Library and Archives

The Library and Archives are closed until further notice. You are still welcome to contact us and we will do all we can to help, but the library collection itself (books, magazines, artist files, exhibition records, photographs etc.) is not available.

For each work of art in the Gallery's collection, there is a range of background information that helps us to understand it. The Robert and Barbara Stewart Library is the place where this information is held – much of it in electronic format.
The book collection comprises around 10,000 titles and is particularly strong on British art, prints and printmaking, and contemporary New Zealand art. Other information is stored in 1,200 artist files containing press clippings, correspondence, invitations to exhibitions and photographs.

A lot of the information in the library is now available on the Gallery's website, including Bulletin, its predecessor Survey, Canterbury Society of Arts catalogues and magazines and all the catalogues of The Group. Every Robert McDougall Art Gallery publication is also available online.

The library collection itself can be searched using the catalogue of Christchurch City Libraries.

The Robert and Barbara Stewart Library and Archives is normally available to the public by appointment only: phone (03) 941 7394 or email gallerylibrary@ccc.govt.nz. You are still welcome to contact the library while the Gallery is closed and we will do all we can to help.