Art & Legacy Weekend / 7-8 December 2024
Saturday, 7 December
10.30-11.00am: Legacy Weekend starts with a karakia from John Maihi.
11am-12.30pm: Storytime in the classroom suitable for children 8 and under.
Come and relax while listening to a range of great stories in our classroom, followed by an easy and fun activity. Children must be accompanied by an adult.
12-1pm: Talk with heritage architect Chris Cochran & Pete Gray: Who Designed the Sarjeant Gallery?
Who designed the Sarjeant? We will take a careful look at all those who influenced the design of one of New Zealand’s most beautiful Classical buildings, including the benefactors, the competition judge, the architects, the politicians, and the builders, and assess the contribution of each. There will be a careful examination of the controversy surrounding the winning of the competition and the life and times of Donald Hosie. There will be several speakers, including Chris Cochran and Pete Gray.
Chris is a Conservation Architect, author of the ‘Heritage Assessment’ of the Sarjeant Gallery (2012) and the ‘Conservation Plan’ (with Russell Murray and Michael Kelly, 2019), which formed part of the brief for the upgrade; he was one of the judges of the Design Competition for the new building.
2-3pm: Artist kōrero with Alexis Neal
Join Sarjeant Gallery curators in conversation with former Tylee resident Alexis Neal (Ngāti Awa & Te Ātiawa) to discuss her solo artist project, Holding Space. This talk will be held in Te Pātaka o Tā Te Atawhai Archie John Taiaroa.
3-4pm: Documentary: Waka Huia – Sir Archie Taiaroa
This documentary profiles Sir Te Atawhai Archie John Taiaroa, who was recently invested with his knighthood at Hato Pāora College in October 2009. In 2003, Sir Archie Taiaroa was awarded the Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Māori people. He was well-known for his work with the Rātana Church, National Māori Congress, Te Ohu Kaimoana, Māori Welfare, Whanganui River Māori Trust Board, his former role as Deputy Mayor of Taumarunui, and his role in forging relationships with ethnic groups around the world.
5.30-7pm: The Inaugural Bill Milbank Memorial Lecture: Professor Deidre Brown. ‘Te Pātaka o Tā Te Atawhai Archie John Taiaroa and Stories of Māori Art and Architecture’
Kindly supported by Murray and Denise Lazelle.
Our inaugural Bill Milbank Memorial Lecture is presented by Professor Deidre Brown, a pioneer in research into Māori art and architecture. This new annual lecture series honours former Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery Director, Bill Milbank QSO (1948-2023), whose wide-ranging interests will be the source of inspiration for this programme. Our first lecture will explore Māori arts and architecture as a context for appreciating our distinctive and newly opened co-designed building, named Te Pātaka o Tā Te Atawhai Archie John Taiaroa.
Deidre Brown (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kahu) is a Māori art and architectural historian and professor of architecture at Waipapa Taumata Rau University of Auckland. Her books include Māori Architecture (Raupo, 2009), Introducing Māori Art (Reed, 2005), and the multi-authored Art in Oceania (Thames & Hudson, 2012). Deidre is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apārangi and a 2023 Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects Gold Medallist. Her most recent publication is Toi Te Mana: An Indigenous History of Māori Art, a landmark account of Māori art in its many forms, co-authored with Ngarino Ellis and Jonathan Mane-Wheoki.
Sunday, 8 December
10-11am: Stories from the Collection
Staff of Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery will provide a tour of the new collection displays featured in Nō Konei | From Here, highlighting stories and background to the collection, how it has evolved since the first acquisition in 1901, and the role of key staff in shaping the collection’s development.
1-2pm: A Director’s Library: Dr Linda Tyler pays tribute to Gordon H. Brown
To celebrate the opening of Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery’s new research library and reading room, named in honour of our first Director, Gordon H. Brown, curator and art historian Dr Linda Tyler will give a talk about Brown’s training as a painter, practice as a photographer, and work as an art historian. Brown donated his personal art library of 10,000 books to the gallery. This fascinating collection was brought together and studiously documented by Brown, who was the first research librarian at Auckland Art Gallery, Curator at the Hocken Library, and Director of the Waikato Museum before his tenure in Whanganui from 1974 to 1977. In particular, he is noted for his scholarship on Colin McCahon and his authorship of many iconic NZ art publications. Like Brown, Tyler has been a curator at the Hocken Library and the Waikato Museum and feels closely connected to Gordon Brown, who is now 93 and living in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. She is the Convenor of Museums and Cultural Heritage at the University of Auckland and also an inveterate book collector.
3-4pm: Artist kōrero with Matthew McIntyre-Wilson
Join Senior Curator & Programmes Manager Greg Donson in conversation with Matthew McIntyre-Wilson (Taranaki, Ngā Māhanga, and Titahi) as they discuss his post-residency project Whatu Atu, Whatu Mai, Following the Thread of Knowledge through Hīnaki, Korotete, and Kupenga. This talk will be held in the heritage wing of Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery.