilised by the population of the Newcastle, Maitland, Lake Macquarie and Port Stephens local government areas. Given the state and federal government are unlikely to kick in for recurrent funding, and the other regional councils throw their hands up in the air when asked to contribute, the only way to provide sustainable funding is to implement some form of users pays for facilities such as the art gallery, Blackbutt, Regional Museum, Maritime Museum, the Loft etc, which are heavily utilised by those from outside the NCC LGA. While I'm not suggesting that all of these facilities should or could be fully self funding, it is appropriate that some cost recovery take place, and regular review of the number of users and benefits to the LGA take place. If the number of visitors to the art gallery is as low as you suggest, I'd be more than happy for the new gallery at Maitland to become the “regional” art gallery. I'd also be happy to pay on the occasions that I visit it, which will be very infrequent.

Ok Jeff you have me on this one. I'm an artist. So therefore I support art galleries. I cannot stand what a lot of sport has become and represents (NRL and recent scandals). However I love the fact that we have parks (sometimes several) in every suburb, swimming pools around the city, sporting clubs, tennis courts etc. etc. etc. all funded by Council. Although I realise a lot of sporting clubs also raise funds by membership fees. If only we had art galleries across the city, and in every suburb!!!! I've never done a cost comparison or seen numbers carefully looked at, however from my own observations there seems to be far more people employed to look after community and sporting facilities than the art gallery. I think it is a waste to compare what is spent on the art gallery to charges being introduced at sporting and community facilities. I did serve on an NCC arts board, and did assess grant applications for community grants (sporting and general grants) about a decade ago - and I can pretty clearly state more money goes to the sporting and community grants than to any arts grants. I used to work for another local council in an arts job and again that councils dollar spend on the arts was basically my wage (3 days a week) and less than $20,000 in grants and programs. However I was in the department that also supported sport, the aged, etc. and the difference in budget allocation was staggering. So reading your blog today just makes me laugh! Art can enrich the soul, as can being physically fit and healthy by using local parks etc. It is vitally important that we have all these facilities and that they be well funded. And yes I do believe the art gallery needs more money, however I also believe it could produce more income (can we rent out artworks?). I should point out I left working in the arts, as there are precious few jobs, most of them part time with crap pay so I started working in the private sector. Although now of course I am a full time Mum. I also am a committee member for a local arts group. And I was a volunteer surf life saver for a few years. Here is a suggestion: Introduce a new tax for overpaid sports starts to fund local sports grounds where they honed their skills to become what they are today. Plus snaffle income from endorsements to again fund these facilities.