What’s On
Marilynn Webb: Folded in the Hills
A major survey exhibition of Ngāpuhi, Te Roroa and Ngāti Kahu artist Marilynn Webb.
From Here on the Ground
Populated places and cityscapes converge with backyards, factories and remote railway stops. Open now!
Cora-Allan: Encountering Aotearoa
A major body of new work that considers the whenua from the vantage point of the moana.
Open 7 days, 10am - 5pm
Late night Wednesday until 9pm
Free entry, free wifi
Toroa by Hone Tuwhare
Today's poem is a long one so your hands will be scrubbed as clean as they have ever been. We are extremely grateful to the poet's son Rob for identifying this poem as 'one of our faves!' Curator Nathan Pohio is the reader and he knows the royal albatross colony at Taiaroa Heads well: his mum used to be a guide there and still lives nearby. Take your time with this one - it's well worth it!
Meet Melanie
Melanie Oliver is our new curator. It's obviously pretty hard to introduce her properly when we're in lockdown, so we asked Gallery staff to each ask her a question so you could get to know her.
Wainui by Rita Angus
In March 1943 Rita Angus spent several weeks staying at a friend’s family bach in the small settlement of Wainui in Akaroa Harbour, a refuge in the midst of World War II. It was here that she produced some of her most accomplished watercolours, small gems where the landscape is so delicately defined it’s as if she painted them whilst looking through a telescope. There are five known watercolours of Wainui and the surrounding Akaroa Harbour from this period and the Gallery is fortunate to hold four of them.
Grasses by Aileen Fisher
We leave Aotearoa New Zealand today with an American poet and an English painter, brought together just for fun. Grasses by Aileen Fisher (1906-2002) is read by Karin Bathgate who works as a Visitor Host here at the Gallery.
We hope it makes you smile for the full 20 second hand-washing routine.
Home Thoughts by Denis Glover
Today our former director Jenny Harper reads a poem that is the very essence of New Zealand, and specifically Canterbury, identity, and one we just could not leave out.
It's a decent length for hand-washing, but no harm in that. I could have selected half the works in our collection to accompany this one, but have gone for John Weeks's depiction of a bustling Cathedral Square. We very much look forward to experiencing such a scene again before too long.
The Polar Bear by John Summers
Lily and Thomas Semple, whose Dad (Neil Semple) works with us - as did their Mum (Lara Strongman) until recently - read John Summers's poem The Polar Bear.
So this one is for all of you in lockdown with children. Children who perhaps like Billy in this poem will not go to bed when they should.
For handwashing purposes it's over a minute long, so perhaps ideal for washing a whole load of little hands in turn.
There Is Only One Direction by James K Baxter
Dr Peter Simpson reads James K Baxter's poem There Is Only One Direction. Baxter wrote this poem in response to Colin McCahon's painting of the same name, now in the collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū.
The poem has been generously provided by the Hocken Collections - Uare Taoka o Hākena and is reproduced with kind permission of the family of James K. Baxter.
There is a Solemn Wind Tonight by Katherine Mansfield
Visitor Host Michael Purdie reads a favourite Katherine Mansfield poem.
Matching a work from our collection for this gentle verse proved difficult. The wind in New Zealand is rarely solemn or gentle and whether coming from north, south or east, it's always vicious. This is reflected in our paintings which depict plenty of dramatic storms, but little that could be called gentle.
In any event we hope you enjoy washing your hands to both Katherine Mansfield and to Juliet Peter's Rising Wind. Rising into a hurricane force storm no doubt.
For a Child by Denis Glover
Sumner beach may be off limits at the moment but we hope this poem will stir some happy memories. It did for the reader, Rupert Glover, the poet's son, who says he 'grew up on Sumner beach.'
Five Little Piggies
Violet Richards, daughter of our Registrar Gina Irish, recites This Little Piggy Went to Market.
Two hands, right? So play it twice, once for washing each hand.