Reports in some media that construction of the city’s new Art Gallery is running over budget are incorrect.

The Gallery building project is on time and will be completed within budget, without any additional call on ratepayer-funded Council sources — thanks to the Canterbury communities’ support with fundraising. It will open to the public in late April next year.

Construction of the Gallery, on the corner of Worcester Boulevard and Montreal Street in the central city, should be finished in November.

After that Gallery staff will begin moving the city art collection from the Robert McDougall building in the Botanic Gardens and installing opening exhibitions.

The expected costs for the Gallery, which have been reworked as the building gets closer to completion, are for its operation.

The opening falls in the Council’s 2002/03 year (the year now under consideration in the Council’s draft Annual Plan) and about 6.4 per cent (around $300,000) has been added to the Gallery’s operating budget for that year.

The following year, 2003/04, will be the Gallery’s first full year of operation and the latest draft plan estimates the Gallery will cost about $5.28m to operate in that year. Last year’s plan estimated the cost would be higher, at $5.4m.

Council staff say next year’s Gallery operating budget includes one-off costs for commissioning and opening the building.

Other cost areas which have had to be adjusted (since the early estimates were done) include those for security, cleaning, heating and ventilation.

Another cost which has risen markedly over recent years is insurance, which has increased significantly for all businesses.

“The new Gallery’s the most important community project in more than quarter of a century in this city and is going to be a remarkable asset to the city,” says Tony Preston, the director of the Gallery.