NZ Visual Diary - entry 353
Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery | Whanganui
Located in Whanganui, the Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery is a magnificent art centre. Both the building and the art collections housed within are exceptional. For the past decade, the building has been closed and its collections transferred to another location within the city centre while engineers and constructions crews worked to improve the structure’s earthquake resilience. The city sits at the northern edge of active fault lines. Think Christchurch in 2011.
The gallery reopened late last year.
In addition, while the gallery building was closed for construction upgrades, the Sarjeant Gallery Trust began work on a new wing devoted to state-of-the art storage of the art collections; expanded exhibition space; classroom space; and hospitality areas, both gallery store and cafe. A video on the co-design of the new wing’s entrance facade explains the intimate thematic and visual connections between the facade’s design and the Whanganui River.
Finally, to celebrate the reopening of the original building and its new wing, the gallery mounted an exhibition of works by Edith Collier, one of New Zealand’s most celebrated painters. Collier was born and raised in Whanganui. The exhibition was glorious. I especially enjoyed Collier’s watercolours.
A four-part film of Collier’s life and work can be found here.