28 Mar Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery Donor Update / March 2025
Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery opening ceremony, November 9, 2024
Since the opening of Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery on November 9, 2024, the excitement and curiosity of the community and visitors from all over the country has been over-whelming and positive. The Sarjeant Gallery was the ‘must-see-destination’ this summer and visitation continues to be high.
In this report you will read about the visitor numbers, recent gallery activity and exciting plans ahead.
Visitor Numbers:
The gallery has hit the ground running since November and the numbers are impressive.
- 900 people from all over New Zealand celebrated with us at the opening day ceremonies.
- 5,500 people visited the gallery in the first weekend of being open.
- 19,000 visited the gallery in the first month.
- 53,781 in the first four months (Nov to Feb 2025).
Our most recent economic impact assessment estimated that visitors would be 36% local, 51% domestic tourists and 13% international tourists. This means an estimated 33,000 of visitors from November to February were from outside the area. This is of enormous benefit to the city of Whanganui.
Visitor donations made via the gallery ‘tap-to-donate’ digital portals, the donations box and over the counter, currently total $10,945, exceeding projected levels by over 25%.
Getting On with the Job:
Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery has embraced its role as a cultural centre and source of inspiration for the people of Whanganui and New Zealand, engaging audiences through stimulating, relevant and educational use of its exceptional collection and cutting-edge co-designed building.
Visitors from Brunswick School
In the classroom our educators have welcomed over 1650 students since opening in the purpose built gallery classroom, with some schools coming from as far away as Lower Hutt and the Wairarapa. The opening celebration’s self-portrait project, Kei Nō Konei Au, of 2,157 portraits by children in our region are currently exhibited in the Pātaka gallery, bringing whole families to the gallery to see them.
Gallery tours and visits from curators, directors, patron and Friends groups from all over the country and the local community are filling our calendar. Making the gallery accessible and welcoming is a priority, as is fostering professional relationships that place the Sarjeant Gallery in the fore-front as a leading New Zealand gallery and state-of-the-art-facility.
A new exhibition, Paul Maseyk | Jugs in New Zealand Painting opened on March 1st replacing Edith Collier | Early New Zealand Modernist. Key works from the Edith Collier exhibition are on their way to the Art Gallery of South Australia and the Art Gallery of New South Wales for a touring exhibition, extending the Sarjeant Gallery’s reach across the Tasman.
The Inaugural Bill Milbank Memorial Lecture was delivered by Professor Deidre Brown on her pioneering research into Maori art and architecture. This annual event is now established in New Zealand’s arts calendar. In future it will engage elite commentators in the arts to contribute and draw a New Zealand-wide audience.
Events bookings and function space hire are in high demand. We have hosted book launches, musical evenings, pop-up opera, workshops, cultural arts exchanges and high-level meetings, making the Sarjeant Gallery Whanganui’s newest cultural ‘home’ and providing revenue for the gallery.
Shortlisted for the Ockham New Zealand Book Awards, Edith Collier: Early New Zealand Modernist was published late 2024 in time for the gallery re-opening. Edited by Jill Trevelyan and gallery curators Jennifer Taylor and Greg Donson, this beautiful book is a companion publication to the exhibition and allows this important Whanganui-born artist to take her place in New Zealand art history.
Curator of Collections Jennifer Taylor, Co-editor of Edith Collier: Early New Zealand Modernist
The NZIA 2025 Western Architecture Awards finalists have just been announced and Te Whare o Rehua is a finalist in two categories; Heritage and Public. These awards feed into the regional awards which will be announced on May 30 at the Sarjeant Gallery.
We are also a finalist in the Property Council New Zealand – Property Industry Awards in two categories: the Civic, Health and Arts Property Award and Heritage and Adaptive Reuses Property Award.
The collection transition assistants
The Collection Transition Project is underway. Moving over 8,000 works into the new state-of-the art collection store requires accuracy, care and expertise. Four young assistants make up the team employed specially to support this process. They will gain specialised skills and knowledge that will support their future careers in the art world.
The Pattillo Whanganui Arts Review is back! After a two-and-a-half-year hiatus we can welcome artists from all over the Whanganui region to New Zealand’s longest running, open call, community competition and art exhibition which will take place in the new gallery, opening on May 31.
Sustaining Interest:
The newly completed building and its unique story are significant attractions in themselves, and recently the subject of an episode of The Drawing Board on Māori TV which captures the excitement of the project, the beauty of the co-design and its significance to Whanganui and the world of architecture and design in Aotearoa. We know you will enjoy the episode.
Our visitors are discovering the building, the collection and the exhibitions inside are an exceptional offering.
Going forward, making full use of the varied and large gallery spaces means that multiple exhibitions can be shown at the same time, satisfying a wide range of audience expectations and preferences. This and a rolling programme of changing exhibitions will result in high levels of regular and return visitation to the gallery. In addition, securing important touring exhibitions and major international shows will attract visitors who travel specifically to see them.
Visitors can see all the way to Ruapehu from Te Pātaka o Tā Te Atawhai Archie John Taiaroa.
Capitalising on these aspects and the gallery’s proximity to other cultural institutions in the mid/lower North Island to create an art, architecture and heritage trail will attract New Zealand-wide visitation and generate economic benefit for the region.
The Future with Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery Trust:
Anecdotally we are said to be one of the best galleries in the country right now – and we will keep it that way too! Continuing support is crucial to enable delivery over and above what is normally expected from a regional gallery.
With the redevelopment project complete, Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery Trust has committed to partnering with the gallery to build and care for the collection, to supporting education and ambitious exhibition programming, through the Endowment Fund. Now it’s all about the future and sustaining the profile and level of excellence New Zealand has come to expect from the Sarjeant Gallery.
The aim is to grow the Endowment Fund through regular giving from individuals, building a patron community, through business partnership and brand alignment. These supporters will have special access to and a close relationship with the Gallery.
Our Supporters Are Our Greatest Advocates:
As fans of Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery, you know what an unforgettable experience visiting the Gallery creates. So for every enthusiastic conversation you’ve had on the Sarjeant Gallery’s behalf, we thank you. Every friend or family member you bring to the Gallery is another potential supporter and we are grateful for that too.
Ultimately none of this would have happened without you and your contribution. You have invested in the future of art and culture in New Zealand. Please get in touch if you’d like to continue your support as a patron or business partner. It would be wonderful to keep the momentum going.
Nicki Manthel
Head of Development, Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery
E: nicki.manthel@sarjeant.org.nz
P: 027 210 0072
Nō Konei | From Here, Installation view