Featuring a spectacular flowing glass and metal façade that evokes the sinuous form of the koru and Christchurch's River Avon, the building houses nine exhibition areas, a reference and study library, multi-purpose auditorium, education workrooms, an underground car park, a restaurant and retail outlets and extensive collection storage spaces.

The gallery spaces are arranged across two floors, connected by a dramatic marble staircase rising from the Gallery foyer. The foyer itself is dominated by a large-scale sculptural glazed façade. The Gallery forecourt, which incorporates a sculpture area, trees and recreational spaces, is a destination in its own right. Visitors to the site are welcomed by a large gateway sculpture, Reasons for voyaging, a collaboration between Canterbury sculptor, Graham Bennett and architect, David Cole.

History of the Building

The city’s art collection was previously housed in the Robert McDougall Art Gallery building in the Botanic gardens. However, it became increasingly clear that the building was no longer suitable for displaying the collection, and in 1996 the site between Montreal Street and Worcester Boulevard was purchased.

In 1998 an architectural competition to design a new gallery was launched. This was the first time in fifty years that a custom-designed art museum had been built in New Zealand. The only rules: the entries must be from architects registered in New Zealand and they had to meet both the functional brief and the budget. The decision to select the Buchan Group’s design, characterised by the spectacular glazed façade, was unanimous.

While concerns were aired at the time of the architectural competition about the intrusion of a contemporary building into the existing Victorian Gothic precinct, the Gallery has become one of the most recognizable buildings in Christchurch, in which its citizens now take considerable pride.

The Robert McDougall Art Gallery closed its doors as the city’s public art gallery on Sunday, 16 June 2002, and Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu opened in its place on Saturday, 10 May 2003.

Update 2012

The Gallery has been closed to the public since the Christchurch earthquake of 22 February 2011. During the National Emergency declared after the quake, it became the Emergency Operating Centre and hub for the earthquake recovery, housing hundreds of workers from Christchurch City Council and CERA until the end of August 2011.

The potential dangers caused by the demolition of nearby buildings offered another challenge along the way, and in September 2011 Gallery staff undertook the huge task of relocating the entire collection of over 6,400 artworks to safer spaces within the building. For safety reasons, everyone who worked in the Gallery building also moved out. The Gallery stood strong during the earthquakes, and remained a safe place to work throughout. But it did sustain some secondary structural damage that will take some time to fix. With such a big building, it's a complex job, and we're expecting to reopen in mid-2013.

In the meantime, we're still committed to making the Gallery's rich storehouse of art and ideas available to everyone we can through the Outer Spaces programme.

The Architects

The Buchan Group is a large architectural practice, based in Melbourne. It was responsible for some significant projects in the 1990s, including Southgate in Melbourne, the redevelopment of the historic Sydney GPO and the masterplan for the Victoria Arts Centre.