The closure of the Gallery to the public has unfortunately suspended the wonderful work that our volunteer guides do – leading daily guided tours and supporting the schools and holiday programmes. But after several months of absence from Gallery life, the guide team have recently reconnected.

As a team, we'll now be meeting every four weeks until the Gallery reopens. These Sunday sessions are designed to keep the guides in the loop about what's going on, help us to prepare for our much desired reopening, and give everyone the chance to have a cuppa and be together as a team. Last Sunday was the first session and it was well attended with a good group of guides eager to exercise their art-loving minds. We kicked off the session by discussing Michael Parekowhai's current installation at the Venice Biennale, followed by something closer to home – the fantastic new Bunker work by Julia Morison. Then, with the aid of floorplans and a slide show, it was on to an overview of the planned refresh of our collection galleries, which was met with with great excitement.

We even talked about what we might offer as guiding inniatives while the Gallery remains closed – so watch this space!